Guide

This year's Off-the-Cuff festival will feature some of the best improvised shows from around Australia and New Zealand. This is a unique opportunity for Brisbane audiences to sample Australia's finest unscripted theatre.

All shows start at 7:30pm

International Grudge Match

A show where football and improvised comedy meet head-on! Two teams of the giants of improvised theatre from around the world will go head to head in a battle of wits and comic timing.

There is never a boring moment as the competitors turn audience suggestions into impromptu songs, stories, sketch comedy - even Shakespeare! You never know where Grudge Match Comedy Football is going to end up - each show is completely spontaneous and original.

Brisbane Playback Theatre

Playback Theatre is a unique improvisional theatre with no script. The material for the performance comes from the audience. Assisted by the conductor, who holds a performance, people in the audience share moments and stories from their lives, which are then immediately re-enacted or "played back" spontaneously by a troupe of usually four actors and a muscian.

The actors and musician then take on roles in a dramatic form and, using dance, movement, mine, music, dialogue, sound and imagination, the story or moment is played back in a creative and magical re-enactment. No Playback performance is like any other and no-one quite knows what to expect when they walk through the doors.

Mr Fish and his Spooky Library of Impro Macabre

World Renowned improviser Derek Flores comes to Brisbane for the first time with his new show "Mr Fish".

Mr. Fish has spent his life traveling the world in search of the spookiest and most horrifying stories the human mind can muster, and tonight, deep with in his ancient library, moments from his mortal passing, he passes them along them to you. Be it a twisted urban myth, a tale of ghosts from the old country, or a truly macabre story of witches he has collected them all and with your help he, by dim candle light, shares them with only those brave enough to seek them out.

"Derek...is a virtuoso, riotously embodying some oddly afflicted and inventive characters." The Adelaide Advertiser

Gorilla Theatre - Edge Improv

Thank god you're hairy?

Gorilla Theatre is the improvised show where the audience gets their say... and the winner gets a monkey!

It's improvised mayhem as EDGE Improv, Brisbane's cutting edge improv troupe unleashes Gertie the Gorilla and a host of guest stars including Patti Stiles (Impro Melbourne), and Stephen Youngblood (Wellington Improvised Theatre).

This is the show where YOU the audience gets to decide who is rewarded... and who is punished!

You've got the part! - Impro Melbourne

Unscripted, unpredictable and unbelievably funny!

Built around a mock Australian Idol™ format, Improvisors create characters on the spot, and then put those characters through an audition round with the audience as the adjudicators. One lucky character will get the leading part in a theatre production the name and genre decided by the audience on the night. The audience is then treated to the opening night performance of the play.

"not a dull moment as the full house was taken on a rollercoaster ride of mirth + merriment. put this one in your diary" funnytoone

"The best impro I've ever seen - this is one not to be missed! E. Davidson

Tabloid Musical - Impro Australia

The world's first improvised tabloid musical created right before your eyes! Stories torn from the front page of the newspaper of life will be recreated and then set to music. Tales too twisted to be anything but true. Meet the characters whose fears, secrets and obsessions drove them to acts of desperation. Hear their songs of desire, revenge and love gone bad. You'll marvel, you'll weep, you'll pee your pants laughing.... you'll wish you'd never met these nice normal people.

"Bring a mop...you'll wet yourself" db Magazine

Best of the Fest

The best performers from across the festival are brought together for this hilarious and spectacular final night competition. The nation's funniest improvisers will create impromptu stories, songs and plays, based upon suggestions from the audience.

With no scripts, no plans, and no safety net, there is no telling where this show will end up. Plus, in this brutal elimination competition those who entertain the audience will be applauded while those who do not will be executed...