CityLife

Paul Merton: Impro Chums

Paul Merton's Impro Chums
The Lowry
May 31, 2010

Have I Got News For You proved a comedy show with mileage as it became two decades old this year.

The secret for its success could be it will perennially be topical - after all who gets bored of laughing at politicians - but it's the Hislop-Merton double act that's remained consistent, particularly the latter's improvised silliness that's always guaranteed to make the former giggle.

The long-standing panel show has been a great training ground for the quick witted comic's stage vehicle Paul Merton's Impro Chums, for which he has enlisted verbal gymnasts Mike McShane, Lee Simpson, Suki Webster and pianist Richard Vranch.

Very much like another 90s panel show you may recognise Vranch from, Who's Line is it Anyway?, the show puts its enthusiastic ensemble through a series of ridiculous situations dreamed up by the audience.

It's selling point is the fast work of its players and fortunately they lived up to expectation at The Lowry, greeting the crowd's orders for poems about tiddlywink playing badgers or Shakespearean plays centering around Wayne Rooney in a Build-A-Bear workshop with quick-fire quips.

Like Merton's scouse accent though he had Rooney's face down to a tee the format could do with some work, particularly in terms of cutting down a game where the audience put suggestions into a hat for the cast to play out which took up too much of the second half.

But this was still an opportunity to see five fantastically sharp comedians carve out a unique show for its audience.

It's worth catching just for Merton, who really doesn't have to do this with his lucrative TV career but is a natural stage performer who is just as funny as he is when behind that famous red desk.