Adam Riches is Coach Coach, Edinburgh Fringe review: Not big or particularly clever - but for pure entertainment it’s a treat

It’s a glorious spoof, but there’s a fear it’ll be just an over-stretched sketch

Adam Riches brings a new sport to the stage: volfsball. It’s a bit like basketball, with more throwing. In this character comedy, Coach Eric Coach tries to lead the Centaurs to victory against the Lizards: the stadium is set for the match of a lifetime…

That last line is best read in the voice of American sports movie voiceover, for this is a spoof, sending up the clichés of the genre with gusto. The usual soaring pride and glory are undercut with a low-budget staging, and sparky cast of fellow comedians.

The stakes may be high for Coach, a gum-addicted, all-American former-volfsball-star, but he’s merely the coach of a high school team. Still, when a teenage werewolf arrives, and then Coach’s wife and daughter get involved, the competition starts hotting up.

It’s a glorious spoof, but there’s a fear it’ll be just an over-stretched sketch. Fortunately, Riches assembled an ace team to play with, and their witty ad-libbing and general gumption gets the crowd roaring with laughter. Throw into the mix some audience interaction at a crucial moment, and it’s impossible not to be swept up.

This spoof is not big or particularly clever. But for pure entertainment, it’s a treat; I had an absolute (volfs)ball.