Paul Merton’s Impro Chums: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2005
Phill Jupitus Quartet: Made Up: Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh, 2011
The Comedy Store Players 30th Birthday Shows: The Comedy Store, London, 2015
Andy Smart began his career as a street entertainer before become one half of the sketch group The Vicious Boys (with Angelo Abella), who in the mid-Eighties appeared on various TV shows including Channel 4’s iconic music show, The Tube. The duo split up in 1990 when Smart then began a new career as a stand-up.
He has performed at twenty consecutive Edinburgh festivals and he has been a permanent member of the Comedy Store Players improv team since 1995.
I first watched Smart as part of Paul Merton’s Impo Chums with Merton, Mike McShane, Richard Vranch, Lee Simpson and Smart at my first Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2005. Then in 2011, comedian Phill Jupitus experimented with the impro formula with the show Quartet: Made Up at the Fringe featuring Jupitus, Ian Coppinger, Steve Steen and Smart and lastly for a joyous celebration of the Comedy Store Players 30th Birthday Shows in 2015 with regulars Paul Merton, Suki Webster, Neil Mullarkey, Josie Lawrence, Richard Vranch, Lee Simpson, Mike McShane, Steve Steen, Jim Sweeney and Smart.
The thing I always notice about Smart on stage is how much he is up for a laugh, and what an infectious laugh he has. Always intensely watching other improv on stage, chuckling to himself at funny scenes and then jumping in to take over. He has an extremely likeable stage presence and always appears to be enjoying himself.
