A comedy festival show that features sixteen acts, none of whom have written jokes, sounds like a recipe for disaster. Instead, it’s a fast-paced, high-energy triumph.
Here’s how it works: four teams of four ‘celebrities’, loosely defined, battle it out to win the Peter Cook Perpetual Cup. They improvise short scenes based on audience suggestions and the three judges award points out of five for each skit. The team with the most points at the end wins fame, glory and improvisation supremacy. Sound simple enough?
General craziness and mayhem ensues: the audience members all scream their suggestions at once, helpers fling handfuls of lollies into the crowd between rounds, and loud booing greets almost every score that the judges award. It all works, somehow, and leaves barely a dull moment.
Host Andrew Bailey threatens a basket penalty, which is like a time out but with a basket on one’s head, for any performer who goes too far, that is, gratuitous swearing and the like. This makes for a fun night suitable for all ages, and there were plenty of fresh-faced teens in the crowd.
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