Live Shows
We don't make live shows anymore, sorry. James now lives in Los Angeles, Greg has a child, Alex has THREE children, Dave has decided he wants to run all the major marathons; Luke, like that dog who waited at the train station for his dead owner to come back, still turns up at our old rehearsal venue every Sunday at 10am sharp hoping the rest of us will show up to work on our next hit show, but to no avail*.
But we're very proud of the live shows we did make, and their success is what paved the way for us to still be collaborating on comedy together even though we're officially Not Young Anymore. We made fourteen different live hours, and we can't be bothered to list them all - some of them are better left unremembered - but here are the highlights.
*this is, of course, a joke: Luke never turned up on time to rehearsals.
2011
CHOOSE DEATH
Our second Edinburgh Fringe hour, this was our first breakthrough hit (our previous effort in 2010 was a clumsily written murder mystery about a second hand sex toy shop, which was only a modest success - despite sponsorship from a sex toy shop in Brighton).
CHOOSE DEATH followed six death themed characters - a curmudgeonly old man trying to find the perfect deathbed, a pair of conjoined twin assassins, a suicidally depressed bubble gun salesman, a silent clown with a tragic backstory, and an armless serial killer with a penchant for murdering old ladies - as they all hurtled towards their inevitable demise. CHOOSE DEATH won a ThreeWeeks Editors' Choice Award, and was nominated for the prestigious Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality (but wasn't original enough to win).
2012
A KICK IN THE TEETH
Our follow-up show, A KICK IN THE TEETH, followed the same structure as CHOOSE DEATH - with each member of Casual Violence taking the lead in their own story, as one of five characters hurtling towards a gutting conclusion: but instead of literally gutting them like in the last show, we decided to ruin their lives instead.
A KICK IN THE TEETH was the introduction of two of Casual Violence's most memorable characters - the sinister Poppyman who wanted to make sure you honoured Remembrance Day, and Hector, the turnkey operated curator of the Obsoleteum (who we'd later create an entire podcast sitcom for!). The show was also nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality, and was also not original enough to win.
2013
HOUSE OF NOSTRIL
Another breakthrough show for us, HOUSE OF NOSTRIL's success at the Edinburgh Fringe earned us our first run at the Soho Theatre on London's West End, and won us a slot on BBC Radio 4's Sketchorama. The show was our first truly narrative hour, revolving around the most villainous family in human history (with a penchant for taxidermying their dead relatives and dotting them around their enormous Gothic mansion). This show was the debut of some of our most enduring characters, including a very messed up poison tester and some adorable ten year old chimney sweeps.
We received extra funding for this show when a producer at the Lowry Theatre in Manchester saw A KICK IN THE TEETH and offered to help us develop our next hour; with them, we were able to invest in short films and animations to include in the show, including a literal 3D singing house.
2013 - 2019
OM NOM (NOM) NOMINOUS
In 2013, Casual Violence debuted our first "best-of" sketch show, OM NOM NOMINOUS - adding an extra "NOM" in 2014 to celebrate updating the show with newer sketches.
OM NOM NOM NOMINOUS was our award-winning touring show, as well as our regular Free Fringe hour at the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh (alongside our flagship new hour every year). This show won a Brighton Argus Angel Award when it was brought to the Brighton Fringe in 2014 - a performance we also filmed, and is freely available online.
This show included some of Casual Violence's best loved standalone sketches, including "Taxidermy", "Ventriloquism" and "The 26 Letters", as well as including the best characters from our narrative driven shows.
2014
THE GREAT FIRE OF NOSTRIL
A follow up (and prequel) to HOUSE OF NOSTRIL set in the same universe, this was our most story-driven and theatrical show to date. Our leads were two characters we brought back from CHOOSE DEATH: a pair of conjoined twin assassins, who have a falling out (and decide to go their separate ways) when one of them decides he'd rather be a baker instead. The show also featured a devious narrator with godlike powers battling it out against a weedier would-be narrator for control of the story.
THE GREAT FIRE OF NOSTRIL transferred from the Pleasance Courtyard in Edinburgh to the Soho Theatre in London for a week of shows, as well as a performance at the Harrogate Theatre for their comedy festival.
2015
JAMES HAMILTON IS SO LONELY
Casual Violence took a year off Edinburgh in 2015, but even though this wasn't technically a group show, James debuted characters and stories in his first-ever solo hour that would later find their way into Casual Violence shows, including the creepy Belgravia Centre representative making promises to grow your hair back, and the depressed Queen's Guard with the tragic internal monologue.
The show was centred around James finding a pair of goggles that let you see into the future, then trying to use them to force an ex-girlfriend to fall in love with him again because he's now convinced they're meant to be together. He learns important lessons along the way, but only when he's been thoroughly beaten with the story stick. The Skinny described it as "like Richard Curtis film About Time, except if it were based in a world where women acted like actual human beings", which James was very smug about.
2016
SLOW FADE TO BLEAK
A return to our sketch show roots following our run of increasingly narrative-driven shows, SLOW FADE TO BLEAK debuted at the Vault Festival in London, before progressing to the Brighton Fringe (where we won a Brighton Argus Archangel Award), and a summer run at the Soho Theatre.
Although this was our first all-new "pure sketch show" since our university days, SLOW FADE TO BLEAK still had ambitious theatrical set-pieces, including a sketch that would later become both a hit short film and a whole narrative-driven hour for the group...
2017
THE GROT IN THE GROTTO
Fulfilling a long-held ambition to perform a Christmas-themed show all year round, Casual Violence debuted our final narrative-driven stage show at the Vault Festival in 2017, before taking it on to the Brighton Fringe, followed by a December run at the Soho Theatre on London's West End.
Developed from a "SLOW FADE TO BLEAK" sketch (and subsequent short film), THE GROT IN THE GROTTO was a Casual Violence take on mind-bending psychological thrillers like Inception, Shutter Island, and Westworld. Our densest and strangest story of them all, the show told the multi-layered tale of how a sinister corporation brainwashes department store Santas - and how one managed to escape. Can he start an uprising - and can the real Santa help?
2019
HANG THE SUITS
As our ten year anniversary approached and life started pulling us in different directions, the five of us knew that making time for rehearsals, development, and production of whole new stage shows was becoming an impossible task (especially given James was about to move to LA, which would have been a nightmarish commute).
Instead, we decided to go out on a mediocre and host a huge one night show, performing all our favourite sketches for the final time. We even revived (and, mercifully, rewrote) some sketches from our university days as part of an epic two-hour retrospective of all our best material.
Though Casual Violence are no longer a live act, we're still making comedy together - our first full length, six episode series MURDER FOR DUMMIES is due for release in 2024.