Our Improv Society went and performed at Edinburgh Fringe over the summer.
On the 23rd of August, after a year of COVID restrictions, Zoom-prov sessions and isolation from our peers, the wonderful improvisors of BU Improv Society reunited to take on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Hosted by our leader Will Priddis, we began a week of shows at The Kilderkin as part of the PBH Free Fringe programme.
Each day, our troupe would travel to the Royal Mile to flyer and poster for our show, ensnaring anyone daring enough to risk their evening on a student improv troupe. Our free one-hour show was called ‘The Tourist Board’ - each performance, we would improvise the perfect holiday itinerary for our audience. The audience would give us a destination, real and fake (Santa’s Grotto, Hell, Slough etc.) and suggest three things they would like to find on the holiday; infamous suggestions included a talking Spanish donkey, a Sombrero that makes people sad and live scampi. We also incorporated our passion for short form games into our show; for example, a ‘two headed’ expert on The Centre of the Earth would answer questions from the audience by speaking in unison, or a written complaint to a bowling alley in Slough would be spoken by two improvisors one word at a time.
Needless to say, the shows were exciting, ridiculous, and slightly terrifying in equal measure. We were fortunate to receive an impressive turnout every night, and even more fortunate to have so much enthusiasm for the show. One highlight from our final show was watching Will and the rest of the troupe struggle to pronounce the town name ‘Auchtermuchty’ in front of a room full of Scots. Another was from our first performance – barely had Will Priddis finished asking the audience where our improvisors should go when an older woman in the front row shouted ‘Hell’ at him. Still not 100% sure if that was a suggestion or a heckle.
As well as performing our own show, we had the incredible chance to collaborate with both seasoned and arriving Fringe comedians and improvisors. Many of our troupe participated in Alex Leam’s Improv Provocateur; we joined the Edinburgh Improv Community on stage for their Big Friendly Improv Jam; our own talented Ben Tredinnick began his stand-up career performing alongside John Collins, and Otis Kingsman was brought on stage to be smack talked by improv rapper MC Hammersmith. Most notably perhaps is our collaboration with the BBC, where we performed a thirty-minute rendition of our show in front of an audience of 200 people. As hilarious as it was to have blagged our way in to the BBC, it was an incredible experience and one I won’t forget in a hurry.
It goes without saying that after a year of improvising in isolation, the ability to finally come together as peers to perform and spend time together was invaluable. I could not wish for a more supportive or entertaining group of people. Some in our troupe had been doing improv comedy for years, others for only weeks, and whilst some of us had performed together in The Before Times, for others this was their first time performing alongside us – or their first time performing at all. I would like to take a moment to thank Will Priddis for being our fearless leader and thank every one of our improvisors for their bravery, talent and their kindness: Heidi Sholl, Otis Kingsman, Ben Tredinnick, Eliza Young, Ollie Walton-Harrod, Leo Opone and Jack Greenwood.
For anyone who wants to join BU Improv Soc this coming year, we will be at Freshers Fair – come find us on the first floor of the SUBU building on Saturday 25th September to learn more. Click the link below for our Facebook page where we will be posting updates this week.
https://www.facebook.com/buimprovsoc
Finally, here is the link to our SUBU page.
https://www.subu.org.uk/organisation/improvisation/
Looking forward to meeting a group of new improvisors this year! Stay safe everyone x
Jack Edmondson
Usurper of Will Priddis and the new Archduke of BU Improvisation Society