Shellshock Improv review

‘a brilliantly funny show’            

Improvised comedy has seen a recent rise in popularity, with internet shows like ‘Shoot from the Hip’ and Dropout’s ‘Game Changer’, so I was interested to see what the University’s own Improv troupe, Shellshock, had to offer in their Fringe Preview show.

We began with a classic game of ‘change’. In this game, the improvisors were provided with a scene prompt, but the compere can demand that the improvisor must change what they just said. From a simple scene about eating ice cream, a creative hurricane with a supernatural twist emerged, as the improvisors were pushed to come up with a flood of fresh ideas.

The next game was ‘scripted scene’. Normally in improv the performers are free to say whatever they want, but for this game one player could only say lines from a text conversation of an audience member. What started as an encounter with a German duck quickly became a surreal flirtation.

Following that scene was ‘options’, a game where improvisors must take on quirks chosen by the audience. We started the scene at the gates of Heaven (which looked awfully like Yorkshire). Twists and turns piled up at first individually and then each in-turn: speaking like vampires, only speaking 7½-word sentences, the power to spontaneously produce cucumbers, springs for feet, salamis hidden in the cucumbers, and one of the characters secretly being a skunk. The cucumber-based superpowers particularly amused the audience, with improvisor Nemo Royle, miming plucking them out the air while producing popping sound effects. Then as a grand finale, all these were combined together.

Next came a game combining both mime teamwork, ‘late to work’. Here one of the improvisors had to guess why they were late to work by following their partners mimed actions. Amusing misassumptions and exaggerated miming made this an incredibly fun watch.

The highlight of the show was the long form. Told in the ‘funeral’ format, this chronicled the life of the main character Wimple McPimplington, leading up to a tragic cooking accident. Here we got to see collaborative storytelling in action, with multiple flashbacks being used to establish characters, showing off the creativity of the troupe. We also got to see more amusing mime here with improvisors portraying “the rolling hills of New Zealand”. The long form also allowed interesting techniques like montage to be used, creating variety between the scenes. A particularly amusing moment came from a visit to a sheep competition with Improvisors Clara Springman and Henry Cole getting on their knees and bleating. The show was neatly tied off with the panel show classic of ‘scenes from a hat’, where improvisors performed short individual scenes from audience prompts, like “signs for Jurassic park”, showcasing the cast’s wit.

This was a brilliantly funny show. There was never dull moment with audience members being continuously engaged. The improvisors made effective use of accents, physicality and mime to bring scenes to life. The troupe members play off each other with a confident chemistry in scenes, allowing the flow into moments of the absurd to feel natural.

By Hamish Campbell.