“The huge challenge of Edfringe is probably a big part of what makes it such an amazing and satisfying experience overall.”
WHO: David Fenne
WHAT: “Pinch Punch are back to welcome you aboard Locomotive for Murder, an improvised comedy murder-mystery where killing the cast and cracking the case is in your hands. Expect outrageous accents and shaky alibis! Four characters board a train but not everyone will survive. Thankfully, a world-famous detective is ready to solve the case. But who is the murderer? Only one person knows: the murderer themselves. Using audience suggestions and stories, Pinch Punch create a never-to-be-repeated whodunnit. If you love comedy or murder mysteries then this is the show for you!”
WHERE: Big Yin at Gilded Balloon Patter House (Venue 24)
WHEN: 15:30 (60 min)
MORE: Click Here!
Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
This is our third time at the Edinburgh Fringe and we are brimming with excitement for the show to return to our home from home! After last year’s sell-out run, we’ve been bumped up to a bigger venue (the Big Yin), so the show will be bigger and better than ever!
We’ve done this show the length and breadth of the UK (and even at the Amsterdam improv festival!), but we always can’t wait to bring it back to the Fringe. It really is the greatest explosion of creativity – equal parts exhilarating and exhausting. And Fringe audiences are like no other. Always up for anything and rowdy at all times of the day. They certainly keep us improvisers on our toes!
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2024 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
This year has been a massive growth spurt for us and the show. After last fringe, we’ve had a flurry of bookings in venues we never even dreamed we’d play! And as a self-produced company, that has meant a lot (read that twice for emphasis) of extra work for us to do!
We’ve learned to trust ourselves and our show. We’ve undergone a metamorphosis over the years from a scrappy company rehearsing in living rooms and performing above a pub to a well-oiled machine.
We’ve also learned to know our worth. It sounds silly to say, but so often artists sell themselves short and get taken advantage of. This past year, we’ve stood up for ourselves when we needed to and walked away from things that didn’t have our best interests at heart.
There’s also the lesson of knowing our capacity (the buzzword of our year). Again, linking back to this idea of knowing our worth, we’ve been a little more discerning when taking on venues and projects. We’re only human, and we all have other things on, so it’s been important for us to know our limits and not stretch ourselves too thin.
Tell us about your show.
Our show, Locomotive for Murder: The Improvised Whodunnit, is a fully improvised murder mystery in the style of a classic Whodunnit. Think Poirot meets Acorn Antiques. It’s clever and silly and beloved by audiences because it’s just fun!
Using stories from the audience, we build our suspects, all of whom are heading aboard a train alongside a famous detective. But not all is as it seems, as one of the passengers is murdered! Who? Well, that’s down to the audience to decide. And who is the murderer? Well, here’s the clever bit – only the murderer knows they are the murderer! The rest of the cast on stage and the audience don’t know, so everyone is working together to catch the killer! After interrogating the suspects, the audience has to make an accusation, but they can (and do) get it wrong! The show is also a game, and over the month, we’ll be keeping track of which audiences caught the killer and which ones let them get away!
We’re an improv company (Pinch Punch) made up of trained actors, and I think that shows. Our brand of improv comedy is character-focused, and the show blends traditional theatre with long-form improv to make something that first-time improv audiences can enjoy and feel safe in. British audiences aren’t as au fait with improv – it’s much more of an American tradition – so our show makes it more digestible for them by wrapping it up in a murder mystery. And it works! Thousands of people see Locomotive for Murder each year, and for many, it’s their first ever experience of improv!
This is our fourth year of the show and our third time in Edinburgh with it. From humble origins as a commission for Harrow Arts Council to our biggest national tour yet, the show has gone from strength to strength, including being 2024 Off West End Award finalists. We are continuing our tour in the Autumn and Winter and already have some 2026 dates in the diary. But who knows where we go next – World tour? Improv at sea? Solving murders on the International Space Station?
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
For more madcap improv hijinks with a classical twist, check out our pals at Shake It Up Shakespeare (@ShakeItUpImprov) for some Bard-based Bedlam!
We LOVE seeing Solve-Along-A Murder She Wrote (@solvealonga) every year and highly recommend people see it too! You get to watch an episode of Jessica Fletcher and have a right laugh along the way with Tim Benzie too. Win-win!
Ernest? (@SayItAgainSorry) is a brilliant show we’ve been fans of since we first saw them a the Fringe two years ago. Be warned, there’s a LOT of audience participation, but it’s a raucous and brilliantly hysterical show!
If you love our show, be sure to also check out Murder She Didn’t Write (@DegreesOfError) for more wonderfully silly improvised whodunnit schenanigans. Their show is slick and brilliant, and it also scratches that classic murder mystery itch, but with a Cluedo-y twist!
Finally, walk, don’t run, to see Garry Starr’s Classic Penguins in its sophomore year. Maybe not one to take your parents to (or do … I certainly did and they had a hoot!). Garry is a comedic tour de force, and the show is utterly brilliant. Don’t look up anything before you go, though – this show thrives on surprises and misdirections!
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