Another show, another review!

Three shows down, nine to go!

Friday's show was heaps of fun, and we even had some media in.

Here's another review from Louise Mapleston, one of our season's guest writers.

The Improv Conspiracy yet again managed to reel in a full house for their third performance of the fringe season. Eager to see how this Harold would compare to the highly acclaimed opening night I was impressed by each team's opening sequences, particularly The Peeping Toms, as they steered away from the telephone format used in their preview screening and opening night and moved to longer sketches that really explored the audience suggestion of a telephone booth in Moscow. Although not always directly related to a telephone booth the communication between the players on stage was always clear and supportive, with characters such as “Demetri”, “Boris” and “Serge”  making appearances at the White House, Flinders Street Station and claiming Centrelink for failed pimp attempts.  The scenes were quick to move and resolve which at times can be fantastic for introducing a shallow plot line in a limited amount of time, however The Peeping Toms finished rather abruptly and I was almost disappointed that we couldn’t have explored the future adventures of  “Casual Hair Cuts” with Demetri, Borris and Serge in more depth.

The NASA Dropout’s confidence on stage as a team shone through this evening as they baked, fried and added extreme amount of chicken salt to the audience suggestion of "French Fries". What do you call a pun sandwich? A punini…. and that is exactly what we got.  Although lacking in team members compared to previous night’s performances they sure as hell made a convincing setting for cake decorating and sandwich artist competitions where post-modern sandwiches where anything but crumby (okay sandwich puns will stop now). I thoroughly enjoyed the NASA Dropout’s performance tonight and could tell that the more experienced improvisers were thoughtful and supportive of their less experienced teammates which was an improvement from other performances I had previously seen. 

It was a pleasure to watch the Improv Conspiracy again (after the adrenaline and hype of opening night had cleared) as we see regular, everyday people transform from monotonous office workers to characters with energy and a passion for performing. I look forward to seeing how each team will evolve and strengthen over the next couple of shows…or will they break and crack under the pressure of stardom and fame? Who knows… it is impro!

My money is on "evolve and strengthen", but I guess we'll have to wait and find out!  You can book tickets to our remaining Melbourne Fringe Festival shows here.