Manchester Comedy Festival: Boddingtons Dream Tent, Manchester, 1996
Paul Merton’s Impro Chums: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2005
Paul Merton’s Impro Chums: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2005
Paul Merton’s Impro Chums: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2005
The Sweeney: The Life and Work of Jim Sweeney: Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh, 2010
Jim Sweeney was a regular and brilliant comedy improvisor working a lot with the Comedy Store Players and Paul Merton’s Impro Chums. He started out as part of The Rupert Pupkin Collective – an improvisation group consisting of his short-lived children’s TV career (remember CBTV?) co-star Steve Steen, Peter Wear and Justin Case). The Collective performed at the Donmar Warehouse in London in the 1980s before The Comedy Store Players came knocking. Playing many Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s including ones I saw in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010, Sweeney regularly performed comic improv taking audience suggestions and acting them out for the sake of comedy. This was until Sweeney was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and was forced to appear less and less. Nevertheless, Sweeney’s legacy lives on in The Comedy Store Players.