8:20am Friday 22nd January 2010
By Graham Moody
There's something very strange about comedy sketch group Four Monks and a Nun.
Not only are they different to other sketch groups in the fact they are all Christians, there is also only four of them, not five like the title suggests.
"We wanted to add a bit of mystique to us," says founder Yazz Fetto.
"When I have been to other shows I find that with sketch comedy you can soon find that one show is like another so we felt we needed something extra.
"People seem to relate to it and it's actually based around a scripture, which we put on the cards we give out.
"It basically means the fourth monk is either an Angel or Jesus and you can make up your own mind as to which."
The group will be performing their new show, Ten Commandments, at Lantern Arts Centre next Friday and Yazz admitted being a Christian sketch comedy group can sometimes pose its own problems.
"It's very different from most sketch groups," he says.
"We are all Christians and it's a very interesting situation to be in.
"When people announce us before we go on stage as a Christian sketch group the audience expects certain things from you.
"They expect you not to swear and not to do anything risque which can be a little difficult sometimes.
"But we are trying to balance the art of relating to people who are not Christians and not making them feel we are preaching to them.
"In the show we have taken the Ten Commandments and done a sketch for each of them in our own special way - though we have ended up with more than 10 sketches because we wanted to do a couple on a few of them.
"I write the sketches then in rehearsals the guys put their own unique take on them, adding new jokes and taking out some of mine which aren't very funny.
"Do not covet thy neighbour's wife, that was a hard commandment to write a sketch for as was do not kill.
"Do not commit adultery was also challenging because the nun in the group is my sister so I didn't want to do anything sexual with my sister."
Four Monks and a Nun, Lantern Arts Centre, Tolverne Road, January 29, 7.30pm, £7. Call 020 8944 5794 or visit lanternarts.org.
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