by Ed Fortune

Comedians And… is a life improv show that uses a world-famous TTRPG as its engine to generate prompts and a general audience familiarity with fantasy tropes and cliches to fill in the gaps. Stuart Kennedy is the show’s host and Dungeon Master, responsible for setting up all the gags and encouraging the guest comedians to explore the world of fantasy roleplaying. 

Unlike Tartan Tabletop, this show doesn’t have a regular cast of players; it’s different every show though they are some regulars. This means it’s a good way to see other performers from other shows in one place, but it’s a roll of the dice as to who’s on stage any given day. It also means that how familiar each performer is with the format can vary wildly.

Improvised comedy can be very hard to pull off because so much is dependent on the audience and the prompts generated. The more underlying structure is available for a performer to fall back on, the better. This makes fantasy games like Dungeons & Dragons perfect for a spot of improv. Kennedy keeps the flow going by not only constantly building a world for the players but by using the rules sparingly to add to the fun, rather than trying actually to run a normal, at-home-style fantasy RPG.

Kennedy does an incredible job at juggling all of these factors, though it does mean that he’s also the target of much of the humour; Comedians And… is the sort of show where the host gets roasted by the rest of the cast, which leads to a spiral of silliness. Kennedy’s game looks fun to play, which makes it fun to watch.

Comedians And… lacks the youthful energy of Mistakes Were Made, nor does it have the polish of the likes of Oxventure or Questing Time. But it makes up for this through sheer anarchy and total willingness to go with the flow, no matter how ridiculous that may be. Kennedy goes for the funniest thing every time, rather than trying to slow his players down with too many rules, and he gets the balance between free-form comedy and a fantasy game with rules exactly right. 

Silly fantasy fun.

 Tickets for the show can be found here.