A little History

Picture the distant year 1987 as the new comedy/theatre mash-up concept of TheatreSports™ was being introduced to Christchurch. After a couple of years for the very first Jesters to get to grips with how the whole thing actually worked, Scared Scriptless was disgorged onto the Court Theatre stage in December of 1990 at 11pm every Friday night. Making itself up as it went along, the show found a niche among a comedy-starved Christchurch audience, becoming a regular big-night-out-starter for many.

Scared Scriptless marched on, branching out from its TheatreSports roots and steadily becoming as much a Christchurch institution as asking people what school they went to. In 2006, a larger, slightly less nocturnal audience was introduced to Scared Scriptless at the earlier show time of 10pm, and in 2010 a second weekly show was added to Saturdays.

Today, the Court Jesters company is a diverse bunch of multi-talented and award-festooned people that includes actors, theatre makers, writers, comedians, educators, and radiologists who happen to be freakishly good at being funny. We’re still loving what we do, we’re still damned good at it, and we’re proud to claim Scared Scriptless as Australasia’s longest-running comedy show.

Our alumni are now global but the legend started here.

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