With Christmas just around the corner many improv groups are celebrating the festive season by performing special themed shows! This month we are talking to acts who are celebrating the season in style! Today we speak to Casino Improv about their Christmas show.

Hello guys tell us all about your troupe?

Hey there, we’re Casino Improv from Wigan. We 2 monthly performances at our home base and have created a Long form Comedy Horror show called The Invocation. We also have a combined height of 1018 cm.

What is the show that you are bringing to the stage in this Festive season?

Our monthly night Bailaugh in the Bailiff Bar is taking a seasonal turn. We are improvising a pantomime with some of our buddies from around the northwest.

Will there be a bit of festivity in your show?

We certainly hope so. Perhaps with all the cancelled trains, awkward family dinners and dreary retail shifts that come with that time of year.

What are your favourite things about the festive season and why?

Winter time. Shit get cozy.

This time of year the venues tend to be a bit busier as well – do you find that the audience changes at all?

Sure. Everyone is starting to get a little giddy and rowdy. If it is the good kind of giddy and rowdy, that’s always welcome. Otherwise we have to work a little harder than usual.

What advice would you give for people performing around the festive season – is it important to drop a christmas related theme into it?

Enjoy it, because it is a really stressful time for a lot of people. It feels expected to do something overtly christmassy, but there are plenty of characters and stories to explore on behalf of those who don’t enjoy or celebrate Christmas.

What is the best thing about a night at your show for the audience?

Our venue is a small and really lovely room, we’ve been lucky to have really responsive and kind audiences. As such, we really like to play beyond the stage and engage our audience so that we maintain the relationship beyond getting initial suggestions.

If people want to find out more about you where can they follow you on social media?

@Casinoimprov on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram .

What is YOUR favourite show you have done this year and why?

Has to be BaiLaugh with Casino Improv and The Gestures.

The Gestures (@GesturesSkiffle) are an incredible skiffle band who made our monthly show in June so fun. It was our first indulge as a company into musical improv in a dedicated show.

And Finally in three words – Why should people come and see the show?

Early Christmas Jaunt

CHRISTMAS QUICK FIRE ROUND

For this years Christmas Quick fire I am going to give you a handful of song titles and film titles related to the season and I want you to tell me the first improv scenario that comes to your brain and what you would do with this suggestion?

Last Christmas

(Suggestion inspired by this 2019 film)

Post-Apocalypse Christmas wasteland. You never which candy cane will be your last.

A Christmas Story

(Suggestion inspired by this 1983 film)

The day after Christmas, a crime has been committed. Who is telling pork pies?

Christmas Time, Don’t Let The Bells End

(Suggestion inspired by this 2003 song)

The local parish church bells have been rigged with explosives that will only activate when the bells stop ringing.

Jingle All The Way

(Suggestion inspired by this 1996 film)

James Jingle is running for office. Tales of trials and tribulations from the campaign trail.

Little Donkey

(Suggestion inspired by this 1899 song)

A donkey manages to bluff their was into the grand national. A millennial tale of lying through job interviews.

Bad Santa

(Suggestion inspired by this 2003 film)

Santa goes on a gap year and is just kind of an arsehole.

What’s This?

(Suggestion inspired by this 1993 song)

Looking in a stocking, Christmas morning and getting sucked into an alternate universe

 The Season Is Upon Us

(Suggestion inspired by this 2012 song)

Vegetables in a pan looking skywards to a curious, tasty rain.

Love Actually

(Suggestion inspired by this 2003 film)

Half of the characters in love actually were dead the entire time.