Following multiple five-star sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, the award-winning CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation—winner of the Comedy Award at Colchester Fringe 2024 and Best Improvisation at Leicester Comedy Festival 2023—is back with another rip-roaring crime comedy made up entirely on the spot. Running for over 12 hilarious years, the show is heading to Underbelly Bristo Square and Stanley Arts Centre, alongside runs at venues like Wilton’s Music Hall.
We caught up with cast member Steve Bond (actor in Looking For Normal and Copenhagen, writer of The Abduction of Elizabeth Canning, and co-founder of Agents Improvocateurs) to talk about the secrets behind the long-running improvised hit.
For anyone who hasn’t seen CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation yet, how would you describe the show in a single sentence?
The murder-mystery comedy where YOU choose the victim.
Since no one on stage knows who the killer is—not even the cast—what is going through your mind right in the moments before the show starts?
Before the show starts, we don’t know anything—not who the killer is, nor what the evidence will be, nor even what world of work we will be occupying. So at that point, all that’s in my head is a mantra of “listen to the other person on stage, give them a name, and get off the stage if there’s a big laugh.”
The show has been running since 2014 and solving made-up crimes for over 12 years. What has been the secret to keeping the format fresh and exciting after all this time?
The cast has gradually evolved with new members joining, each bringing new skills and styles to the group. And the format itself is continually evolving; every so often someone suggests a tweak, we’ll workshop and develop it, then try it out in a show. For example, in the past couple of years we’ve introduced a second CSI scene where the investigators return to examine one piece of evidence more closely.
How has the company and the show evolved since those early days compared to your upcoming runs at Underbelly Bristo Square and Stanley Arts Centre?
A few cast members have left over the years to do exciting things like write for Radio 4, present drone racing on TV, or go viral on TikTok. But we have also continued to recruit new members, and our current line-up of 10 performers has been stable since 2024. One thing we’ve really honed is the intro to the show, where we elicit great suggestions from the audience to form the basis of the narrative, before whipping them up into a crime-solving frenzy.
What is the most absurd or unexpected crime an audience has ever thrown at you?
We’ve done 415 shows at the time of writing, so it’s difficult to choose! For each show we need the victim’s name, job, and what was used to kill them. My favourite job suggestion was “the person who decides where the lampposts go,” and the best weapon is a cheese grater (which always makes for a horrific crime scene).
Have you ever reached the climax of a show and genuinely had no idea how you were going to wrap up the mystery, or who the killer turned out to be?
That’s most shows really! Often there’s one person who has a very strong motive, clear links to all the evidence, and has behaved suspiciously throughout—and then the audience picks someone else as the killer, and that person has to come up with a confession on the spot. But that’s the joy of it really; the audience likes to see the performers struggle to make sense of it all in the moment.
Beyond the Edinburgh Fringe and your upcoming venue moves, what are you most excited about for this run of the show?
I’m excited to be playing big London venues again. We have had great success at Wilton’s Music Hall over the last couple of years, and it’s great to be branching out and bringing the show to more spots in the capital.
With over 12 years of laughs, five-star sell-out runs, and a cabinet full of awards, CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation continues to prove that unscripted comedy can be just as sharp, witty, and baffling as any scripted whodunnit. As Steve Bond and the 10-strong cast take their fully-improvised chaos to venues like Stanley Arts Centre (on October 2, 2026) and Underbelly Bristo Square, one thing is certain: the audience holds the evidence, but nobody—least of all the performers—has any idea how it’s all going to end.
Catch the award-winning murder-mystery comedy live on tour. Check out crimesceneimpro.com or local venue box offices for tickets and upcoming dates.
