Jeff Lewis, known to many as “Herman ‘Vork’ Holman” from The Guild is a mysterious man. Having had a sporadic acting career since the 90s, appearing as supporting characters in such big-hitters of TV comedy as 3rd Rock From the Sun and The Drew Carey Show, as well as landing a brief role in Glee, he only came to wide recognition through online comedy, however his website and his wikipedia page display precious little information about the comedian himself, but there is plenty to talk about in his sketch comedy series The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour.

Jeff Lewis’ portrayal of Vork in The Guild is already one of the stand-out moments in online comedy history. The stubborn, obsessive, and miserly Vork was just a joy to watch. But if one watches his paradoxical 5-Minute Comedy Hour, is it just more of the same?

The answer, fortunately, is no. Lewis is a superb character actor and can play boorish guys in bars as well as rule-following idiots, guileless salesmen and frustrated white-collar workers all with equal aplomb. His acting throughout is superb, and his timing is just perfect. In full flow Lewis the actor is fantastic, and when you look at the lines, we find that Lewis the writer is just as good. His dialogue says all it needs to say to keep the plots running without cluttering up the short running time of each 5 minute hour. Many of the situations he puts his characters in are deliciously Kafkaesque – Lewis has a real talent for writing the self-defeating anti-logic of control freaks. He also has a keen eye for the cringe, that special kind of comedy which plays with the implications of socially awkward situations. I actually found myself watching some of the sketches through my fingers, such was the empathetic embarrassment the show can deliver. The series may be short at only 15 sketches since 2010, but every single one is a winner. It’s not often I get to say this, but Jeff Lewis hasn’t produced a bad sketch, or even a mediocre one. This is how you do sketch comedy online.

Helping along his brilliant sketches are a cavalcade of fantastic actors, including his old friends from The Guild, Felicia Day, Vince Caso (Bladez), Brett Sheridan (George) and Robin Thorsen (Clara). Great casting decisions means that the great writing gets the outing it deserves, and there’s nothing to detract from Jeff Lewis’ own performances. Everything is filmed extremely well too, directed, as it is, by Sean Becker, who previously directed The Guild. The camerawork is simple, unobtrusive and shot placement is so natural you don’t really even notice it. Unless you’re a neurotic comedy journalist of course.

The 5-Minute Comedy Hour hasn’t updated for a few months, it’s latest season ending roughly the same time as The Guild itself. There is no information on the show’s website about the possibility of more shows, or indeed about much at all. There is a definite air of mystique surrounding Mr Lewis, and I very much doubt we’ll hear much about him or his show until it’s already upon us. The show’s website states that this material was written when Lewis was at the ACME Theater Company; it would seem he sat on this material for some time before releasing it on the web. I personally hope he doesn’t sit on any more of his material for much longer – his 5-Minute Comedy Hour is one of the best sketch shows I have seen on the Internet, and I want to see more as soon as possible.