Stu and Garry in The Catchily Titled Improv Show is an hour of absolutely roaring comedy that will have you crippled with laughter. Stu Murphy and Garry Dobson are masters of their art, working flawlessly together with razor-sharp wit and quick imagination that will completely knock your socks off. Kicking off the show with a relaxed bit of stand up, they poked fun at themselves, each other and the audience with perfect ease.
Giggling while they took suggestions from the audience, they engaged us and took absolute pleasure in the process, they won us over immediately, making everyone comfortable enough to shout out the most ridiculous ideas. Murphy and Dobson continued to prove their undeniable quick wit with each game they played to initiate perfectly-timed comedy improv. The alphabet game is a great example (each sentence must begin with the next letter of the alphabet), testing their ability to think lightning-fast while leaving the audience howling with laughter.
Effortlessly switching between characters, they executed accents and silly voices exquisitely, always maintaining a self-conscious distance from which they can ridicule themselves. The way they communicated with each other between sketches kept the audience completely comfortable.
Their imaginative scenes tonight ranged all the way from a goat farmer from Barnsley missing out on the jet skiing holiday of a lifetime to Spagmance, the previously unexplored territory of a Spaghetti Western combined with a Romance. Each night will undoubtedly bring ever-wilder scenarios. Their inventiveness knows no bounds, leading them into more bizarre and fantastic scenes that have the whole crowd cracking up. Setting themselves harder and harder challenges leading up to a condensed scene in all of one second, both of these master comics handle their tasks with dexterity, intelligence and a huge dollop of skill.
I cannot speak highly enough of these two comedians. Their quirky brand of comedy and imaginative improv made a perfect end to a Sunday at the Fringe. If you see any improv in Edinburgh, and want it to be snort-beer-out-of-your-nose funny, make it Stu and Garry. I challenge you not to love them.
