The term improv comedy is usually enough to have me, and any number of reviewers I know in Edinburgh, making excuses and running for the exit. Not that its all bad, but that the quality can be rather variable, difficult to review and theres an awful lot of it. So Im rather pleased to have discovered a format that seems to work every time.The set up is that our host has a rather extensive video collection. In fact, it not only contains every film every made, but even those that havent been made and tonight were going to watch one of the films in his library. To choose which one, we start off with three trailers acted out by the team based on audience suggestions for genre, setting and titles. The audience then gets to choose which of these they want to see all the way through, and thats our show.Now the normal problem with improv is that when you get into a blind alley, you need a quick exit. The traditional way to handle that is to have a host who can buzz out of the scene or switch to the next game. That works, but its been done for years and that host feels detached from the show, so those looking for a new format are either flying dangerously solo without an overseer, or - as the Scat Pack have done find an original way of integrating them into the show. Because the host in this case has the remote control and can fast-forward, rewind or eject tapes, not only do The Scat Pack avoid uncomfortable dead ends, but the guy with the remote control actually becomes as much a part of the comedy as the talent performing the improv. Our cast make a slip-up at their peril, for the host mercilessly pauses, rewinds and pokes fun at their mistakes. Indeed, the controller seems to take sadistic pleasure in creating the most contrived storylines to deliberately make it difficult for the players acting out the film. So these guys are freakishly talented; and on top of that can even conjure a song from nowhere on cue. And whilst that not be completely unique in Edinburgh, their format is so clever you can see this working every night; which when youre talking about improv, is unique.
