New blood

Illness meant that the 'Scenes' cast was in danger of being undermanned yesterday so I pressganged Albert Howell, an old Canadian mate and a seriously good improviser into the show.

It's a cliche known to every sports fan: the special player who makes it look easy, who seems to somehow have more time and space than everyone else on the field. The really special ones have enough time and space to make the people around them look good.

If improvisors aren't being surprised by what is being said to them on stage they go a little dead inside. They start anticipating, which means they stop living in the moment. An audience can somehow sense that they're now not watching wonderfully spontaneous creativity but rather a sort of badly underwritten sketch show. Even if the laughs keep coming they're nowhere near as heartfelt.

Obviously introducing new blood in the cast reintroduces the element of surprise. If the new performer is as good as Albert then wonderful things will happen.

Last show of the Edinburgh run is at 325pm this afternoon. We start back at Camden next week.