Erin Harrington reviews Kid Jesties, at Little Andromeda, Saturday 7 November 2026.
One of the weird things about improvised work is the better it is, the more likely you might be inclined to think that it’s just a bunch of charismatic, funny people being naturally quick and clever rather than professionals building on years’ worth of practice, openness, active listening and craft. The same is true of excellent comedy. You get good enough at the trick and the mechanism of the trick mostly disappears. You see this a lot in reviews of improv, too, where someone might crack out the old cliché about the buzz in the foyer, or say you just needed to be there to understand the hilarity of geese acting as Irish fighter pilots, instead of thinking about how performers have used audience suggestions, or genre constraints, or different types of game structures to combine expectation with surprise.
But improvisation has form and craft, underlying guidelines and agreements between performers well beyond ‘yes, and’ and the cardinal rule to make your scene partner look good. This is where Kid Jesties really shines. The show brings together an improv trio – Criss Grueber, Tara McEntee and Vincent Andrew-Scammell – who met as apprentice Court Jesters ten-plus ago, and were at the time the babies of the group. There are pics on their insta – what a pack of cuties! The three are each independently highly skilled and successful performers, and together they are dynamite. This show is a fundraiser to support the group’s upcoming trip to The Heat: International Improv Comedy Festival in Vancouver in January, where they will be performing and teaching; lucky Canadians. In a inspired turn, they’ve invited some of their improv mentors to join them: Brendon Bennetts, Trubie-Dylan Smith, and muso Gabriel Baird on keys.
The show is structured by things each player has learned from each other, and that they admire about each other’s practice. What a joy to see people gassing each other up for an hour! This includes ways of telling stories at scale, using narration, committing to character, dropping bombshells within scenes, playing with mime, expanding the playing space (the Bennetts School of Imaginary Windows), finding joy in character moments (and failure), a bit of meta-gaming, and refining audience suggestions – or stacking them up to the point of catastrophe.
So yes, there’s a buzz in the foyer, although it’s also election night and everyone is very wound up; Tara notes that for the next hour we’re in Schrodinger’s Theatre, so here’s some story and the rest will resolve itself. But at the level of form, the show is a joyful showcase of friends having ridiculous fun with one another through open games shaped by brief ask-fors and specific conceits of craft, but that also enhance or challenge each person’s way of doing things.
The players bring big clown energy to scenes ranging from shocking disclosures at a cricket match and a family experiencing the end of the world (but with mermaids), to a potato patch that poisons people’s relationships, and a Mad Max-style race across the desert that might also be a race through a shady monarch’s mind. Each marries clear settings with sharp storytelling and strong relationships, often rooted in family dynamics, but the worlds expand in unexpected and absurd ways to mirror the escalating drama.
It’s heartfelt and funny, surprising and playful, in part because of the stories that develop, but also because of the sheer pleasure in watching people who love each other challenge, support, and elevate one another. The audience is bouncing off the walls, and the person next to me is so excited by it all she’s bouncing up and down in her seat clapping every time a scene ends. The whole show has the hyped up feeling of a house party. Big, silly, whilesome, delightful.
Kid Jesties are appearing at an improv festival near you, if you happen to be in Vancouver in January.
