Comedian Dies in the Middle of a Joke ***

When I was handed a flyer (and a free ticket) for this show, the chap told me that it was an experimental piece of theatre with audience participation. Fortunately the audience participation was fun and light hearted and shouldn't put anyone off going.

Without getting into too much detail, it's a re-enactment of a "real" murder that happened when a comedian was shot whilst live on stage in London in the 1980's.

The audience members take the role of real audience members, (and put on 1980's style hats and wigs to get into the role). You're given an instruction, such as "when the comedian on stage says this, you should out a heckle - you can say anything you like - it doesn't have to make sense".

The result is an hour of hilarious organised chaos, which will be different every day and the success of each show will depend to an extent on how much the audience get into the spirit of things. 

Last year, Adam Riches won the Edinburgh Comedy Award with a show that had lots for audience participation. I don't think this show is as good as that - Master of Ceremonies Ross Sutherland takes a much more hands off role compared to Adam Riches to the point where the audience are doing all the work and apart from the introduction, he spends the hour organising people or just watching!

I have no doubt that if they can get a decent crowd in - more than the 15 or so that were at this preview, then the show will be a great hours worth of entertainment and ideal if you want to try something different.

Essentially, it's just a formula for successful audience participation. I think the vast majority of people going along will enjoy it. Having said that, I think that ultimately it's a little too repetitive - and the fact that the show is 95% audience based means that the performers won't be winning any awards!

Show information can be found here.