This Thursday the Footlights met the Oxford Imps, a recently (in Cambridge terms) founded improv troupe from "The Other Place", at the Union, to debate whether or not “honesty is the best policy”. Footlights president Phil Wang and Pierre Novellie opened for the proposition with the strongest performance of the night, in part due to Phil’s fluid and matter-of-fact delivery that held the audience with his one-liners (“In a recent study, lying was found to have an adverse effect on your honesty”).

The remaining Footlights also gave adept performances, using the space of the Union to good effect with Dan Babar even venturing up to the balcony, having somehow convinced the whole audience to chant “We buy any car” repeatedly, and perhaps for a bit too long, with the promise of a punch line that humorously failed to materialise.

The Imps mostly delivered prepared, solo speeches, with one of the highlights being Dan Roberts using Cambridge students’ criticisms of Oxford and applying them to the impoverished country of Lesotho (“It’s much uglier and a worse place for punting”) to show us, perhaps rather facetiously, that honesty can hurt. Tom Skelton stuck to the troupe’s guns, telling us later (as the only Imp not to be rushing back to the station) “Because we’re an improv troupe… I wanted to try and improvise my whole speech”. With this in mind it was a good performance, although less polished and compelling than some of the other acts.

We had a chat with the remaining performers after the debate, which fairly unsurprisingly the Footlights won, to ask them their thoughts on the evening. They all expressed satisfaction with the revised format, with Phil saying “it was nice to have Points of Information this time,” giving them the chance for brief improvised exchanges. It was the first time the Imps had faced the Footlights but Pierre described them as “the best Oxford team yet,” although he went on to add that an Oxford team could only win in Cambridge if “in some horrible dystopian future Footlights is replaced by actual Nazis… and the rest of the University isn’t”.

Having formed in 2003, the Imps are very young compared to the Oxford Revue but are quickly finding their place in the comedy scene, giving weekly performances with a regular following along with occasional long form shows including an improvised hour-long musical in 2008, which remarkably “went very, very well” according to Tom. Perhaps inspired by the Imps’ growing success in Oxford and beyond, Footlights members plan to revive Alcock Improv this year, with member Emma Sidi giving us details of their first performance at this year’s St John’s May Ball. The Imps and some Footlights members will also be appearing at the Emmanuel May Ball and, if tonight’s performance is anything to go by, they’ll be well worth a look.