Three Radicals
Show type: Edinburgh Fringe 2001
Three comic anarchists will hold you hostage as they perform as many sketches as possible before a time bomb explodes! Choose from an a la carte comedy menu which changes every night.
Comedians
Reviews
Original Review:
This confident antipodean trio took great pains to emphasise that this show would be completely improvised.
Yet the scenarios they acted out had all been predetermined, written on the back of 30 numbered cards.
The aim was for the boilersuited threesome to act out as many of these scenes as they could while a clock counted down 45 minutes, the audience selecting which number sketch would be done next.
About half the punters - the Australian half - seemed very eager, completely out of proportion to the skill on display, while the rest sat stony-faced and increasingly bored as the performers failed to generate any energy or empathy.
Still, at least the clock was counting down the minutes we would have to endure this insipid, and seemingly well-rehearsed, "improv".
But then, cruelly, as the countdown hit zero, the self-indulgent trio insisted on performing for another 15 minutes, treating us to their repertoire of non-improvised songs. It was almost a torture, confounding our hopes of an early relief from this depressingly unfunny ordeal.
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Older Comments
DJ Big John - 06/11/2001
I'm with Murry on this one I have never seen improv artist perform well rehersed scenes. LOL
Radicals. - 04/10/2001
It is obvious that Ms Ishola does not understand how improvisation actually works. The 3 Radicals never had any script or written sketches as she suggests; a question was posed to the audience that was written on the back of a card. This question may have been simply a name of a place, or someones occupation etc. Then the performers made up the sketch. Obviously the skill of the performers was so great that Ms Ishola thought the sketches were written. Perhaps she is only familiar with gag-oriented game style impro like Whose Line Is It Anywat and can't comprehend that skilled improvisors can actually create solid sketches out one simple suggestion. Next time she reviews impro I suggest she goes more than once so she understands how really improvised it is.