There is a new weekly offering of live improvised comedy in Brunswick on Sunday nights, with the team from Impro Melbourne putting on a different show every week. The Impro Cave is brought to you by the same team that has been responsible for such shows as Theatresports and the MICF show, Late Nite Impro.
The show is broken into two one-hour brackets, each with a separate theme or format. On the opening night, the audience joined in the fun with Gorilla Theatre, followed by Hell Theatre. One pleasing aspect of the night was that the show started on time and did not run over time and especially being a Sunday evening, this definitely kept the punters happy.
The premise behind Gorilla Theatre is as follows; each improviser declares a theme for the scenes which they are to direct the other improvisers in, then based on the success of those scenes, the crowd decides whether to reward their efforts with a banana or penalise them with a forfeit.
The performers have no idea what they will be directed to do in any given scene and the director needs to make judgement calls as the scene progresses as well. Each performer is given a time limit over the course of three rounds. The one with the most bananas at the end wins the coveted banana necklace. I was beginning to be tempted to yell out forfeit regardless of how funny a scene was because the challenges an improviser must perform if they forfeit provided even more laughs.
Hell Theatre is presided over by ‘Satan’ who orders the improvisers to create scenes based on his instructions and then decides who makes it into Heaven or Hell based on their individual performances. Satan is an unforgiving character who switches and intermingles scenes as he pleases. The performers must have a great memory to keep up with the number of storylines they must follow and the characters they end up portraying by the end of it all.
While these formats are really only new packaging on an old product, they are effective in creating fun audience involvement and helps create a sense of structure in what is ultimately an art form that is based on lack of structure. If you are a lover of the unpredictability of improvised comedy or are looking for a refreshing alternative to regular stand-up, then this is a new and exciting offering for you from Impro Melbourne.
The Don’t Tell Tom bar and café’ is a warm and cosy venue with an open fire place, suitable for the chilly months ahead. The stage provides a great view from all tables in the venue and food is available from the bar til late.