Anyone who has ever see Whose Line Is It Anyway? on television or the Comedy Store Players on stage will know the format of this kind of show. Suggestions are taken from the audience, both on slips of paper handed in before the start and from things shouted out during the show. The performers then create short scenes, speeches or jokes from these suggestions on the spot without any preparation and try to make the audience laugh.
The line-up for this show is similar to two years ago: Jim Sweeney, Richard Vranch (who also improvises the music on keyboard), Lee Simpson and Suki Webster, plus, of course, Paul Merton. There are also some special guest improvisers lined up, and on the first show the guest was Comedy Store Players regular and TV star Josie Lawrence. The show consists of a set sequence of scenes which use information supplied by the audience and are then created and performed by the cast. When it works, it is very impressive and very funny - when it doesn't it can still be funny if the performers deal with it well.
These are all very experienced improvisers who deal with pretty much anything that is thrown at them, by the audience or - which is often worse - by the other improvisers. They deliberately block, drop one another into difficult situations and make each other laugh during scenes, but it is all part of the style of the show and is all good-natured and funny. And this show is very funny indeed, at times getting a large, sold-out audience all rocking with laughter in unison.
There are a growing number of shows in Edinburgh that claim to use improvisation, but if you want to see some of the top performers in Britain in this style of comedy, you should definitely try to get a ticket for this show.