Emmet Nichols

Australia's top improv musical is headed to Edinburgh Fringe and needs your help!

For some people, getting up in front of an audience and not knowing what to say is a nightmare - let alone having to sing! This is what we do, and what we love. We find nothing more satisfying than the joy of making an entire musical out of nothing - one that the has the audience invest, laugh, and come away singing.

Impromptunes started as a Melbourne Fringe Festival show in September 2013,  a season of nine shows before our first ever audience of 25 people in what can politely be described as a 'less than ideal' venue for theatre - a strip club-turned pub! The title we were given - 'The Beer Drinkers' - just about sums it up... We've since performed over 100 shows in nine festivals, regularly performing to full audiences, getting great reviews from media and even receiving an award nomination or two.

We're very proud of our group. And it turns out we should be - we've recognised by one of the major venues in the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe - Underbelly, who have invited us to perform with them for the entire festival. It's been a long running goal of Impromptunes to perform our improvised musical in front of an international audience, amongst the world's finest comedians, in the biggest arts festival in the world. Underbelly will be hosting us for the entire month of August, in what will be our biggest and best venue yet. Exciting!

Something that sets Impromptunes apart from many theatre groups is another of its missions: to pay its actors. Rather than retaining all show profits as a company, we feel that it's only right to recognise the skill, training and commitment that our performers bring by paying them what we can in a profit-share model. For this reason, Impromptunes doesn't have the budget that other theatre groups might, and fundraising becomes a need for us.

So we're asking for your help to kick start our season. Getting to Edinburgh alone costs about $25,000 in personal costs of flights and accommodation, as well as registration and venue costs for the company - and all that does is get us there and in a room! We're seeking some extra support from you to make the show the best it can be - to hire tech equipment, source a piano and microphones, print flyers and promote our show so that people can see the Impromptunes we all know and love. 

Hence we appeal to you (at least we hope we appeal to you!), our supporters, fans and audience, or even strangers who believe in the arts and what we do - to help our Edinburgh season make an international splash! For many of us, this is the experience of a lifetime. Thanks for your support - and for reading this far!

Some of Our Previous Work

You can check out some of our show footage (and that infamous 'What is Impromptunes?' video) on our YouTube channel.

Impromptunes received nominations for Best Comedy in Fringe World 2014 and Fringe World 2015.

Here are a few recent reviews of our work.
West Australian 
Herald Sun 
Beat Magazine 

And to join the fun, check out our:
Facebook page 
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Instagram handle 
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And introducing... The Edinburgh Cast!


Company Director Emmet Nichols

Musical Director Isaac Hayward


Deputy Musician/Cast Member Greg Lavell


Cast Member Louisa Fitzhardinge


Cast Member Morgan Phillips


Cast Member Isabella Valette

Cast Member Natasha York

Cast Member Grant Buse

Putting on a season in Edinburgh Festival Fringe is expensive, and many acts do not break even. That's for UK locals, let alone bringing a seven-strong troupe from the other side of the world. The 'boring stuff', such as flights, accommodation, festival registration and venue guarantees total over $25,000 without even blinking an eye - and that just gets us there and registered in a space. Any funds raised over our target amount will help with these costs.

Your contributions will go towards the fun stuff - helping make our season the best it can possibly be. We're in a huge venue (200 seats) that we would love to see filled, and we want the audience to get the full enjoyment of our show. Therefore most of the funds will go towards our tech requirements - those people will need to be able to hear us! - and a sizeable portion will go towards promoting our show. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is ENORMOUS (over 3000 shows). We have faith in our product, but we need people to be able to see it to judge for themselves!

We've outlined below a rough guide of what we can buy at each level of fundraising reached. Since most of the charges are in pounds, the exchange rate makes things harder. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie? Ow, ow, ow!

1% of goal reached...  A piano stand. (ooh la laa!)

10% of goal reached... now we can put a piano on the stand!

25% of goal reached... here we can afford to have appropriate sound and lighting operated by a venue tech. That will be nice.

50% of goal reached... goes towards microphones and speakers, so that our singing can be heard. What a treat!

75% of goal reached... this helps us with graphic design for all our images, and printing of flyers and posters

100% of goal reached... our advertising costs for brochures, promotion and social media.

Anything over our target will go towards paying the actors back for their flights and accommodation, and if possible, investigating a long term amplification solution for our performances (AKA buying, rather than hiring microphones).

We don't expect to make money from the season - as a company or as individuals - this trip is about the exposure and the experience. So rest assured that we're not 'getting rich'! Your contributions will make a valuable difference to our season.