IMPROVISING is child’s play for off-the-cuff master Paul Merton.

And on the plus side you can’t muddle your lines when you don’t have any.

“It’s just doing what we all do as kids – playing endless, imaginative games,” says the comedian.

“As a child, you don’t need much. I remember as a young boy pushing a toy car up an armchair and suddenly it became a mountain. Kids often unpack a Christmas present and end up playing with the box. Impro is like playtime – the bit of school you liked! If you spark each other off in improvisation, it creates a really good spirit. It’s the spirit of the playground.”

You will be able to enjoy that spirit when his acclaimed improvisational show, Paul Merton’s Impro Chums, comes to the Wyvern Theatre on Sunday, May 31.

Paul and his chums - Mike McShane (who has just finished starring in a production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Assassins), Lee Simpson, Richard Vranch and Suki Webster – are at the very top of their game. The troupe has been performing to sell-out crowds across the country for more than a decade.

For the past thirty years, Paul has also appeared every Sunday in London with the Comedy Store Players and in so doing has entered the Guinness Book of World Records for being part of the world’s longest-running comedy show with the same cast.

The 57-year-old comedian, who has gained an immense following over 25 years as a team captain on BBC1’s quiz, Have I Got News For You, simple adores live performing.

“There is no hiding place, no laughter track and no cutaways.

“People ask me why I do the Comedy Store Players and the Impro Chums, and the answer is that it keeps me match-fit. If I go away on holiday for two weeks, when I come back I find that everyone else has sped up ten per cent. It takes me until the interval to catch up and jump on the bus. There is such a thrill in the notion of playing, say, a Bulgarian lion-tamer trying to explain in fractured Spanish that the yoghurt in the fridge has gone off. It’s a complete delight!”

Impro also keeps you honest, reckons Paul, who made his debut on C4’s Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 1988. “If nobody’s laughing, you’re doing something wrong. You have to guard against complacency when you’re doing impro. In a learnt piece, you could fall into the trap of reciting your lines as you said them last night, but you can’t do that in impro. Every night is different, and that’s what keeps it so fresh.”

The secret to Paul Merton’s Impro Chums’ success is the effortless chemistry that exists between the five performers.

“There is a shorthand between us. The key is that we all get on really well. If you have a situation where two members of an impro group aren’t getting on, it spills over into the work and every scene they do together quickly becomes an argument. So the familiarity of the Chums really helps the show.”

But perhaps the best thing of all about impro for Paul is that the performers don’t have to memorise a script. “We don’t have to learn any lines. We can do it all off the top of our heads, and that’s an absolute joy. I’m sorry, Mr Sondheim!”

The show will start at 8pm. Tickets are £22 and available on 01793 524481 or at swindontheatres.co.uk.

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