‘quick-fire routines which showcased the array of talent on offer’
Liverpool’s popular monthly improv night returned with three similar yet very different companies showcasing alternate forms of improvised routines whose content, whilst directed by audience suggestions, is completely unscripted and made up on the spot.
First up was Popcorn Pig who comprised Cait Conaghan, Cameron Miller, Lilith Mayawelsh, and Neil Canning, with usual regular Sarah Hutchinson unavailable this evening.
Utilising the Harold structure in their approach to long-form improvisation in which characters and themes are introduced and then recur in a series of interconnected scenes, following the audience prompts of ‘bacon’ and ‘Sicily’, we were taken through a merry tale of pig rearing with a vegan sausage or two thrown in alongside a hint of The Godfather mixed with Animal Farm, all of which delightfully proved an amusing and entertaining thirty minutes, full of quick thinking and very much off the cuff, lateral thinking improvisation.
Taking us into the interval was Broken Chair who comprised Jamie Cunliffe, Phil Davies, Portia Fahey, and Ange Langley, with usual regular Michael Leane absent this evening.
Adopting the Movie structure, an improv form where performers mimic cinematic structure, sometimes using a narrator to call camera angles or pan, zoom and transition between scenes, they initially created trailers for four never seen before film titles suggested by audience members prior to the event start which proved good fun.
Merging two audience prompts to create a title of ‘It’s A Wonderful Exorcist’, they quickly developed a hilarious tale centred around Dave the Insomniac who is haunted by Ghostly Gertrude, Phantom Patricia, and Steve the Spectre, each of whom have their own challenges post-life, until the arrival of Samantha Hauntington, a 5-star Google-rated exorcist, who helps find a happy ending for everyone. It was good to see the rapid thinking and character interchanges to keep the action moving in a fuller-length piece.
After the break, house team Short Comings comprising Paul Arends, Jay Ashcroft, Jac King-Gibson, and Alex Westwood, with usual team member Cheng Jun Cheong sadly unavailable on the night, appeared to take us through to the close, following a short-form approach which consists of brief, unconnected scenes based on specific rules, constraints, or audience suggestions, and which is more familiar having been made famous by shows like Whose Line Is It Anyway? with a focus on quick punchlines, high-energy physical gags, and often direct audience participation.
Taking us through seven different game formats with a fixed duration of three-minutes, they entertainingly played out a range of scenarios that tackled at one extreme an impending asteroid strike on the high street with rapid character entrance/exit, through to the discovery of The Asda in Bali, ‘scene three ways’ via the genres of Greek heroic epic, a thriller, and Beauty and the Beast. It was great to see some quick-fire routines which showcased the array of talent on offer but also the collaborative approach in helping each other out in a scene as well as putting each other on the spot!
Popcorn Pig Popcorn Pig Improv enjoy turning your words into hilarious, magical, deeply stupid comedy and you can find out more about them at their next show Pick An Animal on 2nd August at the Studio Beyond with booking details at www.ticketsource.com/popcorn-pig
Broken Chair will be mashing up favourite film titles and using them to build a brand-new, never-before-seen blockbuster live on stage at Liverpool Everyman on 1st October. Further details and booking https://everymanplayhouse.com/event/broken-chair-improv-present-the-films-that-never-were/
Short Comings will feature again at the next monthly improv night at Liverpool Arts Bar Studio 4 on Hope Street in September. Keep following @madeupimprov for more details nearer the time.
Review Date: 19th July 2026
Star Rating: FOUR