‘Wow’ doesn’t even begin to describe the talents of these two comedians. Cariad Lloyd and Paul Foxcroft are arguably two of Britain’s best improvisers and this year the pair bring their fully improvised one-hour show to the Fringe. Unfortunately for us, Lloyd and Foxcroft are only performing a handful of shows, so I’d grab your tickets now if you want to see improvised comedy at its very best. This performance is inspired by one suggestion at the beginning of the show. Lloyd and Foxcroft then perform a set of monologues which later transform into three separate returning sketches. Sound difficult to follow? Not really - for the entire hour you’ll be in complete awe of this duo’s fast thinking and quick wit. I even had to pinch myself half way through the performance to remind myself that it was fully improvised as the scenes were so slick and funny that you would have thought they’d been written and rehearsed donkey’s years ago.
The single word of inspiration for this performance was ‘anteater’. Admittedly, when the performance was over I was slightly confused as I wasn’t sure how the original suggestion of ‘anteater’ linked to the following sketches about a French assassin and a loveable but awkward girlfriend. As everything happened so quickly at the start I feel as if all of this information was probably lost in the opening monologues and was too easy to miss. Although the room was filled with budding improv comedy lovers, maybe Lloyd and Foxcroft could have taken a little more time at the beginning to explain exactly how everything worked just so all was clear.
Lloyd was instantly loveable from the start and Foxcroft is a perfect match for her comedy. The duo bounced off each other perfectly and there was never a dull moment. Each sketch, although improvised, was performed seamlessly without fault. There was not a single pause, showing that these two are amazing at thinking on their feet. If either of these two are running improv workshops then sign me up, as I’d love to know just how they do it, although I doubt I will ever be as good as these two naturals.
