Baby Wants Candy @ Assembly George Square

 If you enjoyed Baby Wants Candy – come back it’s different every time! If you didn’t enjoy Baby Wants Candy – come back it’s different every time! Improv shows are numerous throughout the Fringe but year after year, Baby Wants Candy returns and sells out. It’s not just the novelty. They fabricate far-fetched and ridiculous material on the spot, with precise skills.

The ensemble are just the right mixture of being completely in tune with each other’s ideas, particularly during the musical numbers, and throwing in simple lines to off-balance each other and change direction. Even in the face of this, they hardly falter. At least not in any way that can push the improvisation of course. Instead they utilise a heavy amount of well-placed comedic timing, ridiculousness and skilled rhyming to turn any suggested title into an – if not entirely sensical – amusing and complete story.Even more impressive than the actors however is the live band. Lead by the incredibly talented pianist, their ability to pre-empt songs, react to each other instantly and remain completely in synch is fascinating to watch. It even distracts from the action sometimes. On top of that, they look incredibly cool doing it, which can’t always be said for the actors who will go wherever the show takes them. One thing I will say, they’re better at doing Texan accents than Australian; think over your title suggestions, see if you can add to this list.