Review (Blue Curtains Brisbane): Sportsball
Review by Meredith Walker
Improv Queensland (formerly known as ImproMafia) loves a good rivalry; whether it be state vs state or suburb vs suburb, its Brisbane Comedy Festival outings have shown this as a theme. And it is one that continues (#kindasorta) into the Anywhere Festival Theatre debut of the company’s live comedy show Sportsball which promises to take sports rivalries both seriously and literally. The cleverly conceived and executed premise is, of course, very sports-themed, yet it caters easily to sports-snubbers too as under the guidance of hosts Liz Talbot and Glen Seaby, the approximately one hour long ‘full sports broadcast’ sees teams the Naked Mole Rats (Fiona Bergstrum, Tom Dunstan and Ben Spalding) and the New Farm Caboodles (a standout ‘whimsical’ Gabby Carbon, Scott Driscoll and Ciaran Kowald), performing entirely improvised skits in response to their interpretation of random assembled real sports headlines.
As is often the case with improvised sketch shows, themes are established early, on its opening night, by an initial Cowboy’s trial type of headline paving the way for a recurrent Country and Western narrative, including revisit to the apparent equine enjoyment of long weekends. Conversion trivia questions about all range of sports add an additional level of entertainment, especially with their multiple-choice nature allowing for audience engagement in determination of their own considerations of correctness.
The spirit of the game, giants, knights and kangaroo cliches and mentions allow for some easily-identifiable characters, that are still quite clever in their quick devising, while the short and sharp nature of skits ensures that momentum does not lag. And if the melodrama of a Medieval request for annual leave from a castle catapult job, for example, is not entertaining enough, there is also some highly subjective referee commentary from Liam Spargo (especially in red card for disgusting bird behaviour) or the insightful sideline commentary / cliched half time interviews of some players from sideline commentator Tim Chewter, familiar even to the most disinterested-in-sport spectators.
This is easy to watch and easily entertaining theatre that democratises its appeal through appearance ‘anywhere’ other than a traditional theatre (in keeping with Anywhere Festival’s core premise) and its popularly themed content, with which all audience members can, in some way, identify, whether they be from a Cowboy or Broncos fan base.
Sportsball has two performances remaining, on August 2 and 3.
