Corn Exchange, Ipswich on 3 June 2008

It is twenty years since “Whose Line is it Anyway?” the Channel Four improvisation programme was first on our television screens. Thanks to Dave (what a stupid name for a TV channel!) I am loving the re-runs which, not withstanding the dodgy 80’s hairstyles and clothes, prove the programmes to be as funny as I remember them.

One in the team of actors in the 136 editions of the programme was Paul Merton, now better known as a panellist on Have I Got News for You, (BBC 1) and he, with others from The Comedy Store Players, came to Ipswich as part of a touring impro’ show based on the TV format. The audience packed the Ipswich Corn Exchange, ready for Paul’s sharp wit and whimsical flights of imagination….. and most of them would have been at school when Whose Line.. was first screened.

Paul Merton was joined by his “chums”, talented comedy actors Richard Vranch, Suki Webster, Lee Simpson and Mike McShane, the American actor who was another of the original TV actors, although hardly recognisable with his slimmed down physique. As the audience called out suggestions for situations, characters, topics, and emotions, the actors, trusting on the quick-wits of their colleagues, responded by incorporating the ideas into improvised sketches. It was white-knuckle acting – and it resulted in the funniest show that I have seen for many a year.

A bit risqué at times (blame the audience for their suggestions) we saw an emotional  bus queue, a TV interview of an  “expert” on llamas who do fencing as an Olympic Sport, and a circus act involving a 55 year old circus lion with no teeth, performed in various film or theatrical styles.  Over the interval a bucket on stage was the depository for audience suggestions which the cast then turned into 17 quick-fire sketches (some were apparently too rude to be read aloud never mind acted out!).

The evening ended with “a play that Shakespeare never wrote”, Mac-Chef (the cast were initially a bit baffled by that suggestion) and, as each actor ended their life in dramatic gore, all on-stage and off, wondered which one would be left to find the closing punchline…

Paul Merton was as funny as we expected – but his team were equally good. I was slightly worried that the editing of the television series meant that a live version of the show would be slower, with more duff impro’, but it was even better live and I left the Corn Exchange with my face aching from laughter. Catch the show if you can. It will be in Norwich on June 17th as part of their country-wide tour.

Rachel Sloane
4th June 2008