christmas Archives - Honest Liars Improv

The Honest Liars do Christmas.

By hlimprovers | December 8, 2020

🎄♫ ♫ “Oh the weather outside is sunny

And the players are all so funny

And since we’ve got no place to go

Start the show, start the show, start the show.” ♫♫🎄

The players were busy when they arrived at the Jam Factory because they already knew it was a ‘Sold Out’ show. This meant all available chairs needed to be set up with a few extras for the usual walk-ins!

Wasn’t long before it was time to warm up with the quick-fire games to get the brain working.

The crew arrived to put out the banners and signs so the new punters could find their way. Reserve notices put on the chairs and the front desk organised. Steve, the elf, proved invaluable throughout the entire show and certainly played up to the ‘Christmas help’ elves are known for.

The audience started arriving in rather large numbers, and it was quite the memory game as they checked in, then buggered off to Mood for a drink. The elf was onto it though coming up with the ingenious idea of marking the back of their hands with an ‘HL’ done with a whiteboard marker. A trick that will be used again.

Soon the patrons settled in and Melissa welcomed everyone telling them that if they didn’t give good suggestions, it would be their fault if the show failed. The players, suitably attired in their festive cheer, arrived on stage to much cheering and whooping from the primed crowd.

The usual warmup games began the show with Kevin proving to be a very popular Santa during the ‘Scenes from a Hat’ game.

In the ‘Alphabet’ game, Wendy and Kathy were arguing over money for Christmas. As there was only $10.00 left in the bank, Kathy quickly told Wendy she’d have to go out to work. After all it was Wendy who depleted the account buying the kids gold-encrusted diamond earmuffs.

The word suggestions for the ‘Clap’ game proved exceptional. John and Kelly were given a body, Kim and Wendy’s was newspaper and Kathy and Melissa had scuba gear. It turned out the dead body was doing Pilates, and his head was at 180°, the newspaper was used to pick up the cats’ poop (yes, many cats) and the scuba gear was purchased with the kids’ stolen pocket money.

Kelly, once again, shone with her ‘Sign Language Expert’ antics. This time Jon was being interviewed as an expert in teaching dung beetles how to play underwater hockey. It soon became apparent that he didn’t have much success. As dung beetles float, he had tried putting teeny tiny concrete shoes on them, but most of them drowned. Then he had a problem trying to find dung for them. In the meantime, Kelly was doing a fantastic job ‘signing’, (well, miming) all these different things.

It was then time for the students to show off their skills. The cheering ramped up as they came on stage for their two games. ‘Space Jump’, (not an easy one) and the ‘Alphabet’ game. The suggestion for the alphabet was Christmas themed, and they were kids. It soon became apparent that they were from the same family hell-bent on changing Christmas to Halloween or even a birthday. Until it was let out of the bag that one of them was adopted! A twist no-one saw coming. These four are rising players who will get better as they hone their skills.

In the second half of the show, the games ramped up with the comedy.

‘Pocket Note’, a firm favourite with audiences, saw Doctors Kim, Mark and Jon assigned to doing house calls on Christmas Eve. As they were lamenting their fate, Mark reminded them that the Hippocratic Oath, clause 24 states “Get Covid again” an obvious thing for the financial wellbeing of the medical fraternity. And later on, when Mark looked into the drugs cabinet, there was a sign that said: “show me the money” proving his earlier point.

‘Themed Restaurant’ made its debut at the Jam Factory and was well received. The dining was set in a Funeral Home restaurant which made for some classic one-liners by the players as they waited on the table.

See for yourself:

‘Film Noir’ saw Jon, a somewhat lax pool lifeguard miserable with all the primary kids until he saw the smoking hot teacher, Melissa, approaching. The teacher was chain-smoking cigarettes, and her thoughts of the pool guard were that he had a face only a mother could love. It couldn’t be a ‘Film Noir’ without the romance, and it ended with the two of them heading off to the changing room for something the audience could easily guess.

The final game ‘Hollywood Director’ was set in the Pyramids with the waking up of a 3000 year old mummy. Not satisfied with the acting the director changed the genre to horror then to western. But it was what was written in hieroglyphics that stole the game as it changed with each take.