Several pairs of children’s crinkly cutting-out scissors and a smattering of weekend copies of The Argus were laid out on a table in front of the tiny puppet theatre-sized stage.

“Just snip out your favourite story and we’ll use it to create an improvisation,” read the Maydays’ spiel, and improvise the talented troupe did – creatively and wittily for about an hour.

The less-than-breaking news item “Redcoats to enter hi-de-higher education”‚ was shoehorned into a sketch where a school-leaver hoping to work on a supermarket checkout was persuaded, through the power of song, that she should stay on to study quantum mechanics to help her understand the science bit of stacking bunches of bananas.

And a letter to the editor complaining that Brighton Marina is nothing more than a “glorified restaurant” sparked some evil satire about the relative sex appeal (or lack of it) of many of our local attractions.

All improvisation contains some pre-rehearsed bits. However, very tight teamwork enabled the energetic, fresh-faced Maydays crew to paper over the cracks between formula and spontaneity so skilfully you were left wondering, “How did they do that?”