What Does The Title Matter Anyway? Udderbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh, 2014
Arnold Brown’s 80th Birthday Bash: The Comedy Store, London, 2016
Whose Line Is It Anyway? Live At The Fringe: Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, 2017
Whose Line Is It Anyway? Live at The Fringe: Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh, 2019
Apart from a title change for legal reasons, as I sat in the audience with much anticipation waiting for What Does The Title Matter Anyway at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe, the show was a real blast from the past. The show had Clive Anderson at the helm and the cast rotated each evening. At my performance, the improvisers were Greg Proops, Colin Mochrie, Josie Lawrence and Stephen Frost who all played classic improv games to the delight of the audience with fresh, new and funny formats. Anderson’s gang of fools are still effortlessly talented players, even if the host sometimes needs reminding how to play.
Anderson was a jovial guest at Arnold Brown’s 80th Birthday Bash which was held at the Comedy Store in 2016 featuring a wealth of comedy talent paying glowing tributes to the legendary Scottish comedian. It was a wonderful evening.
The success of the improvisational format was repeated in 2017 at the Edinburgh Festival this time with the title Whose Line Is It Anyway? Live at The Fringe. Extremely popular with Fringe goers, I once again took my seat at the Assembly Rooms where Anderson as ever tried to take control of the proceedings. The live show with its original TV title restored was joyous to behold that night with effortlessly talented players almost the same as the first time I saw them, even if the host sometimes needed reminding how to play whilst trying to keep the house in order.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? returned again live from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that I saw in August 2019. With Anderson at the helm, many of the original cast members from the TV series returned as well as new performers and the guests that I saw were Stephen Frost, Phill Jupitus, Suki Webster, Greg Proops and providing musical accompaniment on the piano, Kirsty Newton. The improvisers were immaculately accurate with the bizarre ideas and suggestions provided by the packed studio audience and for the second year running, the show proved to be a massive comedy hit at the festival.