COMEDY

Back once again, at this year’s Fringe are the Oxford Imps with their high levels of wit and ability to think very quickly. These talented actors fail to discipline the audience – the whole idea of this performance is that the audience controls the show. They tell the performers the subject of each scene, it’s then up to the Imps to literally imagine a scene relating to that idea. It takes a lot of hard work and training every day to be able to improvise so quickly. The audience is managed by a compere, who encourages them to shout out ideas at appropriate moments. The compere at today’s show had a brilliant amount of energy, and made the sow what it was.

The Imps have many different talents that are put to the test in the performance, from making up jokes on a random subject to singing to one of the Imps playing the keyboards, for the duration of the show.

Improvisation is a very hard skill to learn, and I credit the performers for this ability though more and more and more improv acts are coming to the festival , and the Oxford Imps are now facing very tough competition from other similar acts. They need to gain a unique skill before they can be the best and currently, I cannot see what makes them superior to any other talented improvisation acts.