When it comes to making people laugh, these two girls claim to be second only to some.

Because as their self-deprecating name suggests, comedy duo Next Best Thing – aka former Tolworth Girls’ School students Jay Bennett and Katie Davison – do not take themselves too seriously.

In fact, seriousness will be the last thing to expect when the pair perform their new hour-long comedy show at the Ram Jam Club in Kingston on Thursday, November 21.

Having spent the best part of the last year working as au pairs in France, Jay and Katie have returned to Kingston with a wealth of new sketch-based material ready to unleash on a home audience.

“There’s a good comedy scene in Kingston right now, and we want to catch on to that bandwagon,” said Jay, who grew up in Kingston but now lives in Esher.

“And the Ram Jam is a really great venue for comedy. We’ll definitely be doing more Kingston shows in the new year before we take it up to London, and then the Edinburgh Festival.”

The 23-year-olds have been friends since childhood, but have only been writing and performing together in the last few years.

“We’ve been friends for years,” said Jay. “We met dancing when we were three. We’ve always grown up in the performing arts – Katie trained as a writer and I trained as an actor.

“A lot of our sketches are based on our background in the performance arts – in this show, we’ve got sketches about auditions, and one about the X Factor – it’s all rather silly.

Surrey Comet:

Next Best Thing perform a homecoming show at the Ram Jam Club on Thursday

“When we were at our drama schools we decided to get into comedy. We practiced on the London circuit and got a good response.

“We went to France in November last year and came back in August.

“We were working as au pairs but did some shows there and it also gave Katie some time to write new material.

“Actually we had a lot of interesting experiences out there and a couple of our sketches reference the fact we were in France together.”

Comedy par excellence or simply the Next Best Thing? Decide for yourself by heading into Kingston to see the pair in action.

Next Best Thing, Ram Jam Club, Richmond Road, Kingston

Thursday, November 21, 8pm

£3

020 3674 7810

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