Guest Who?

Guest Who? is premised on having a special guest every night, who relates an anecdote based on a word the audience shouts out to them. This then serves as inspiration for the Maydays, the four women and one man who form improvised comedy troupe The Maydays.

The set-up ends up seeming a bit forced – after two or three sketches based on a highly specific story (read, spilling haggis in bed), the company visibly struggles for inspiration, and occasionally sketches went by without a laugh.

Their single technical crew member was on stage with them, accompanying them with a keyboard. In that capacity, he was often their greatest asset – a dramatic duet on the subject of clitoral hood piercing generates titters nearly automatically. Even when not particularly funny, an enthusiastically performed song leaves you with a pleasant feeling at the end of the sketch. But this also meant the grand total of sound/lighting effects employed during the show came to two, passing up a major source of instant gags used by other improv troupes.

That said, the Maydays pulled off some genuinely funny material, and one gets the sense that each, on a good night, could pull off herculean feats of improv. As always with improvised comedy, Guest Who? will probably involve an element of chance on how good a show you’re going to get. So if you’re feeling lucky, do feel free to give the Maydays a shot. There are definitely worse ways to spend your time.