Thursday, 29 March 2012

Crumbs Improv are coming to London!

"After 11 years together CRUMBS are indeed masters of long-form improv... their audiences know and love them"
★★★★☆

- Winnipeg Free Press

CRUMBS are Stephen Sim and Lee White, and they've been improvising together since the early 1990s. They're known for their cinematic storytelling, their absurd characters and their laid back, lo-fi style of performance. People also think they're funny. They're sort of improv mega-stars. This year is their 12th annual European Tour - but first trip to London.

We are massively excited to have them at Happy Place on 11th April.

They will be supported by Musical Comedy offerings from Horse And Louis, and their fine selection of the best the London comedy circuit has to offer.

Wednesday 11th April
Time: Doors 7:45pm, Show 8pm - 10pm with interval.
Cost: £5 on the door. Or pre-book at We Got Tickets

Sunday, 25 March 2012

Finesse, finales and fat-cats: This week at the London Improv Comedy Club

Hello... is it meat you're looking for?

It's a big fat week here at London Improv Towers. We've got improv showdowns coming out of our ears (literally) and we've got special guests booking future slots like there's no tomorrow (literally).

Tuesday 27th March
FAT KITTEN vs. ARTHUR
and THE MAYDAYS
We begin at the beginning: when improv was first invented Del Close and Keith Johnstone stood at the top of a mountain and shouted "LET THESE PEOPLE COMPETE!" A day or so later Ken Campbell 'yes-anded' it and added "TO THE DEATH!" And so, this week Arthur and Fat Kitten will comedy-fight to the death in a battle of wit and bribery.

When they're done and the survivors stand panting over the corpses of the fallen, The Maydays will lighten the mood with their magnificent heads. And you know what Ben from Lost would say: "I can help you, Goodwin, if only you go and see The Maydays."

Tuesday 27th March
Time: Doors 7:45pm, Show 8pm - 10pm with interval.
Cost: £5 on the door.


Wednesday 28th March

CATCH23: HIATUS QUO!
IMPROV COMEDY SHOWDOWN
Some of you may know Catch23 as London's most improvised improv show, some of you may know it as a great night out watching some of London's best improvisers do awesome work for a fiver. Some of you have no idea what Catch23 is.

Well, you've got one more chance to see it folks! Catch23 is going on "hiatus". For how long? If I was pushed, I'd say "A while?"

Wednesday night! 8pm! A self-immolating fireball of consequence-free comedy is going to punch you in your laugh-balls! Without consequences, it's like the jokes have already taken the morning after pill! It's exactly like that! Holy crap!

Featuring a whole bunch of stuff, including but not limited to these things!

Improv-Rhyme Gods - Marbles! (confirmed)!
One half of record holding champion team Children of the Quorn - Joe Morpurgo! (unconfirmed)
The Pyjama Men (NOT TRUE)
Blondest of The Penny Dreadfuls - David Reed! (unconfirmed)
Most Dedicated Catch23er of all - Charlotte "The Rock" Gittins! (confirmed)
GTI's tallest - Phil Whelans! (super-confirmed)
GTI's Beardest - Dylan Emery (unconfirmed)
Some kind of robot! (unconfirmed)
Catch23's most bewildering and popular judge - BIG RICHARD JACKSON! (confirmed)
The Ghost of James Caan! (NOT TRUE)
Canada's most popular export - David Shore! (unconfirmed)
The King of London Improv - Jon "J-Funk" Monkhouse! (confirmed)
The other half of record holding champion team Children of the Quorn - Monica Heisey - is trapped in Toronto! (confirmed)
Some other things! (confirmed)


Wednesday 28th March
Time: Doors 7:45pm, Show 8pm - 10pm with interval.
Cost: £5 on the door.
Where: The Miller, 96 Snowsfields Road, London, SE1 3SS.


LONDONIMPROV: A REVOLUTION IN COMEDY & THEATRE

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Saturday, 24 March 2012

Longform is not long, shortform is not short

by Alexis Gallagher, of The Maydays & Silly String Theory and director of Katy & Rach. Alexis trained in New York with the New Actors Workshop and with the improv troupes Burn Manhattan and the Upright Citizens Brigade, and in Chicago with the Annoyance Theatre. At the UCB theatre he regularly performed Del Close's signature form, the Harold. He has kissed the ring of many improv popes, including Paul Sills, Mick Napier, Ian Roberts, and others. He has written plays and screenplays, and appeared in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival production of The Spanish Interludes.

This post is for improvisers who haven't had the chance to visit Chicago. Please forgive me! I am going to risk wasting a few minutes of your time by telling you something that you probably already know. Why do I do this? Only because right now, somewhere out there, is an improviser who doesn't know this yet, and because this thing is easy to miss even though it's pretty fundamental. I was once that improviser, maybe you were too.

Here's the point: longform is not about being long and shortform is not about being short.

You can have a longform show that lasts five minutes, and you can have a shortform show that lasts an hour. I've seen both. Length is not only incidental, it is completely irrelevant.

Then why is it called longform? The truth is, that's an accidental and misleading name. It is a lot like if we called Shakespeare's sonnets not "sonnets" but "ten-line poems", and the poems of ee cummings not "free verse" but "poems that are longer or shorter than ten-lines". It misses the point.

Longform is not narrative, shortform is not non-narrative

Here is another thing it's not about: narrative. Longform does not mean "all my scenes add up to make a long story".

Let's say you're in a shortform troupe. Let's say your troupe is great at improvising funny scenes that fit various shortform games.

Now you get bored and want to do a show where you spend an hour telling a story (perhaps in a genre, perhaps showcasing your special skills with singing, or acrobatics, or puppets, or whatever). So you sit down and think about how every story has parts X, Y, Z, etc. (maybe: hero, villain, love interest, etc.). Then you outline a loose sequence of scenes that will use all those parts.

And you perform your show, and it's awesome. Congratulations! You've just made a one hour shortform show, with a narrative. I have also done this. It can be great fun!

And when I did this, my troupe and I all thought it was "longform". Why? Basically, because we didn't know any better. Because we were in Boston, where there was no longform for any of us to see. Because what we were doing had a "long" story and that's what the word sounded like. Because -- although we didn't know what longform was -- we had the vague idea that it was something ambitious and a bit pretentious (which appealed to some of us and annoyed others) and it must be longer, so this must be it, right?

Longform is not the absence of games, shortform is not the presence of games

Here's the thing about my old college troupe's attempt at longform.

Although we weren't playing our old shortform games, our "longform" show ended up having exactly same feel as our shortform show. The scenes had a lot of random, whacky elements. They had a lot of quick thinking to make all the elements fit. They were spirited and fun. They were fast. They communicated a vague undercurrent of "Oh my God can you believe we're doing this tricky thing!", which was fun for that kind of show and for that kind of audience. The scenes were not especially subtle, strong on naturalistic characters, or emotionally resonant, but that's no crime.

Still, this was puzzling. Although none of us had seen much longform, we had seen one show in New York (Burn Manhattan), and those performances were palpably more rich, varied, subtle, intelligent, and funny. We noticed they didn't use shortform games so we made a show without shortform games. But our show was nothing like theirs, because we didn't realize that the difference was much more radical -- that longform is not the absence of games. In fact, they were playing games at a deeper level that we did not even know how to recognize.

I have since realized that our "longform show" was not unusual. It is exactly the show you get whenever a group of shortform improvisers try to do longform, based only on their knowledge of the definition of the English word "long". Since then, I have seen this show over and over again.

Open-form vs closed-form

What is longform? Longform is a tradition of performance improv, originating and most deeply rooted in Chicago, USA, defined mostly under Del Close, which is now also practiced in other cities as well (e.g., New York, Los Angeles).

What is it like? How does it work? Really, it's a loose word that covers a multitude of sins, but if I could go back in time and save my earlier self some confusion I would say that it should really be called open-form and shortform should be called closed-form.

In shortform (closed-form), you know before a scene begins something about its structure. In longform (open-form), you are improvising the essential structure of the scene while in the scene. You are also improvising the structure of the show itself. Notice there are two points here -- improvising the scene (in-the-scene), and improvising the show (between-the-scenes).

It is obvious that longformers improvise the show itself, often using a well-known format like the Harold, or an Armando, or whatever. Because it is obvious, people fixate on this. This is a shame. The format is the easy part. It takes five minutes and a pint of beer to invent a decent format. (Here's seven for free: improvise a movie! no, a tv channel! no, a musical! no, something where time goes backwards! no, something where every character has a second character who speaks their inner thoughts! no, something where everyone's trapped in a room! no, something where no one can step in the same room twice! etc. etc.) Formats are superficial, and a good format does not redeem bad scenes.

What more usefully distinguishes great longform from other traditions of improv -- and as an art-form in general, for my money -- is the improvising in-the-scene. Among other things, longform teaches a discipline of deep listening and identifying and developing implicit patterns in scenes, a discipline which allow you to create deep, funny, and interesting work that (as far as I know) cannot be improvised with other methods.

Describing how it works takes a lot more than a paragraph, so I'll save that for another day. But the point is, it's your technique within the scene that determines if what you are doing is longform. Of course, if someone is really good, you might not even recognise that they have a technique…

Longform conquers the world?

Why define longform based on its roots in Chicago? Because that's just the fact of the matter. That's where it started, that's where they do it best. Or maybe it would be better to say, "longform" is just the name for this thing that came out of Chicago.

Can you do longform outside of Chicago? Well, can you play Jazz outside of New Orleans? Yes, obviously! Duh!

But at the same time, you may be swimming upstream. For instance, Keith Johnstone has written brilliant books about improvisation. His work has shaped the tradition of improv in England and Europe. That is a different tradition. Does he use the word "longform" anywhere in his landmark book Impro? If not, why would you think that tradition has anything to do with longform?

Can you play Jazz outside of New Orleans? Yes. But what if the year is 1935, and you're living in Moscow, and you're the only Jazz musician in the city? It would be hard. This is despite the fact that Moscow surely had some amazing musicians in 1935. Jazz is not just what you get when a musician looks up the word "jazz" in the dictionary and reads that it probably comes from the word "jasm" and meant something like "spirit" or "vigor" and therefore all he needs to do is play with spirit. No. It's a specific artistic tradition, coming from a specific place, with a non-trivial depth and history to it, and to learn it you need to work closely with people who know it.


Original article found on The Maydays weblog.

Wednesday, 21 March 2012

Lindy Hop vs. Improv Comedy

Cat Foley is an improviser and lindy hop dancer. She regularly performs improv with the Impropriety crowd up in Liverpool and recently took part in the 33.5 hour Liverpool Improvathon. This is taken from her regular Lindy-hop blog at RockStepTriple.

"As well as being a keen swing dancer, I’m also a comedy improviser. This term can mean many things, most of you will recognise this as being what they do in “whose line is it anyway”, well imagine that… but better J Add to this an image of ‘long form’ as being an extension of one of the whose line games, where players will take one character and run with it for anything from 10 minutes to 50 hours (yes- that does really happen!). So the reason for this most recent of my blog posts is that more and more in my mind the two have been fusing, and I have been exploring how the fundamentals of each can be used to explain the other.

So here it goes,

The Fundamentals of Lindy Hop explained via the Fundamentals of Improv.


YES AND…

This is an improv game whereby 2 players will engage in a scene, speaking one statement each at time that must begin with “Yes…and”. For example
Player 1: Lets go to the shop
Player 2: Yes and lets go by bike

Player 1: Yes, and I’ll sit on the handlebars
Player 2: Yes, and we can sing less than Jake all the way

The converse of this exercise is “yes… but”
Player 1: Let’s go to the shop
Player 2: Yes, but my foot hurts
Player 1: Yes, but can’t you try and walk
Player 2: Yes, but it really hurts etc. etc.

So the ‘yes but’ exercise involves the players blocking each other, they shoot down ideas and create excess negativity - it can still work as a scene, but has none of the energy of “yes, and” where the players accept each idea and build on it making it even more awesome. The same is true for linty hop. If you take what your partner offers to the dance, and build on it, true magic can happen. If you are constrictive and try to reject offers made by your partner you may still get through the dance, but at least one of you is going to feel rubbish about it. I personally love those dances when you can’t quite tell who started having the boss ideas, but by the end you are both doing sick variations that really hit the music and you end the dance grinning like an idiot.


FIND THE GAME

In any improve scene, no matter what the ‘game’ being played is, there will be an internal ‘game’. For example the characters may be in opposition, physically or emotionally, one may copy the other, one may be ignored etc etc. Really good scenes may include these games implicitly and this will definitely be happening in your lindy, even if you have never thought about it. Say for example a follow throws a musical variation to hit a break on the end of a swing out- you know the same musical break is going to happen 3 times in a row in this track, so you lead 3 swing outs to allow her to hit those breaks… that’s a game! Or you copy the follow… that’s a game. Or the follow leaves the next break for the lead, in a call and response fashion… that is most definitely a game. This can make for really great social dancing, as it requires a connection between lead and follow that is not purely physical. However, they game should always be a fair one - a leader playing ‘lets see how many tension changes I can put into this 3 count send out to try to catch my follow out’ or a follow playing ‘what if I make my connection really heavy so the lead actually can’t move me?’ that ain’t no fun for anyone. Invite your partner to play a game that you are involved with too..

Check this out - and look for the game at 1:16 – brilliant.



PIMPING

There is such a thing in Improv as ‘pimping’ whereby you will give someone a lead in to a scene that will really give them something to go on, i.e. “oh here comes spaghetti armed Joe” rather than “oh here comes Joe” because then Joe has an immediate character providing a strong physical offer to the scene, and he will (hopefully) get an instant laugh!

The Whose line? Game ‘Superheroes’ is a great example of this:


In your dance you can do this- as a lead- if you know your follow can shake that thing- give them some room to do some kick ass swivels. As a follow, be grounded so he can use you for those cool compression spins or rides, and give the lead the limelight to show off occasionally. Never thought I’d say this- but PIMP YOUR DANCE PARTNER- do this selflessly and you will both feel fecking awesome!

Juan beautifully executes a neo-swing pimp on Laura here at 0:26



DON’T TRY TO BE FUNNY/CLEVER

Classic Improv error- trying to be funny

Classic swing dance error- trying to be complex

If you go onto a stage as an improviser (particularly if you are in a scene with others) trying to be funny, either you will alienate or fail to connect to the other characters and therefore be intensely not funny, or your gags will flop if the scene doesn’t go the way you intend.

If you are dancing, the same is true. Say Max and Annie taught you 385762 footwork variations at Herrang last month… great- good for you, but dancing them AT a beginner, who is going to be thrown off by them and can’t cope with your many changes in connection- not cool. Also dancing them with anyone and looking smug at how amazing you are, scoffing at their lack of fancy footwork- also not cool. Stressing about always having to fit every variation you know into a dance and generally feeling shit about your dancing if you don’t- incredibly not cool. Chances are, if you stop thinking about it and really listen to the music, it will happen… as if by magic. Also, respond to your partner- if their connection is awesome and you’re feeling great- throw loads of the things in, you’ll probably end up inventing a load of new ones together. Not trying to be cool/ clever/ funny generally makes it happen anyway.

And here is Skye- keeping it so simple and chilled – incredibly cool without over-complicating it.



LISTEN

This is a fairly obvious one, but definitely worth mentioning. If you are in a scene with someone else and you don’t listen to what they are saying, chances are the scene won’t make sense and whoever you are improvising with will be quite put out because they have nothing to work with. So when you dance with someone, it should not be 2 people shouting at the top of their lungs, one person shouting at the other so they can’t hear the other whispering, one shouting whilst the other ignores them, or two people blankly staring into space thinking about whether anyone will ever use cassette tapes again. The partnership should be listening to one another, speaking at the same volume mostly, with moment of excitement (like someone announces they are engaged) or that quiet moment where one reveals a secret to the other. The conversation may still be polite and formal, but so long as both are listening, this is no bad thing. If the dance ebbs and flows like a conversation where both parties have something to say and listen to what is said then you’ve hit the jackpot in my book.


DON’T PLAN MATERIAL

If an improviser rocks up to a gig with planned material- the audience will know, the other players will know and generally you could ask yourself what is the actual point of you being here, why aren’t you doing stand up?
So routines are stand up right, and social dance is improvisation- so do that. I get when you are starting out you know sequences of moves, and that is great- practice them at every available opportunity. However, always improvise at least SOMETHING - stand in closed and wiggle a bit- this way every dance has something different in it that very importantly hits the music- coz that’s swing! You don’t need moves to be a good leader, you need good connection- to your partner and to the music!

TAKE RISKS, BE FREE TO FAIL AND IF IT’S BAD - MAKE IT WORSE

In Improv, my colleagues are always telling me, when I get nervous or cut up about a scene I feel I have just fluffed, that it is pretty much impossible to ‘break’ a scene. Even if you weren’t funny or you said nothing and broke character and did an interpretive dance about a manatee… you did not ‘break’ improv.

So- Dax (or equivalent celebrity super-lead/follow) is in the room. Dance with him- why not?! It is virtually impossible to break a dance too! Say during this dance you miss a few leads, you turn yourself the wrong way, you slap him in the face, lose a shoe and end the dance in the splits. SO WHAT?! You have not broken the lindy hop- get back out there and dance with someone else. Or go into a jam circle and totally make an idiot of yourself if that is what floats your boat. Obviously you don’t have to take such risks if you don’t want to, but never ever feel like you can’t take them because you aren’t good enough- everyone wants to grow and learn (few are more critical of themselves than advanced dancers) so get in there and BRING IT… if that is what you want to do. Or find your own understated ways to push yourself and take risks in order to improve - nothing ventured, nothing gained!"

Sunday, 11 March 2012

Happy and Eggcited: This week at The London Improv Comedy Club

When you've spent the last couple of days fighting off zombies and coming up with Beyonce puns (as I'm sure you have) there is really only one way to relax those aching muscles (body and brain), and that's by gettin' on down to the London Improv Comedy Club and seeing our latest batch of funny-makers lay you a batch of funny.

This week we've got some truly eggcellent special guests, including the amazing Max & Ivan (
★★★★★), still warm from their sold out run at The Soho Theatre.

Tuesday 13th March
FREE RANGE IMPRO
and IMAGINE IF YOU WILL
How do you like your eggs in the morning?... Well I like them brainy, beautiful and surrounded by a thin oval layer of protein and calcium. Luckily all those things are fulfilled with Free Range Impro, a fresh new all-girl group combining long form with short form to make their own style of impromelette. Come along, bring some ham, let's make this Spanish.

Free Range will be followed by a marvellous story of whimsy and magic as Steve Roe directs Imagine If You Will through a tale of heroes and villains. Inspired by you, the audience, there could be swordsmen and dragons, wizards and witches, or there could be a jazz-musician with a vengeance. Imagine.... if you will...

Tuesday 13th March
Time: Doors 7:45pm, Show 8pm - 10pm with interval.
Cost: £5 on the door.


Wednesday 14th March

HAPPY PLACE:
with HORSE AND LOUIS, MARBLES and MAX AND IVAN
London's spirit-lifting, mind-emboldening sketch/stand-up/improv comedy night returns, and it's a line-up so feel-good that you'd better start feeling good right now. Go on already.

Headliners: sketch-behemoth Max & Ivan
Edinburgh Comedy Award-winners Max and Ivan are gonna showcase a slice of their BRAND NEW show; a razor-sharp narrative sketch comedy heist blockbuster.
"Hugely ambitious and impressive" - The Guardian
★★★★★★ - BroadwayBaby
★★★★★ - British Theatre Guide, Three Weeks,
One4Review, The New Current

Supported by James Gill (not only an excellent stand-up, possibly the 'nicest man in comedy')
- Finalist: Up The Creek One To Watch, Max Turner Comedy Competition
- Winner: Handjester Industry Showcase
- Semi-finalist: Amused Moose Laugh-Off,Leicester Square New Comedian Of The Year

And Caroline Hardie, one half of 'talented and versatile comedy duo ' (Remote Goat) Thomas Hardie

In the second half there's everybody's favourite Cornish-Canadian comedy duo Marbles, delivering their inimitable brand of hard-hitting and whimsical improvised offerings. Alas, Dave will be off fighting crime with a ragtag team of vigilantes, so it's left to Ryan to hold the stage down with on-the-spot musings and adventures.
Happy Place; come help us build the laughter

Wednesday 14th March
Time: Doors 7:45pm, Show 8pm - 10pm with interval.
Cost: £5 on the door.
Where: The Miller, 96 Snowsfields Road, London, SE1 3SS.


Friday 16th March
IMPROV NETWORKING EVENT
Are you a new improviser looking to join your first group?
Are you an experienced performer looking for new adventure?
Are you a Second City or similar pro from overseas looking to find like minded people in the UK?
Are you the Director or Producer of a current group looking for new improvisers?
Are you looking to start your own group for the first time and would like to team up with others?
Are you an experienced Director looking for a new challenge and new team?
Are you looking to perform occasionally in guest shows and events?
Are you looking to perform regularly with a tight knit group?
Are you looking to have a drink on a Friday night and chat to other improvisers?
Are you someone I have forgotten to write about on this list?

A free open-for-all networking event for improvisers.

We’ve had a lot of people asking us about getting involved in performing impro, especially from new performers or experienced performers from overseas who have just moved to London. It happens at the bar after shows and workshops anyway, but we thought we might as well put on specific events.

After a bit of informal chatting we’ll be hosting a more formal section where each improviser in order (if they want to) gets to announce to the group:

1. Who they are.
2. What they are looking to do.

After making sure everyone has been heard patterns will emerge, the group will begin to understand each other, and connections will hopefully form. After the formal bit they’ll be more general chatting/drinking/networking. And as it’s a Friday it’ll probably give way to more Friday like behaviour (hic).

Friday 16th March
Time: 6.30pm - until we get asked to leave.
Cost: Totally FREE.
Where: The Miller, 96 Snowsfields Road, London, SE1 3SS.


LONDONIMPROV: A REVOLUTION IN COMEDY & THEATRE

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Wednesday, 7 March 2012

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to impro (in Italy) I go - The Before Blog

Every now and again, I remember that I am going to Italy on Tuesday.  I am rather looking forward to the warmer weather, the ice cream and the chance to see some art.  I'm secretly rather excited about getting up at 2 a.m. to go to the airport with Katy Schutte.  I am especially happy that someone else is paying for all my accommodation and travel.  It feels like a holiday.

Then I remember that it's not a holiday.  This is WORK.  Terrifying, panic-inducing, WORK.

When I started impro in 2009, it was very much as a hobby.  I had gone to a Hoopla show, loved it, got chatting to the performers and was told that they did workshops.  I went to a workshop, loved that too, and discovered a world of yes.  I have made so many wonderful friends, I get to arse around in rooms above pubs and occasionally I get to arse around on a stage.  When I was invited to be a part of The Ministry, my first wee fledgling short-form group of four, I emphatically pronounced that as soon as this started feeling like work, I was off.  No admin, no spreadsheets, no earnest discussions about what our USP might be.  Knickers to that.

And now look at me.  I have somehow ended up in the position of being paid to go and perform in a "Match d'Improvizazzione" in Italy, ergo, I am being employed to improvise.  It has become work.  Not only that, not just normal work, work in ITALIAN where I will hopefully be FUNNY IN ITALIAN in order to WIN.

When I am not arsing around in pubs, I am sitting at home (quite often in pyjamas) translating from French and Italian into English for my bread and butter.  I can, in theory, speak Italian, so this impro lark should be fine.  But there is an echo in my mind of when I was studying for my Masters in Translation, when one of my non-translator friends asked me what the French for 'toothpaste' was.  I could have told him the French for 'bi-lateral trade agreement', 'non-governmental organisation' or 'improved fuel performance', but I could not for the life of me remember what 'toothpaste' was.  Hence my intense worry about next week.  What if there's a scene about toothpaste?

What if I dry up?  What if I say an English, or even a French, word instead of Italian?  What if I can't understand what my fellow improvisers are saying?  (Whom, by the way, I have never met.  Katy is there as a coach on the sidelines and will have an interpreter, lucky thing.)  Quite simply, what if I make a total fool of myself?

I feel as though I am right back at the beginning again.  It's like I've never been on stage before, or have never even done any impro before, all because it will not be in my native tongue.  It feels as though it's going to be the real life version of the nightmare of being back at school, taking an exam that you haven't studied before.

People keep telling me that it's going to be fine.  That I just need to relax, have a laugh and it'll happen.  Which is precisely what I would tell anyone else, or indeed tell myself, to calm nerves before any other impro show.  But here is the difference.  This isn't any other impro show.  Not only is it not above a pub, not only is the audience not going to be filled with friends, but I have been paid to do this.  I owe it to my employers to do a good job.  And knowing that impro is such an unquantifiable, unpredictable beast at the best of times, this feels like a type of pressure that has never been there before.

Oh yeah, and it's highly likely that it's going to be televised, to be broadcast on the Italian equivalent of BBC2.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Monday, 5 March 2012

The Perfect Pick-Me-Up: This Week at the London Improv Comedy Club

Hello all you pretty people. You all look so wonderfully awake!

Sorry this is later than normal, but London Improv (one person) has been in Liverpool taking part in the Impropriety Improvathon - a 33.5 hour improv show. Currently this is being written as part of a 'getting ready for bed' process, but as Ruth Bratt says: "comedy should be written with your tits out, and performed with your tits in." Which gives you some sort of clue as to my current clothed state.

And the rambling nature of my introduction should give you a clue as to the current level of improvathon induced sleep deprivation/sanity.

Tuesday 6th March
ARTHUR
and FLUFFERS
"Ooh, Arthur, you ARE awful" - This is a quote that I have in my head. If it is real, please let me know so I can accredit it properly. I think it was from some old British comedy thingamajig.

Arthur (the group) are back on Tuesday with their incredible feats of funny. Games, scenes, twists, turns, a bag of beans. Its all there. And they are nice. They have nice eyes, like a Dutch dragon at a poker game.

They will be joined by 'Fluffers', a new comedy show from Ed Ben and Paul Rice. Now, I'll be honest with you, I don't know anything about this show except that the name is quite funny. Maybe that'll be enough. Maybe I should do more research. Maybe I've been in a theatre in The North for the last 3 days.

Tuesday 6th March
Time: Doors 7:45pm, Show 8pm - 10pm with interval.
Cost: £5 on the door.


Wednesday 7th March

CARIAD AND PAUL
with DO NOT ADJUST YOUR STAGE
I'm not going to lie to you, I'm pretty excited about Wednesday. Last year Paul and Cariad did a twoprov show in our gaff, something that they hadn't done before despite regularly improvising together in other shows for about 7-8 years. The results were awesome. As Steve "Hoopla" Roe put it - "one of the best impro shows I've ever seen." And he was right to do so.

Paul Foxcroft was one of the founding members of The Insti2ute, a third of Horse Aquarium, a veteran of countless improvathons around England and Canada and starred as The Doctor in our Doctor Who show last year.

Cariad Lloyd was another founding member or The Insti2ute, a third of Grand Theft Impro, has performed with Showstoppers, and was nominated for The Fosters Comedy Award last year.

Pedigree.

Their chum on The Miller's impro stage this Wednesday will be the fabulous Do Not Adjust Your Stage. DNAYS improvise an entire evening's TV schedule in the space of about 45 minutes. It's fast-paced, it's funny, it's great. So there.

Wednesday 7th March
Time: Doors 7:45pm, Show 8pm - 10pm with interval.
Cost: £5 on the door.
Where: The Miller, 96 Snowsfields Road, London, SE1 3SS.


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