IT’S like being treated to a command performance of Paul Merton’s Impro Chums, the terrific improvised show that is coming to the Wycombe Swan on May 17. I am here to speak to Paul Merton and it is a rare privilege to get a taste of such a dazzling off-the-cuff show.

The Chums have a similar effect on audiences up and down the country. They have been wowing theatres across the UK for years now with their utterly compelling spontaneity. They are able to conjure out of thin air the most breathtaking routines. “Genius” is an overused word, but it really does apply to Paul Merton’s Impro Chums.

The joy of the show — for both performers and audience — lies in the fact that it is totally unplanned. Paul starts by singing the praises of a format that requires no preparation whatsoever. “I haven’t written a joke for 25 years,” laughs the comedian, who for the past quarter of a century has also been a pivotal member of that other hugely popular impro group, The Comedy Store Players.

“In Edinburgh one year, we were in a bar 20 minutes before the show was due to begin. We wanted to write down what impro games we would be doing in the show, but we realised we didn’t have a pen or paper. So we had to borrow the waiter’s pen and notepad. That’s the great thing about doing this show — there is no stress involved whatsoever.

“We don’t have any scripts or props. On one occasion, I remember the comedian Owen O’Neill was astounded that with absolutely no preparation we were about to do a show in front of 1,000 people in Glasgow that would have them cheering from the rafters. Now other comedians like Phill Jupitus and Marcus Brigstocke have started doing impro with us. ‘Hang on,’ they say, ‘you don’t have to write any jokes and you do it with your mates? Where do we sign?’”

Paul says that, “planning doesn’t work because it throws the other performers, who don’t know what you’ve planned. It sounds very difficult and crazy to go on stage with nothing planned, but that is actually the show’s strength. We have all worked together for a long time and know we can rely on each other.”

The Chums’ close friendship and mutual understanding, built up over the last 25 years, is almost telepathic and endows the troupe with a wonderful on-stage chemistry.

The Chums certainly have a tremendous capacity for keeping the show fresh. Paul explains that, “as a performer, you can never be bored because you’ve never heard it before and you’re doing something that five seconds ago you didn’t know you were going to do. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, if you are bored of impro, you’re bored of life!”

Audiences get a rare thrill from the show, too. They revel in the fact that they can make suggestions that the Chums immediately act out. They also relish the fact that the performers are clearly having the time of their lives up there on stage. And they are delighted that the show is being created uniquely for them — they know it will never be repeated.

People love the sheer fun and the teamwork. They can see that the team is more important than the individual. Audiences also adore the fact that it’s different every time. They are really pleased to be hearing this material for the first time. That’s why it stays so fresh. The audience is also part of the show — they literally get what they ask for.

The troupe has established a very loyal following. “You never see tired impro, and that’s what audiences love,” reckons Paul, who for the past two decades has enjoyed huge success as a team captain on BBC1’s enduringly popular topical quiz, Have I Got News For You.

“At the Comedy Store Players, we’ve had the same people in the front row for years. We’ve even had marriages between fans. It’s great for them because they know it’ll always be different.”

The group play lots of great games on stage. One of their favourites is “the fish bowl” where they read out audience suggestions plucked from a fish bowl and instantly have to perform them. It leads to the most inventive scenes.

The Chums see no reason why the fun should ever end. “Last night we were performing to an audience that stretched from an 18-year-old to someone celebrating his 80th birthday. They were all rocking with laughter at the same jokes. You do not get that with stand-up or TV comedy. I think we’ll have longevity because our humour is not niche, it’s universal.”

Paul concludes: “It’s such a joy performing with the Chums. Our motto is: if it’s funny, it’s justified. That spirit of ‘anything can happen’ will continue. With good health, we can carry on for years. With this show, there is no inbuilt obsolescence — apart from our own inbuilt obsolescence!”

For more details about the show at the Wycombe Swan, call 01494 512 000 or visit www.wycombeswan.co.uk

For more details about Paul Merton’s Impro Chums tour, visit www.paulmerton.com

James Rampton

SAMUEL BECKETT and Harold Pinter provided the inspiration for Shiplake College’s three-play homage to two of the 20th century’s most influential playwrights.

Beckett’s Play, a talking heads production is a minimalist presentation of an eternal triangle. Becket targeted speech like artillery fire. Pierre Blanc as Man 1, Aless Williams as Woman 1 and Grace Miller as Woman 2, sat in metre high black boxes, and provided it.

As each character speaks they click on a light to illuminate their face but for much of the short performance the other two characters are in darkness. The timing is immaculate, including Blanc’s nervous hiccups, even though each character ignores the existence of the other two. They obsess forensically and repetitively over the sordid remains of the affair. Choral in rhythm rather than harmony the play was a surreal consequence of Becket’s own infidelity.

The next two short plays were inspired by Pinter’s “one criminal act”, the theft of the original manuscript of Beckett’s Murphy from Bermondsey library in 1938. It was an inspirational text which “he read to death”. Pinter’s friends prodded his conscience humorously, “Think of all the charladies who won’t be able to read Samuel Beckett now.”

Kristian Dyer is the thoughtful director in Sam, a piece devised by the performers. Playing Pinter’s bereaved wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, Hannah Fitzgerald is magnificently bossy as the tour guide with clipboard, narrating the flashback guide to Pinter’s life. Jade Williams, as the female assistant and Kristian Dyer comically model the protagonist Pinter, played by James Gifford, into a Madame Tussaud’s representation.

Aless Williams, Freya Lester and Jade Williams, as three librarians, provide slow-motion head-turning, fingers to lips, gossiping in the style of Pinter’s Come and Go as they disapprove of the theft of Murphy.

Perhaps the most Pinteresque scene in Hal, also devised by the cast, echoes The Birthday Party. Christian Young is Pinter in his early East End days. Harry Wilson and Ed Harris play the heavies who darkly menace the thief of a library book in an uneasy struggle for verbal and territorial dominance.

Christian Young, as Pinter, vehemently expresses his struggle as a playwright through his career as he experimented with his craft after every play he set himself the target that next time he must “Fail better.”

Play: Pierre Blanc, Grace Miller, Aless Williams

Sam: Kristian Dyer, James Gifford, Freya Lester, Aless Williams, Jade Williams

Hal: Hannah Fitzgerald, Harry Wilson, Edward Harris, Christian Young







Lighting: Jamie MacLeod

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