"I adopted you, didn't I?" Anna Crilly says to her long time partner in comedy Katy Wix, "from a Glaswegian orphanage..."
For a moment, despite the performers being fairly similar in age you might be inclined to believe Anna and Katy's origin tale - or at least you might until Katy casually throws one of their signature surreal comments into the mix.
"We used to be Ant and Dec..."
The duo actually met back in 2003 at a female-only stand up competition, Katy only entering because a friend filled out a form on her behalf 'like in Masterchef'. Since then the pair have graced the stage, screen and radio airwaves, making a mark on both Edinburgh Festival and West End audiences with the Tom Basden scripted play 'Party' before reprising the characters in a radio series of the same name.
"We don't really gig much anymore, do we?" Katy says, referring to the infamous comedy festival. "When it's good, it's great, but when you're dying in front of people it's depressing. I always feel like a husk of a person at the end, a vertical husk."
Will they be returning to Edinburgh this year? "No, we're never going back!" Anna declares. "Edinburgh's horrible. It can be really frustrating watching someone you know, who has the most brilliant show and no ones going to see it, and then other people that are just so middle-of-the-road do really, really well."
Other theatrical options, however, have been explored; "We did seriously talk about getting a gypsy caravan and touring around the country and then doing some kind of character comedy out of the back." Anna says, before Katy shouts; "Come and get your character based comedy!"
For now it seems, the focus for Anna and Katy is rooted in television. Both have created critically acclaimed roles in primetime BBC sitcoms Not Going Out (Katy) and Lead Balloon (Anna) and will also appear in upcoming Channel 4 Comedy Showcase pilot, Coma Girl.
So how would they describe their Comedy Lab sketch show, Anna and Katy? "It's a female duo performing various character comedy peoples" Anna declares, "It's big and it's silly and it's star studded."
By star studded, Anna is referring to the casting of Katy's Not Going Out cast mate Lee Mack as a bewigged German doctor, and infamous daytime television presenter Eamon Holmes playing himself in a twisted variation of The Weakest Link.
"Lee [Mack] was really up for it from the start, he kept saying 'I'd love to be in someone else's thing, I never get asked!'" Anna says, impersonating Lee's Northern tones. "At one point [during filming] he wandered over to the monitor forgetting it wasn't his show."
"And Eamon [Holmes] was such a good sport" Anna continues, "he got called called a prick for the afternoon, over and over again and he didn't mind a jot!" And, according to Katy, "He swore like a sailor with a broken foot!"
And if these cameos weren't already impressive enough, two of comedy's finest want in on the act; "Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French asked us if they can play our mothers. If we get a series they want us to write them in... Can you imagine them in ginger wigs?" Anna says, referring to a sketch where two bewigged sisters measure a multitude of subjects.
The conversation steers towards the opening sketch, starring Katy, Anna and an unexpected housemate; "The goat was supposed to be a pig originally, but we decided that a pig would scream and shit itself too much...We thought you couldn't train a pig to sit on the sofa, and as it turns out you can't train a goat either..." Anna then admits that she wouldn't want to reprise the sketch again, but happily she has other options; "We've got a dog now!" She says excitedly, showing off a picture, "He's a puppy so we can basically write in any kind of dog sketches... or a cheetah, we could paint him! Dogs dressed up as zoo animals."
Animals aside, why should we watch the show? "It's consistently fucking excellent!" Anna jokes, "It's just really interesting character comedy. It's the sort of show that if I'd watched when I was 15 I would have gone absolutely mental for it."
Katy has more to add but struggles for a moment over how to explain her point eloquently. "I mean there's a whole thing isn't there about... I don't want to say as it's embarrassing, but we always feel that there's a thing about women trying to be slightly surreal. It feels like it's not always encouraged, whereas men can be what they like."
"French and Saunders said 'Go off and be weird and do the comedy you want to do. And fuck everyone else'." Anna says, "Harry Hill's absolutely managed to keep his surreal identity and appeal to the masses. I think there's something in our show for everyone and I think it should have a really broad female audience. It's two normal women."
Speaking of French and Saunders, would Anna and Katy consider them influences? "The reason we believe we can do this is probably, at some point, down to them." Anna agrees, then adding that another source of inspiration is Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.
"I was absolutely obsessed with Alan Partridge when I was 18 - and Chris Morris," Katy adds. "There was a moment I watched like 17 times one Christmas. It was the Alan Partridge Christmas Special when he had this turkey on his fist and he punched someone... He just had this look on his face that really made me laugh over and over again."
"My main influence when growing up was probably Kenny Everett. Actually some urine splashed onto the sofa at seven years old when I was watching it." Anna says, "Kenny Everett was dressed up as an officer and he was in a tank and he came smashing through the cubicles on a toilet. It felt like the funniest thing it the world... I thought I was going to explode with laughter."
Perhaps Anna and Katy may have the same effect once their own show makes its Comedy Lab debut...
