The Suggestibles have been going for eight years ...

Ian pitched the idea of a Sunday night show, and Max said yay, so the pair gathered a casual group of likely players and over six months put on a series of shows simply known as 'Improv Night'. But the shows were irregular, lacked a true chemistry between the cast, and audiences weren't as tempted to come to a group of people they'd never heard of.

Thinking that was probably it, Ian and Bev met Carl Kennedy at a party and really clicked. When they asked if he fancied giving improv a go he was wholey enthusiastic, and with renewed vigour they moved the show to smaller venue, The Bridge. That Autumn, with Carl, Mark Labrow (of the original cast), his good friend Pady O'Connor, and Richard Chance (Bev's brother and improvising pianist) in tow, the shows started to come together, and Ian suddenly came up with the name that had eluded them for so long - The Suggestibles.

In the summer, Pady moved on to pastures new, and Bev and Ian went to Canada to train with impro guru Keith Johnstone. They came back full of ideas for the group (the following year bringing Keith over to the UK so everyone could work with him), and their improv became a lot freer and riskier.

The Suggestibles went along to a workshop led by Kevin Tomlinson (touring his solo improv Mask show at the time) and he hooked them up with renowned theatrical anarchist Ken Campbell, who was looking for a group to play in one of his experimental improv shows at the Everyman in Liverpool. They had a great gig, and post-show Ken muttered an idea he had for a Shakespearean improv show at the Globe, that they'd be great in. They thought yeah, that's the wine talking.

At Xmas they returned to Live Theatre to put on their first Improvised Pantomime, complete with crap costumes, extraordinarily messy custard pies and a sold out house.

Out of the blue, at about 6am one Sunday morning in February 2005, Ian and Bev got a phone-call -expecting bad news at such an hour. It was Ken Campbell, inviting the Suggestibles to play The Globe, in Shall We Shog? a three-hour improvised Shakespeare tournament between teams from London, Liverpool and Newcastle on April 23rd, St George’s Day and Shakespeare’s Birthday. Terrified, they could hardly say no. With just a handful of fans who had followed them down there in support, including Gary’s actor pal, and soon to be new player, Chris Price cheering them on, The Suggestibles started out as underdogs but won over the 1500 strong crowd to run off with the trophy.

Chris Price joined the group, and so too did young acting graduate, Jayne Humphreys briefly. An experimental couple of years followed. Whilst continuing their residency at the Cumberland, they toured other regional venues, The Theatre Royal, Newcastle Arts Centre and The Store in County Durham, presenting several new formats, including Rat Race, Improthon and Improv Club, and returning once more to Live Theatre with devised piece, Experiments in Laughter and Tears.

In the winter of 2006, The Suggestibles opened Northern Stage’s cabaret space ‘Stage 3’, then the following year presented two sell-out runs in Stage 2 of The Suggestibles Instant Musical (an extension of Aspects), by December progressing onto Stage 1 with a full-scale production of their improvised pantomime – by now known as Impro Pantso (due to a typo), that has become a Xmas must do!

Oh yes, and they hosted their Saturday late night radio show on NE1FM for about a year, and the group said a teary goodbye to Mark Labrow who was eaten by Zombies live on air (they later found out he’d met a new woman and went on a camper van tour of Europe). (Photo by Mark Savage>)

Throughout this time Ian and Chris were getting fat and continually failing to keep fit. They couldn’t take jogging seriously so invented a series of 'special Parkour style moves' to relieve the boredom.  Bev thought it hilarious, donned her director's cap, handed Carl a camera and they all went out one Sunday with serious hangovers to film Pour Quoi.

They uploaded the 3 minute video to YouTube, and overnight the the skit got 500 000 hits, causing huge online controversy from Parkour fans, the French and confused Americans, mention in the New York Times - going on to win a Royal Television Society Award in 2008 and a burgeoning on-line fanbase for the Suggestibles.

In 2009 The Hyena Comedy Club became the Suggestibles new mid-month residency for a year, and whilst Gary Kitching and Chris Price went on tour with 'Oh What a Lovely War', and they began to widen their pool of players, and old London pals, Andy Smart and Niall Ashdown from the Comedy Store Players became regular faces. Guests over the years include Rob Atkinson Paula Penman, Kevin Tomlinson, Laura Norton, Vicky Elliot, Lisa McGrillis and Stella Duffy, Suki Webster, Matt Selman, Chris Foley, and Ezra Nash. The musician pool widened also, with John Lewis, Ben Gilbert, Gary Gerry and most recently Alex Ross.

In Autumn 2009 and 2010 the Suggestibles played the Bristol Old Vic in the new annual improv festival, Bristol Jam - a real must for improv fans to go to.

In September ’10 The Suggestibles opened new venue, The Mixer in Jesmond, and moved their mid-month Thursday residency at the Hyena to a Saturday night at the Mixer until January 2012. In February 2012 the changed their mid-month residency to Newcastle's newest comedy club, The Stand.