Event type: Comedy

12.30pm
 

In Jungle of Emotions, young audiences will explore a world where animals get a voice, each with their own unique feelings and personalities. Through playful, on-the-spot storytelling, children will discover how we handle emotions like excitement, nervousness, and happiness. With laughter and surprise around every corner, this heartwarming show helps children understand and express their own emotions in a light and joyful way.

Full of imagination and creativity, Jungle of Emotion is perfect for young minds eager to learn and have fun. Kids will get to participate, shout out ideas, and even help shape the story as it unfolds! Bring your little ones for an uplifting, educational experience they won’t forget.

8.30pm
 

Taxi tales … a night on the town
Taxi tales is inspired by Raymond Carvers short stories which subsequently became the award-winning film ‘Short Cuts’ directed by Robert Altman. Carver was a master storyteller in expressing a lot with a little, Carver’s signature style: understated yet impactful portrayals of the struggles and frustrations of everyday life.
The taxi driver, a witness to countless dramas, has seen it all unfold either in the backseat of their cab. Therapist, confidant – passengers bare their souls under the flickering city lights. The subsequent journey throws up recurring themes resulting in a rich human comedy – a mosaic of life’s absurdities, built piece by piece across one night.

5.40pm
 

A DOUBLE BILL

 

STUPID.

Stupid are an improvised comedy duo staring Al Donohoe and Mike Burton.

Inspired by audience suggestions, the pair of fast-thinking fools create comedic scenes
that thematically link while bouncing off one another. And, as the name suggests, things
soon get silly…

Not only does the duo make it up as they go along, they also play multiple characters
within scenes, and, at times, swap and play each other’s characters. Watching them
skilfully keep pace with their own spontaneous creation only adds to the fun.

Stupid stars Mike Burton and Al Donohoe, two seasoned performers with decades of stage
experience under their belts. They’ve been performing together regularly since 2021. They
combine a mix natural observational wit and UCB style game in to make a joyful, daring
and very, very stupid show.

 
Far and the rest of the Family

If your family is weird, you will soon find out that this family is even weirder. All the way from Norway, this gang will enter the stage with a boom, and show you their funniest games. It might get funny, it might get emotional, it most certainly will be unforgettable (hopefully in a good way). Far and the rest of the family is a group of experienced improvisers doing short-form improv. We do it just the way you like your family get-togethers: maybe a movie your cousin forced you to see, popcorn from the microwave and wine from aunt Margaret’s closet. Spend a night with people you have to like since you are family, but realize at the end of the day that they are actually quite nice.

“Oslos best short form group” – Aree Withoelar, after Oslo Impro Festival 2023.

“..the Norwegian group “Far and the rest of the family”, is a fast cavalcade of short-form improv, with a group that appears to be really well-knit and coordinated.” – Cathrin Monell, Scenkonstguiden/The Performing Arts Guide, after our show in Improfest, Gothenburg, Sweden.

4.30pm
 

Loo-Prov! 
Ever wondered what happens on the other side of the doors to the ladies toilets? The women from Loo-Prov! bring the tears, pep talks and confessions of the bathrooms to the stage with their completely improvised show.
This all female, London based team is a favourite with local audiences! Finalists in the Free Association’s 2024 Cage Match and performers at the 2024 Das Improv festival in Berlin, their show is a touching, funny and sometimes illuminating experience!

 

RAWD

Get Ready for a show filled with joy, chaos, and unscripted brilliance!

RAWD have worked with festival co-director Jen putting together a show that promises big laughs, bold creativity and a whole lot of heart.

Expect the unexpected as our talented performers take the stage, creating totally unpredictable scenes— all inspired by your suggestions! From off-the-cuff comedy to side-splitting storytelling, this is making stuff up like you’ve never seen it before.

7pm
 

Mirth meets murder in the world’s daftest whodunnit. Following more than a decade of five-star, sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, Brighton Fringe, Leicester Square Theatre and more, the award-winning festival favourite ‘CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation’ comes to Liverpool with the rip-roaring crime comedy made up entirely on the spot. Grab your detective hats and prepare to laugh as you create your very own crime, grill suspects in a line up and, ultimately, decide who’s off to the clanger.

A fully improvised, witty and absurd murder mystery. No one knows who the killer is, not even the cast!

 
WINNER ‘Best Musical/Improv Show’ Leicester Comedy Festival 2023
WINNER ‘The Comedy Award’ Colchester Fringe 2024
“Quick thinking & fast paced. A spectacular must see.” ★★★★★ – Bunbury Magazine
“They have improvisation down to a fine art” ★★★★★ – Wee Review
“Unique and riveting… downright hilarious.” ★★★★1/2 – Luxembourg Chronicle

8.45 – 9.25pm
 

What happens when you take Norway’s tallest improviser and England’s shortest improviser* and give them a stage to play with? The answer is “The Orange of Truth”, a live comedy show like no other.

 

This unique performance invites audiences to experience the only comedy show in the universe that comes with its own orange!* “The Orange of Truth” promises a one-of-a-kind journey through the quirky, unpredictable world of human interaction, where the truth is sometimes stretched, bent, or entirely reimagined.

Using every inch of the performance space (and sometimes even stepping beyond the stage), this immersive experience explores the intricacies of how we all bend the truth in everyday life. From the most mundane to the most absurd situations, the show offers a fresh perspective on the stories we tell ourselves and others, all through the lens of improvisational comedy.

Disclaimer: While we cannot legally confirm we’ve measured every improviser or that this is the only live comedy show with an orange, but we think it sounds pretty good, don’t you?

Join us for “The Orange of Truth”—an evening of unexpected laughter, creative exploration, and audience interaction that blurs the lines between performance and reality.

7.00 – 8.15pm
 

Kicking off this year’s Liverpool Improvisation Festival 2025 is special triple bill featuring Iain Luke Jones, Stuart Moses and Trev Fleming.

 

The You & Me Show by Iain Luke Jones

An Improvised Light Entertainment Show Starring Iain Luke Jones (and possibly you!)
Get ready for a whirlwind of spontaneous fun with Iain Luke Jones in this one-of-a-kind improv experience! Iain takes you on a hilarious journey through scenes, games, and unpredictable moments where the spotlight could fall on anyone in the audience. Each show features a series of unpredictable improv games, where Iain takes the lead, and audience participants play along with surprising twists. No two shows are ever the same!
Each game features a different guest from the audience, and the show culminates in a spontaneous musical moment that’s sure to surprise and delight.

Moses and Bad by Stuart Moses

Stuart Moses, host of the Improv London podcast, and Emma Bird, founder of Liverpool Comedy Improv, have a combined 30 years experience of performing improv on stage. In this show, they take written inspiration from the audience about the things they love about their loved ones.
Moses & Bird create grounded, emotion-filled stories of a relationship, inspired by the stories that have been shared. Their audiences laugh, especially in recognition, feel moved, lean in, and ‘ooh’ in surprise.
Drawing on Emma’s extensive acting and directing experience, most recently at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre, and Stuart’s acting classes at Reading Rep, they use improv to create theatrical experiences, so the characters live on in the minds of the performers and the audience even after the show has ended.
This is a show inspired by the richness of theatre, combined with the immediacy of improvisation.

Behold: The Improvatron by Trev Fleming

‘Behold:The Improvatron’ is a new improvised play that creates a never before seen Science Fiction literary classic using audience suggestions and the nerdy mind of Trev Fleming, Professional Geek. In the spirit of Austentatious, each night a new work of Sci-fi literary fiction will be created. Will it be Space Opera or Dystopian Nightmare, Speculative Cyberpunk or Eco-Disaster, witness a new work being written before your very eyes.

7:30pm

See new work created by Liverpool-based artists from the African Diaspora:
Ithalia Johnson
Ithalia Johnson presents The Untold Stories of a Carnival Queen, A Celebration of Female Identity, Community & Empowerment.
Premiering at Leap Dance Festival, The Untold Stories of a Carnival Queen is a semi-biographical multidisciplinary performance by Ithalia Johnson and the Dancing Queens. Rooted in community engagement, the show explores female empowerment, resilience, and self-discovery through African dance, music, and storytelling.

Drawing from historical narratives and lived experiences of diverse Black women, the performance highlights themes of discrimination, sexual exploitation, neurodiversity, and reclaiming space. It celebrates Yoruba deities and the rich traditions of carnival as an act of resistance and joy. Supported by Arts Council England, rehearsals take place at Toxteth TV Studios.

Ithalia has collaborated with a distinguished team of artists, including movement directors, choreographers, researchers, and vocal coaches, to bring these powerful stories to life: Tamara Josephine, Professor Emily Zobel Marshall, Ophelia Omoyele Balogun, Shea Best, Whispered Tales (Esther Simpson & Steve Gibbs), Jennifer John and Rhian Kempadoo Millar.
Afro Dance Academy
A performance sharing African culture through movement, showcasing the richness and diversity of Afro dance styles, including Afro House, Afrodance, and Amapiano.
Ruvimbo Bliss Munodawafa
Musikana Webasa (House Girl) is a performance examining the role and treatment of young female domestic workers in Zimbabwe, using contemporary dance theatre to highlight issues of disparity, depression, loneliness, abuse, the traditional gaze, aims, hope, ambitions and dreams.

New works by Afrodance and Ruvimbo Bliss Munodawafa have been commissioned by Culture Liverpool, funded by UKSPF, for Leap Dance Festival.

Part of Leap Dance Festival 2025; Liverpool City Region’s leading dance event, showcasing the work of local artists, community groups and young people.

7.30pm
 

All Things Considered Theatre’s Be.Spoke programme offers women a creative space to play, bounce and explore their creative performances. All of the work is original material and based on lived experience. This work is funded by The Arts Council England.

 

Performers:

Winnie Southgate

Alison Downs

Mollie MacPherson

Maddie Butera

Lucy Fiori and Eliane Collins

Julie McKiernan

7.30pm
 

For eight years ‘The LoD’ ran the best (and only) alternative comedy night in Liverpool; an underground fight club of a sketch show full of deadpan darkness, inappropriate twists and unlikely punchlines… They were even finalists of Sketch Comedian of the year… but they didn’t win.

 

Driven mad by the shame of being beaten by comedians from London… they left our

Planet… now they return – for revenge!

 

And for an imaginatively unhinged theatrical sketch show…but mostly for revenge!

 

With new members, The LoD are honoured to perform their ‘Best of’… at the iconic institution, The Blob Shop… Unity Theatre.

 

Featuring the Combined BMI of…

Disgraced netball coach: Rob Rhys Bond

Original series Klingon: Oli Bond

Alien fingered Bard: Danny Bradley

Affordable Mr Bean and educator: Liam Hale

Texting on the toilet’s: Lee Hithersay

Muppet felt Frankenstein: Alice Rowbottom

 

It’ll surprise you… it’ll confuse you… it’ll be… very very funny. So just come.