Daylight saving had arrived, the evenings were stretching out, and Honest Liars were ready to make the most of the extra hour of daylight—with plenty of laughs thrown in.

With the warmer weather, the players headed into the theatre. Perhaps there was something in the air because the laughter started during the warm-up—and didn’t seem to stop until the last audience member had left.

Once again, it was lovely to see plenty of familiar faces among the crowd. Returning audience members are becoming a regular feature at Honest Liars shows, along with first-timers coming to see what happens when you put a group of improvisers on stage, give them absolutely no script, and let the audience provide the inspiration.

The show opened with ‘I Can Do It Better’, where each player attempts to outdo the one before. The audience suggestion was selling a laminator, which might not immediately strike you as the stuff of comedy gold.

The Honest Liars thought otherwise.

The sales pitch began with a salesperson from a local company, then moved on to Temu and, eventually, Australia, where apparently the laminators come complete with spiders.

Well, if it comes from Australia. You probably should check the box before plugging it in.

Next came ‘Complaints Letter’, involving a disgruntled motorist writing to the traffic department about a traffic ticket. Rather than try to explain exactly where that correspondence went, we’ll let the players speak for themselves.

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Then it was time for ‘The Cube’, which produced four delightfully ridiculous stories.

The first featured Gala as Jon’s invisible friend. Unfortunately for Jon, she wasn’t exactly the sort of imaginary companion who encouraged good life choices. Her suggestions included putting sausages up car exhaust pipes, and from there things progressed—or perhaps regressed—into further criminal activity.

Clearly, not all invisible friends should be listened to.

The second story transported us to a goulash festival in Budapest, with Ian and Gala as the judges. It turned out the competition was quite literally between Buda and Pest, with both sides presenting their finest goulash.

Naturally, the judges were wearing bathing suits. Even more naturally, they threw goulash around. Some things in improv are probably best not examined too closely.

The third Cube story found Kelly asking her boss, Ian, for that most unreasonable of workplace benefits—a lunch break. She had been stacking mannequins continuously and was understandably concerned about the complete absence of food.

Her boss explained that there were no food breaks, although she was welcome to take any one of the four smoko breaks. Kelly pointed out that eating cigarettes only made her sick. Ian immediately identified the problem: she was eating the filtered ones. Workplace health and safety may wish to have a quiet word.

The final Cube story took place at a dog kennel, where Kelly arrived to leave her beloved dogs, Boris and Timothy, for a month. Kennel owner Jon couldn’t help noticing that Boris and Timothy looked remarkably like a pair of white African rhinos. Still, a customer is a customer, and Boris and Timothy were duly welcomed.

Unfortunately, when Kelly returned a month later, there had been a slight mix-up. Another client had apparently claimed Boris and Timothy and departed with them, leaving behind two miniature terriers. One can only imagine the conversation when that client arrived home.

The evening continued with more games, plenty of excellent audience suggestions and the wonderful unpredictability that makes live improv such fun. The audience plays an important part in every Honest Liars show. Their ideas provide the seeds from which the scenes grow—and occasionally send the performers down paths nobody could possibly have anticipated.

The final game of the night was ‘Twitch Interview’, and it certainly sent everyone home laughing.

Ryan faced a succession of interviewees hoping to secure the highly sought-after position of capybara trainer. There was just one small complication. Each interviewee arrived with a different mannerism or twitch, and Ryan had to gradually take on each new behaviour himself.

As the interview continued and the mannerisms piled up, things got increasingly ridiculous. By then, the audience was in stitches watching Ryan attempt to cope with everything being thrown at him while somehow continuing the interview.

And that brought another Honest Liars evening to a close.

From Australian spiders hiding in laminators and sausages stuffed up exhaust pipes to bathing-suit-clad goulash judges, cigarette-eating employees, misplaced rhinoceroses and prospective capybara trainers, it had been another night where absolutely anything could—and did—happen.

The audience laughed, the players had a ball, and the comments afterwards made it clear that everyone had thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

That’s the joy of Honest Liars improv. Nobody knows what will happen next.

And, judging by this show, that’s probably just as well.

Thanks to:

Book your tickets for the next show and join the players for loads of laughs.

1^st Saturday of every month.
16th Ave Theatre.
16th Avenue, Tauranga.
Show Starts: 7.30 p.m.
Licenced bar available.