★★½

“Licari is warm, personable and holds the stage with a gentle confidence”

Italian stand-up comedian Stefania Licari has earned a reputation for sell out shows at the last two Edinburgh Festival Fringes, and her performance at Underbelly Boulevard Soho, London, also drew a healthy crowd. Across just under an hour, I Can Make You Italian in 55 minutes finds Licari setting herself the ambitious task of teaching the audience how to be “more Italian,” guiding us through a sequence of comic routines that perhaps inevitably vary in sharpness and impact. Nonetheless, written and performed by Licari, it’s a playful premise delivered with charm and generosity.

The audience is eased into the atmosphere before the show even begins, with Italian themed music and a red and green lighting state complementing the white of the main wash to evoke the sounds and colours of Italy. Licari emerges onto a sparse stage and leads us through a series of cultural contrasts, particularly around social habits and the quirks of male behaviour. Some observations land well such as the British affection for jacket potatoes versus the more refined Italian palate, or the gentle ribbing of British culinary missteps with pasta.

A ‘volunteer’ from the audience, who felt like a pre-organised stooge, is brought up as a kind of comic foil to be taught how to walk and gesture “like an Italian.” It’s an engaging idea, though one that never quite develops into a fully realised set piece.

Licari draws on her own lived experience as an expat medic turned comic throughout the performance, but the transitions between stories sometimes feel abrupt; a leap from personal anecdote to a riff on Cinderella, the transitions seem merely functional. Each piece does not really feed strongly enough into the next, and that leads to a disjointedness that might be addressed as the piece develops.

Themes of love, identity and family surface throughout, yet the sudden revelation about her mother’s cancer – delivered under stark white light – felt somewhat shoehorned into the structure rather than organically earned. The thread of female empowerment is also present throughout, but the narrative strands fail to interlock with enough clarity or momentum to give the show a truly satisfying arc.

Stefani Licari is warm, personable and holds the stage with a gentle confidence. As a performer, she is softer in tone than the bold, brash persona the premise implies, but the material doesn’t always support her, and the overall energy in this performance felt lower than it needed to be. With stronger dramaturgy and more deliberate shaping of the narrative, the show could gain more cohesion and drive. As it stands, the writing feels, as Italians might put it, a little too staccato.

CSI: CRIME SCENE IMPROVISATION

Underbelly Boulevard

★★★

“its mix of humour, inventiveness and on-the-spot storytelling remains a highly entertaining watch”

What do you get when you combine a man called Peter Butter, meteorology and cotton wool? ‘CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation’ of course! Fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe and on tour after twelve years of acclaim, this entirely improvised murder mystery proves anything can become a crime scene.

Someone’s been murdered and it’s up to the audience to crack the case. After inventing a victim, occupation and murder weapon, we must help unmask the killer before they strike again, with plenty of laughs along the way.

Co-creators Sarah Kempton and Lee Apsey have built a show entirely made up on the spot – which sounds both exhilarating and a little reckless! The audience supplies the victim before the cast – Kempton, Apsey, Danielle Downey, James Cann, Nicola Lucey and Steve Bond – construct an entire whodunnit from there, aided by further audience suggestions along the way. Thankfully, chaos is kept in check by a sturdy structure. Starting at the crime scene, the cast scatter bizarre clues and red herrings before whisking us to the victim’s workplace to investigate the fallout and identify the culprit. Guiding proceedings is Apsey’s lead detective, who deftly draws out clues and keeps the narrative moving, creating the satisfying illusion of a fully plotted mystery. It’s an inventive twist on the traditional murder mystery, though with no predetermined killer we’re not scrutinising clues in the usual way. Instead, the fun comes from watching the cast weave a coherent story from an increasingly absurd set of prompts. To their credit, the final reveal – delivered by Downey at this performance – expertly folds forgotten details and throwaway quirks into a confession worthy of the most melodramatic TV villain. The result is funny, quick-witted and flies by.

The show zips along at a good pace, rarely lingering on any one scene for too long which the cast frequently punctuates with sharp closing gags. Everyone is clearly listening closely, skilfully incorporating comments from both the audience and other performers to gradually build the mystery. There are plenty of strong laughs too, from an impromptu debate about the maximum weight of cotton wool to an unexpectedly passionate correction of someone’s hairstyle. Not every section lands quite as cleanly, however. While some scenes pop with energy, others are a touch too talkative, softening the pace and diluting the comic impact. The odd bout of crosstalk obscures a few good lines. As emcee, Apsey could inject a touch more urgency into proceedings, sitting somewhere between a character and a workshop facilitator. Despite the wonderfully ridiculous ingredients supplied by the audience, the story never quite reaches the gleeful absurdity its premise promises. Even so, it’s a solid, entertaining showcase of improvisational storytelling, packed with quick thinking and genuine laughs.

The six-strong cast do well to keep momentum going, while maintaining clear distinctions between multiroling characters. Downey throws herself into every role, combining quick-fire wit with a wonderfully expressive face. Cann has razor-sharp comic timing, landing plenty of laughs and making a recurring joke funnier each time. Kempton is particularly adept at noticing every offer, creating the most fully realised character of the evening through her consistently believable reactions. Bond shows pleasing range, effortlessly shifting between hapless and crafty. Apsey brings a warm, welcoming presence that encourages audience participation, though perhaps undercuts his detective persona. Meanwhile, Lucey’s understated approach conceals a sly comic edge, even if she could afford to be a touch bolder at times.

The design suits the show’s bare-bones aesthetic, with dramatic lighting and a coordinated costume palette adding polish with personality. Despite the cast wearing microphones, the amplification feels inconsistent – though I can only imagine how hard it is to operate a show with no cues!

Twelve years on, it’s easy to see the appeal of ‘CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation’. While not every case will be a perfect fit, its mix of humour, inventiveness and on-the-spot storytelling remains a highly entertaining watch.

Tag Archives: Underbelly Boulevard

STEFANIA LICARI: I CAN MAKE YOU ITALIAN IN 55 MINUTES

★★½

Underbelly Boulevard

STEFANIA LICARI: I CAN MAKE YOU ITALIAN IN 55 MINUTES

Underbelly Boulevard

★★½

“Licari is warm, personable and holds the stage with a gentle confidence”

STEFANIA LICARI: I CAN MAKE YOU ITALIAN IN 55 MINUTES

Underbelly Boulevard

Reviewed on 24th September 2026

by Robert West

STEFANIA LICARI

STEFANIA LICARI

STEFANIA LICARI

CSI: CRIME SCENE IMPROVISATION

★★★

Underbelly Boulevard

CSI: CRIME SCENE IMPROVISATION

Underbelly Boulevard

★★★

“its mix of humour, inventiveness and on-the-spot storytelling remains a highly entertaining watch”