Loud, sassy, original, bright and fearless. If you’ve caught a glimpse of Frisky and Mannish you’ll know why they’re the names on everyone’s lips. From Radio 1 to the Edinburgh Fringe, Frisky and Mannish are being hailed as the new act to watch, and if you’ve got your head screwed on you’ll make sure you catch them at Oxford Playhouse on Saturday night.

But while their Pop Centre Plus tour might be startlingly original, the comedy duo remain rather difficult to categorise. “People say we’ve invented a whole new genre but we haven’t, we just mess around with pop songs. What’s more important is connecting with your audience and making them laugh,” Mannish says.

Frisky (Laura) and Mannish (Matthew) met at Oxford University in 2003 where they read English. They joined the Oxford Revue, even performing Guys and Dolls at the Playhouse, but didn’t single each other out for a life on stage together.

“Everyone says how well we work together,” Frisky laughs, “how great our rapport is and how we play off each other, but we didn’t know that at the beginning.”

In fact their current song-dominant routine only came about when a friend asked them to supply some songs for a charity night. “We were trying to make ends meet in a flat in London while realising that our dazzling future wasn’t going as well as we’d hoped,” Mannish remembers, “But when we started doing the songs it went from there really.”

If you’ve watched the pair on YouTube you’ll know what all the fuss is all about. Their previous two tours have been sell-out successes thanks to their hilarious reinterpreting of songs, mixing them up, adding serious tones to light-hearted tunes and visa-versa.

The 26-year-olds have gone from strength to strength, selling out at the Fringe every year while perfecting their act. The reactions are of course fuelled by Frisky’s ultra-cool, corsetted, high heeled, red-haired creation. So did she craft her own look? “It began when I found a designer PVC corset in a Camden vintage shop for £20 and fell in love with it. And shoe-wise I try to go for Vivienne Westwood. But as soon as I realised that the silhouette was our trademark I began having my corsets made to measure,” she says proudly.

Frisky and Mannish presents Pop Centre Plus on Saturday. Box office on 01865 305305 or book online at www.oxfordplayhouse.com