Reviewer: Christine Stanton
“Slow & Stilted“
2.5 / 5
~This review was originally written for The Reviews Hub~
As with all improv shows, the comedians having great imagination is key, and with each show being unique every single time, there’s no telling what you’ll end up watching.
The format for The League of Improv utilises a guest comedian, who, on the night we review, is Sophie Duker, interacting with the audience using the classic ‘give me a…’ improv technique. This is then used as the basis for a short stand-up routine. Waiting in the wings are the improv group of eight, who then turn the stand-up into a variety of improvised sketches. It’s a great format (similar to ITV’s Stand Up Sketch Show) that has the potential to extract some very funny content from everyone involved.
Unfortunately, it takes a while for the show to find its footing, and there are quite a lot of slow, stilted pauses and long gaps where Duker visibly seems to struggle to come up with an anecdote based on audience suggestions. The opening conversations around one audience member living in Deptford, and another being afraid of spiders translates into a lengthy sketch from the improv team about being on the Committee of Deptford, which results in lots of repeated “but I love Deptford” exclamations, with the humour only properly kickstarting in a latter sketch by the very funny Zoe Dunn pretending to be a spider.
Running at two hours long, including a 15-minute interval, is slightly too long for the material, and a lot of time is spent ‘filling’ rather than short, quick-witted humour, which improv is normally known for. A lot of Duker’s stand-up stories don’t tend to go anywhere. One prompt is ‘what do you do for work’, which results in a meandering tale about going for a job as a bartender, but she didn’t know how to pull a pint and so didn’t get the job – riveting stuff.
While her stand-up stories are lacking, Duker’s audience interaction is very well done. Her personable approach manages to extract some very funny moments from the audience, including revealing a surprising number of family gun owners and an Anglian Water employee reunion, which, as one of the comedians humorously quips, is like LinkedIn Live. Duker is great at not alienating audience members and still making them feel involved and engaged, no matter what outlandish responses they give.
It’s a formula that, in the right setting, definitely has the opportunity to shine, and though some of the sketches, such as the haunted, haunted, haunted house, the complicated in-laws, or the ethical non-monogamy pop-up book, elicit a lot of laughs, the majority of the show needs to be snappier and better flowing to fully entertain.
Reviewed on 29 October 2025
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