Comedy duo The Pin on a year of Zoom sketches: ‘It’s an absolute minefield - which is good for us’

The Pin’s Zoom sketches have captured 2020’s unique ‘if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry’ vibes
Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen, AKA comedy duo The Pin
Oliver Ross

“Are you free to jump on a Zoom?”

At this stage of 2020, no one is jumping on a Zoom. We are dragging ourselves, camera off, unlikely to return when the 40-minute limit runs out. In fact, the only people who have made Zoom bearable have been Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen, aka comedy duo The Pin.

The pair have kept us entertained all year with sketches where Zoom is basically a third character. From job interviews to self-improving French lessons, they have mined the rich awkwardness of how we’ve all done our best to make do with being trapped in a tiny virtual box all year.

They began making the sketches early in lockdown, initially thinking they’d see if Zoom worked for some of their older material, before deciding to come up with a new weekly video. But it takes practise to be this awkward – each one goes through a meticulous editing process to make it as funny as possible.

Today, The Pin’s debut play, The Comeback, opens for its first preview in the West End. They were spotted by Sonia Friedman at one of their comedy shows and have been developing the production for a few years – it was always part of the plan for 2020. It blessedly has nothing to do with the pandemic, coronavirus or the lockdown: it’s about two comedic duos – one set of newbies looking for their big break as they warm up for two bigger stars – but we’ll always have the Zoom memories. Here, The Pin tell us what they’ve learnt from a year of making sketches on Zoom...

It’s OK that it’s bleak

That’s why it’s funny. In Owen’s words, “someone’s face is just… there. It’s very exposing, and it’s quite sinister. And I think that’s quite nice for us.” The duo’s sketches hone in on Zoom’s inherent black comedy: it’s such an awkward, inadequate medium but it’s often been forced to bear the weight of messages of huge magnitude. Take, for example, their ‘Be Careful Sharing the Zoom Invite’ sketch, where a manager is trying to make a member of staff redundant but has accidentally sent the invite to his amateur musical theatre group. It’s a perfect example of the intensely ‘if you don’t laugh you’ll cry’ vibes of 2020.

It’s an entirely new way of reading a room

In the early days of lockdown, Zoom was the only way to talk to anyone. “Everyone was freaking out, so everyone’s in five different quiz Zooms, family Zooms. I was having lunch every day with my in-laws. And it just is funny,” says Ashenden. “When you’re seeing everyone’s faces, seeing how people react to stuff, it’s such a new way of reading the room. It’s a very different form of communication.” It’s made us much more appreciative of how much we communicate through body language, adds Owen. “There’s none of that on Zoom. You’re a bit more on your own, and very ‘HOPEFULLY THIS IS REACHING YOU!’”

It’s all about the timing

As Ashenden points out, in the heightened intensity of a Zoom conversation, “a miniscule lag can tell a completely false story. If you said something me, then there’s 0.8 seconds before I said yes, it looks like I’m being sarcastic when I’m not. So I think it’s an absolute minefield. Which is good for us.” The pair say the malleable editing process allows them to identify the moments where they can amplify this for comedic effect, right down to the specifics. “It’s really nice to able to go, ‘and that pause can be one third of a second longer, please’," says Owen.

You can do your own thing

Ashenden and Owen’s sketches only started off as a bit of fun, but the pair, who have a popular Radio Four comedy show, did want to branch out more into film. “Actually, we did release a short film a few months ago that we made at the end of last year, which is five minutes, quite a simple thing, but it cost a few thousand pounds to do. And suddenly we were like, oh my god, we can do this just ourselves. And it doesn’t cost anything. It’s very easy and quick,” says Owen. “We don’t need to talk to any producers, directors or commissioning editors – it’s completely up to us. That was a very intoxicating part of it,” agrees Ashenden.

Less is more

As they made the sketches, Ashenden and Owen found that stripping back their comedy suited Zoom’s sparse atmosphere. “We found ourselves realising the whole thing of less is more, try and do as little as possible, no padding,” Ashenden says. In the editing process they were brutal, taking out ‘So’s and ‘Yeah’s wherever they could. “And also just the simple pleasure of a cutback to someone just going like this,” Owen says, staring down the camera. “There’s never not a good option, you just have someone who’s looking sort of surprised or stern.”

But no one really wants to swap live comedy for Zoom

One good thing about Zoom? At least it reminds us how much better it is to be with people in person. The pair don’t predict an end to video calls is in sight, which – fortunately – means they will continue to write sketches, but currently they are focusing on opening their debut play. “There’s only ever three or four people in the rehearsal room, but if you can make those people laugh, it sounds really exciting,” says Ashenden. “It’s not something that we’re used to – we haven’t been in a room of people laughing. I think live comedy and theatre in general – it’s going to be a massive, massive tonic for people’s mental health.”

The Comeback runs at the Noel Coward Theatre from December 8 to January 3; thecomebackplay.com

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