#ChicaGoUK: Chris Mead

Seriously.. more? Yes.
Chris Mead is one quarter/half of two-to-four-person-sci-fi improv duo/group Project Two. He also runs cult Doctor Who podcast The Ood Cast. He's off to Chicago in exactly one week.

Tell us a bit about yourself..

I'm just under 6 foot. I have dark blonde hair and blue eyes. I smile with my mouth closed because my teeth are worn and uneven. I like my nose, it's pointy. My skin's starting to show my age so I moisturise daily. When I really laugh I always get tears in my eyes. I like comic books and films by Woody Allen, the Coen Brothers, Wes Anderson and those guys that made Crank. I have flat feet and a bleeding liberal heart. I'm a Christian but not like that. I have an obsession with popular (geek) culture, self-help books, salted caramel and improv.

What's the best improv call-out you've ever heard?

Anything that my wife comes up with. She's not an improviser herself but undertakes her role as audience suggestion-giver with a zeal that borders on fanaticism. Whereas one might expect such classics as film noir, taxidermy and kitchen during the course of an evening, what you might get when Laura is in the audience would be more along the lines of Tartuffe, bounty hunter, episiotomy, Westeros, Stockholm syndrome and, on one particularly memorable occasion, chode (I had to look this one up on Urban Dictionary). I know that simple suggestions often yield the best scenes but I just love the look on people's faces when she gets up a good head of steam.

Which improv course are you doing, and what made you choose that one?

I'm off to do the Annoyance Theatre intensive. There are many reasons for this but they can basically be boiled down to the following three: time, money and Susan Messing.

When/how did you start planning your trip?

I started planning the trip in 2001 when I saw Baby Wants Candy at the Edinburgh Fringe and found the laws of theatre didn't make sense anymore. I saw their entire month's run that year and resolved immediately to learn to do what they did. I have to admit preparations for the trip have been pretty slow over this last decade but I've really kicked it up a gear in the last few months.

What are you most excited about?

I don't understand the question. Instead let me make a short list of what I'm not excited about: nothing.

Are there any shows you HAVE to see while you're over there?

I will watch improv of every stripe I can while I'm out there. I'll watch free shows and beginner Harold groups and main stage spectaculars and legends and train wrecks and crazy ass 'We'll improvise your LinkedIn page' experiments. I'll watch Jon talking in his sleep. If I could prepare improv in solution and inject it directly into my veins I would. I'm going to be at the frickin' well spring of improv for 10 days, what won't I watch?

Also TJ & Dave.

What are you going to do in chicago when you're not improvising?

Closing my eyes for the 300-400 milliseconds it takes me to blink.

How do you think the trip will change you?

I'll probably be the best stand-up the world has ever seen.

Do you think you'll go back another time?

This trip is actually a recce for the full fat, balls-to-the-wall 2 month improv odyssey I'm planning for next year. Built into the very foundations of this trip is the expectation I'll be back for an extended stay within a year. So this one is like an hors d'oeuvre.

Or an hors d'improv if you will.

If you could name a new impro group anything you like, what would it be?

I think I just answered that in the last question.


Chris performs in Project Two, and writes and performs The Ood Cast.
His Twitter handle is @TheOodCast.
Follow all the UK improvisers going to Chicago at #ChicaGoUK.