A regular fixture in the Comedy Festival program, this event played to a packed National Theatre. Hosted by the always entertaining Julia Zemiro, a selection of celebrities joined forces with the Impro Melbourne crew to compete in a standard game of Theatresports.
Julia quickly jumped into introducing us to the teams that were competing that evening. The first team was “Superfly” and included Jason Geary, Sydney ring in Rebecca De Unamuno and AFL footballer Glenn Manton. The next team had the intriguing title of “The Apple Spanking Cowboys” and contained Impro Melbourne’s Patti Stiles and Ben Nicholas from “Neighbours”. Containing the talents of Adam Hunter (another Neighbours’ person) and Denise Scott was team number three, “Bellamy Rules”. The fourth and final team was “CSI Moe” containing Impro stalwart Simon Rogers and Tracy Bartram.
Before the action started, we were introduced to the judges for the evening. 774’s Derek Guille and “Ozzy Osbourne” (in a hilariously decrepit portrayal) were on the panel which left one vacancy. Drawing a seat number from a bucket, Julia gave a lucky punter a chance to be a judge. A girl by the name of Margaret was the willing punter and Julia gave her a true superstar introduction before she joined the others.
Using the musical talents of Gordon Dorin on the keyboard and many props provided by Impro Melbourne’s regular duo of set dressers, each team weaved their improvised magic through four rounds of games that ranged from one minute challenges through to the final round’s games of four minutes.
In the early rounds, “CSI Moe” gave us a game of “Emotions” where the scene about a visit to an Aromatherapist was played out using various emotions. The extreme shyness scenario was gold. “The Cowboys” countered with a game of puppets set at a slumber party. One poor team member was given the demanding task of moving the rest of the cast around the stage with chaotic results.
A highlight of round three was one team’s ambitious decision to combine the games of “Substitute hands”,”Alphabet” and “Interview” into the same one minute game. This piece revolving around the interviewing of a Plumber went off the rails often as one performer had difficulty following the alphabetic order of the dialogue. “Superfly” also put on an valiant effort with an interpretive dance set to a poem about donkeys. While not popular with the judges, it was fantastic to watch.
All of the celebrities held their own against the seasoned improvisers and worked well as part of their respective teams. One of the surprising success stories was footballer Glen Manton. His injection of a bit of larrikin behavior into the characters he portrayed made them quite unforgettable and hilarious. His blatant attempts to bend the rules of the games were also great to watch.
The final round of four minute games gave us a scene of “Sing about it” about Telemarketers, a Western scene with “look” and “look away” musical cues, a gibberish opera about revenge and an all in sing along to a “We are the world” style song about the plight of large nosed people. At the conclusion of this round, it was declared that “The Cowboys” had won by one point.
As always, these games of Theatresports gave the punters a highly entertaining and unpredictable show. I’m sure everyone in the audience marveled at how these talented people could make it look so easy. We left the theatre eager to get ourselves another fix of Impro in the near future.
If you want to experience more Impro action, Impro Melbourne have a series of shows (revolving around longer story formats) coming up and regular workshops that are open to the public. Check out www.impromelbourne.com.au for further details. The core players are also presenting Late Night Impro during the festival. See Celebrity Theatresports for more information.