Little Lark of London

“Everything we do this evening is completely made up on the spot”

In case you couldn’t tell by the name or the opening quote, Shoot From the Hip is an improvisational group who tours the world playing games and putting on plays entirely made up during that performance. The group is made up of Tom Mayo, Alexander Jeremy, Luke Manning and Sam Russell who have performed to millions online and in-person, giving them plenty of experience together as a group. The structure of a Shoot From the Hip show is quite simple – there are four performers and they go through a range of improvisational-based games with audience members shouting out suggestions as requested. 

The first game, the “Game of Change,” was a slightly confusing one to start with as it really throws audience members into improv without any real plot. Each time one of the performers says “change,” the situation must be changed entirely, with only a few common traits following throughout the game. It may not have been my favourite game of the night, but it was a great introduction to how well the group works together, a feat that would continue to impress me throughout the show. In the next game, Mayo and Jeremy went back and forth, each contributing one word at a time to a letter of complaint. It was a hilarious bit that ended with the haunting words, “I will have a revenge.” 

One of my favourite games was “Scene Flurry,” which was made up of short but absolutely ridiculous scenes. One involved “Mississippi Justice” and some over-exaggerated American accents and another focused on the Devil arguing with his daughter as she wants to go to Earth to go on a date with the angel Gabriel. Another highlight was the “Book Game” in which two of the comedians were only able to read out lines from books given by audience members and the other comedian had to go along with them, creating a fight scene. I made the mistake of suggesting a Denny’s parking lot for the location of the fight, which may have been a bit too niche of an American joke as they were a little confused but still went with it! It was great to see previous parts of the game referenced, as it was established that the Devil and his daughter made Denny’s as a place for the daughter to go on a date with the angel Gabriel. 

Another hilarious game was “Expert,” in which Jeremy played a Swedish expert in paleontology and Mayo played his translator, which led to a ridiculous Swedish imitation from Jeremy and some hilarious quips from Mayo. Somehow, it ended up with Manning playing a dinosaur brought to life with his own translator played by Russell. It is truly incredible to see how the four comedians work with one another, reacting to the actions of the others as if they are their own. 

After everyone is nice and warmed up (the performers had the audience make some silly squirrel monkey noises), the next game begins. But this time, it’s a bit more complicated than a five-minute game of reading from books. Now, the comedians will improvise a play with a beginning, middle and end based only on a title given by an audience member. Our title? “Wine Under the Bridge.” This led to the performers creating an insane plot in which “Son Troll” and “Father Troll” have an argument as “Son Troll” no longer wants to eat goats and instead wants to make wine, leading to his exile. One of the highlights is a scene in which Manning is mistaken for one of his other characters, leading to a scene completely failing and Manning flipping off his fellow performers from the side of the stage. But even with these moments, there is stil a coherent storyline with some truly terrible puns about wine and grapes (and a strange goat!).

Finally, the show ends with a game of “Late to Work,” in which Sam has to figure out why he’s late to work, how he got to work and what his job is. Of course, keeping with the theme of ridiculousness, we came up with the statements that Sam was late because he was delivering eight dragon babies, he had rollerskated on the smell of camembert and he works as a space prostitute. Unfortunately, the performance that I attended was interrupted by a fire alarm, so the entire room had to evacuate, meet at the fire point and then return to our seats. But, on the bright side, the group was able to come back and finish up their final game, ending the show on a delightful high note!

Ultimately, Shoot From the Hip is a fun show that is great for both new and seasons fans of improvisational comedy. Its longer runtime of ninety minutes gives the group more time to show off the skills and more time for the audience to warm up to the interaction and really enjoy themselves. After all of the chaos, one of the performers shouted at the audience, “Was it worth it?” Yes, definitely.

Shoot From the Hip ran on 27 January at Pleasance London. More information on the group can be found here.