Although the Fringe offers up a slew of improvised comedy year after year, the youthful set of comics behind Blind Mirth succeed in providing a unique input into the somewhat saturated improv market. Finding inspiration for hilarity from anywhere and anyone in the audience, the show is built around scripts created on the spot from the spectators’ books, ipods and random fancies, to create a one-off show packed with merriment.
The success of the show lay in the quickness of the eight students’ thinking. Displaying comedic intellect far beyond their years, their instantaneous and creative reactions to audience input resulted in some obscure scenarios that were all the more entertaining for their peculiarity (three way father/son/wife marriage arrangement, anybody?). However, some of the skits didn’t always deliver the laughs intended, although not hitting the nail on the head every time is perhaps an inevitable part of improvisation, especially for comics relatively new to the game. At points, too, some of the cast outshone the performance of the others and although there was clearly no intentional overshadowing, this was something that sadly even the excellent team work could not prevent.
Regardless, in its entirety, from the opening introductions to the finale of improv one-liners based around ‘I like my women like I like my...’, there was raucous laughter almost throughout as both the crowd and ensemble clearly revelled in the premise and delivery of the show. The people behind Blind Mirth are clearly an intellectual, bold bunch who know how to put on a good show. The loyalty cards handed out at the end can be viewed both as a way to entice people back, but also to dare festival goers to push their improvisational prowess once again – I know I’ll definitely be re-using mine.
