A fun, eclectic group of amateur comedians took to the stage with an endearing, though not hilarious, improvised comedy set. The cast were a mix of Bournemouth locals whose casual attitude meant that what they lacked in quality they made up for in charm.
For all those who don’t know how improvised comedy works: a compare has a set of roleplay games, the details of which are called out by the audience. Of course there were some comedy shout-outs from my audience - ‘Dildo’, for the broken household prop, and ‘global warming’ for the small problem the characters would have to overcome.
Some of the highlight acts were a ‘news team’ who had to ‘present’ alongside doing something else - one lady gave an interesting and very funny rendition of being given birth to. Another clever act involved two of the cast having to switch emotions every time the bell was buzzed, which led to funny juxtapositions such as horny lover to over-organised square. The set was pierced with moments of quality comedy but it wasn’t continuous, despite the claim that ‘it will have you laughing from beginning to end’. There were definitely lags, where the jokes didn’t quite take off and the cast members on stage weren’t sure of how to make their admittedly difficult tasks into a funny spectacle.
Of course, improvised comedy like this is dependent on the audience and I’m sure the quality of their performance varies from night to night. I can’t deny though, that there were moments where I felt like a slightly more experienced troop would have produced something sharper. That said, the cast’s little asides to the audience, and the loud chortle of a couple of the more prominent members of the cast, meant that I was always gunning for them.
Overall they managed to cultivate an involved and warm environment so that there was a distinct sense of disappointment when the 60 minutes were over. I didn’t emerge from the pub with my sides split, but I experienced something new and I certainly did have fun.
