Unbridled comedy satisfaction: This week at The London Improv Comedy Club

Loretta Maine. Wednesday, 8pm  

Just how much improv do you want this week?


If the answer is "an infinite amount" then you're in luck. From now until the end of the week you can see high quality improv every night at the London Festival Of Improvisation. Six nights of awesome shows... or 'infinite'.


At The Miller we are hugely excited to have Loretta Maine (AKA Pippa Evans), one of the most exciting characters on the comedy circuit. She'll be supported by the fabulous 'Your Girlfriend', awesome lady-improv. Nowhere other than The Miller could give you such talent for only a fiver.


Then for all you other impro-fixes, there's the Slapdash Fest at The Nursery. Come along, see some international stars of improv all get together and make magic treats.


And as a little extra thrill, the awesome Texan group: Parallelogramophonograph will be performing at The Miller next week.


Woah.

WEDNESDAY 6TH JUNE

LORETTA MAINE

with YOUR GIRLFRIEND

This is either the darkest raunchy movie in history, or an evening of comedy from some of the funniest women in London.

"Psycho-intense singer-songwriter Loretta Maine makes Courtney Love look well-balanced." - Chortle

Loretta left school at the age of 15, and it was at this tender age that she found music to be a good outlet for her frustrations and began writing songs such as “Makin’ Love” and “C*** S***ing M*ther F***er”.

The darkest mind in Country music. Award-winning character comedy from Pippa Evans (Showstoppers, Fast & Loose).

Loretta will be supported by Your Girlfriend. Ultra talented uber-girls with a thirst for mirth and a sassy att.
The likes of Charlotte Gittins, Kelly Finnerty, Briony Redman and (freshly back in the UK) Monica Heisey perform just for you. They are all Your Girlfriend, you lucky devil.

WHEN: 8pm, Tuesday 29th May

COST: £5 on the door

WHERE: The Miller, 96 Snowsfields Road, London, SE1 3SS

5TH-10TH JUNE

SLAPDASH:
LONDON'S FESTIVAL OF IMPROVISATION

Recommended by The Londonist.

This Year Slapdash goes international, welcoming improvisation talent from The Netherlands, Vienna, Canada and the USA.

A full week-long programme at The Nursery, a brand new (now fully heated) venue in Southwark. Slapdash features local favourites alongside shows never before seen in London.

Including:

Kevin Tomlinson's Crazy Little thing Called Love
Parallelogramophonograph's New Works
Jim Libby and Jacob Bannigan's improvised board game
Katy and Rach
The Maydays present Guest Who
David Shore's One-men Harold

And The Slapdash Ensemble, a collection of international legends coming together for two gigs only.

Heaven for impro-heads.

Full programme and tickets at:
www.slapdashfestival.co.uk

WHEN: 8pm, Tuesday 5th June - 11pm, Sunday 10th June

COST: From £8. Get tickets from the website: SlapdashFestival.co.uk

WHERE: The Nursery, Arch 61 (Near Southwark)

*** NEXT WEEK! ***

(click for details)

It may be cold and wet outside, but we're hot and wet just thinking about it all.
Sexy times.

London Improv

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LONDONIMPROV: A REVOLUTION IN COMEDY & THEATRE

Sign up to email updates at LondonImprov@gmail.com

Games, ghosts and golems: this week at The London Improv Comedy Club

The re-animated half-corpse of a centaur, at the 50-hour Improvathon. Obvs.

Hello pretty,

How are you? You look awake, which is a great start to the day. Hey, sorry this is a bit late this week. Over the weekend I was involved with the 50-hour London Improvathon. Which is exactly what it says it is: a 50 hour long show, set in ancient Greece where gods and mortals compete in the first Olympic games, whilst protecting Athens against the dark forces of the Underworld. Pippa Evans played Jet from Gladiators. It was totally historically accurate. 

Anyway, it was 50 hours long, so yesterday was largely a sleep day. But today I am (sort of) back in the land of the living, so here's whats going on this week:

TUESDAY 15TH MAY

GHOSTBUSTERS: THE MUSICAL
(FACEBOOK LINK)

We are showing a 1hr version of the original Ghostbusters film with overlaid sketch and song tributes to the film. Think Reduced Shakespeare meets Be Kind, Rewind! This is the scratch performance of a show that we are taking to Campsite at Pulse Festival at the beginning of June. Scratch means that it will be unapologetically shoddy with scripts in hands and lots of joyful bumbling.

With just 3 actors, overalls, cans of silly string and original songs, we present a very silly and interactive show.

We encourage you to bring sheets with eye-holes, a book, marshmallows and a can of silly string (that's your proton pack). Feel free to dress up Ghostbusters stylee. The Nursery can be a chilly venue (it's in an awesome railway tunnel), so bring an extra jumper too!

Starring: Katy Schutte (The Maydays, News Revue),
Tom Frankland (lots of proper Shakespeare shows at the Globe and puppetry things)
and Jonathan Monkhouse (London Improv, Project 2).

Sketches and lyrics by Chris Mead (Ood Cast) and Katy Schutte with additional material by the cast and Rebecca Macmillan. Music by Joe Samuel (The Maydays).

WHEN: 8pm, Tuesday 15th May

COST: £5 on the door

WHERE: The Nursery, Arch 61, Great Suffolk Street, SE1 0NR

TUESDAY 15TH MAY

ARTHUR

and DO NOT ADJUST YOUR STAGE

Arthur are back, mofos! A collaboration of improvisers gather together and provide you with fast-paced, action-faced improv. Classic games and scenes with new twists accompany totally new games. Think of it as Who's Line Is It Anyway? with a cowboy hat and a helicopter.

They'll be followed by the excellent Do Not Adjust Your Stage, improvising an entire evening's television schedule in an hour. They are also fast and furious. Think of them as the Radio Times sitting on a firework, yelling Sioux battle cries.

WHEN: 8pm, Tuesday 15th May

COST: £5 on the door.

WHERE: The Miller, 96 Snowsfields Road, London, SE1 3SS

WEDNESDAY 16TH MAY

JESS FOSTEKEW: BRAVE NEW WORD
and PAUL AND CARIAD (AND JAMIE)

Jess Fostekew's Edinburgh preview is a gag-suffused show about brave words, new words and brave new words. Mainly japes about etymology. But it’s not just for nerds. There will also be a filthy joke (about nostrils).

“Really all about the jokes, she doesn’t embark on a path unless there’s funny at the end of it.” Chortle

“Tremendous charm.” Scotsman

Paul and Cariad are one of our favourite shows of all time. They have been nothing short of marvellous every time they've played our stage at The Miller, so we are delighted they'll be back. And we're even more delighted that - as he was in town for the Improvathon - they will be joined by the heroic Jamie Cavanagh, seasoned veteran of improv and 'proper actor and everything', from Rapid Fire theatre in Edmonton, Canada. Whoop!

WHEN: 8pm, Wednesday 9th May

COST: £5 on the door.

WHERE: The Miller, 96 Snowsfields Road, London, SE1 3SS

COMING SOON

(click for details)

So there's time to have a little bit of a sleep before it all starts... but then; get up, a-get on up, like a fax machine, get on up, to your next wonderful show. A-get on up.

London Improv

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LONDONIMPROV: A REVOLUTION IN COMEDY & THEATRE

Sign up to email updates at LondonImprov@gmail.com

Slow and Tight

So Fast and Loose happened. Impro is finally back on mainstream TV, at least for 8 weeks anyway. We had an impro-watching party around the main event, watched some made-up-on-the-spot telly such as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Reno 911, and we watched some YouTube clips of brilliant groups like Beer.Shark.Mice and the amazing Upright Citizens Brigade (video below). which were all magnificent, but by far the central reason for our evening was Fast & Loose.

There has not been a mainstream British impro TV show since Whose Line Is It Anyway? about 15 years ago, so the expectations amongst the impro community could be felt like a build up of silence before a tidal wave hits...

So did the wave hit with the full force of a 15-year surge and a burgeoning contemporary impro scene? Well, um,... -ish... sort of like... sort of.

The twitterverse was lit with swathes of commentators. I would say it was mostly positive. Interestingly, the good complimentary stuff seemed to come from the 'normal' TV viewer. Lots of people thought it was hilarious. That is great. The dissenters, however, appeared to be people from within the improv community. There was a noticeable voice from improvisers all over the country that was disappointed and unsatisfied.

I am mixed. I thought the show was okay, but felt very calculated and safe. One if the most joyous aspects of doing impro is that the audience call out suggestions. This does two things:

1. proves that it's improvised.

2. gives the improvisers completely bat-shit crazy unexpected suggestions to work with.
There was no audience interaction whatsoever on Fast & Loose. Why the hell not? They managed it 15 years ago with Whose Line? so why take a backwards step now?

The cast list included Pippa Evans and Humphrey Ker. These are two perfectly decent improvisers who could cope with any suggestion the audience could muster. Future cast members for the series include Ruth Bratt and Dave Reed, who are also off-the-cuff masters. The Fast & Loose decision-makers are happy to use less-well-known but entirely capable improvisers, but it appears that due to some wet fear of risk-taking they also had to go down the danger-free route of stand-up comedians and a fail-safe format. The name of the show ended up being quite the opposite of the truth.

My lady-cohort observed that if you wanted to broadcast a show about mime, you would go and talk to some mime artists; find out if there was a community of people who do mime and which performers those mime artists respect most. You would work with those maestros to form the best mime format you could for your TV show and the best mimists for your cast.

Why then, didn't Fast & Loose work more with prominent people in the improvisation circuit? There are people out there who've practiced incessantly on the art of improv for years and years and are regarded as figureheads in the community. Dylan Emery is one of the creators of Showstoppers, performs in Grand Theft Impro, runs the Crunchy Frog Collective, part of the astounding School of Night and is well regarded as a bit of a powerhouse in making existing improvisers work harder and be better since he took up the mantel that Alan Marriott left behind when he moved back home to Canada.
Steve Roe almost single-handedly runs Hoopla! and you won't find anyone battling harder to get improv out of dingy pub cellars and into the public eye. He is also a brilliant improviser himself.
Katy Schutte is just about one of the best improvisers I've ever worked with and imparts the knowledge she has gained from training in (impro-Mecca) Chicago to our little island.

Any one of these people could have given Fast & Loose a list of incredible, reliable, hilarious improvisers (including themselves) who would have astounded the audience. They'd have had some pretty brilliant ideas about show formats too, that certainly wouldn't have felt as stale as F&L did for a lot of it. These are people that trust in the abilities of fellow improvisers, and prove it by performing in front of real-life audiences with them. 'Them' includes me, and I'm a long way away from the best improviser in town.

When you perform live you don't even get to edit out the poorer bits in post-production like they can with TV. If F&L producers were scared of going the whole hog and committing to impro, why didn't they learn from the success of Whose Line.. and allow the performers to fly?

Fast & Loose just didn't seem to stray that far from the sterile safety we see in Mock the Week; a show that willfully gives the impression it is impro, but is not even close:
Exhibit A It doesn't really have improvisers in it.
Exhibit B It is mostly made up of stand-up comedians.
Exhibit C Everything just looks, well.. rehearsed.

hmm.

Wow. that's all pretty negative. There are positive things that came out of the Fast & Loose series debut. For a start, with the above list of evidence you can now delete Exhibit A.
F&L did actually have improvisers in it... It's a start.

Also, there were some bits that were actually impro. The dinner scene was a TV evilution of a 'Scene Replay' impro game, albeit rushed through.

The sideways floor thingy near the end was pretty much a classic 'Genre Swap' but with an added aspect you can't easily do live on stage in a room above a pub, with no budget because it's hard to get a decent-sized audience because no-one knows about improv because TV execs have been too scared to put it on TV even though everyone EVERYONE liked a show that was on 15 years ago. That game worked really well and the twitterverse was almost unanimous in it's appreciation.

So, I guess in summary; it was frustrating for improvisers or impro-fans who've seen just how good impro can be; and what can possibly be achieved live on stage. Those who have seen entire musicals and shakespearian style plays created in a moment, those who have been whisked along an intricate weave of intertwining storylines and characters, those who have seen skilled actors work together to create miraculous and hilarious things on stage... will have been rather underwhelmed.

But for anyone who doesn't know about improv and hasn't been exposed to it, well, it may have opened their eyes to a whole new form of performance that isn't the standard vanilla 'much-repeated one man stand-up routine with the same jokes coming up time and time again but with slightly different delivery'. Which can only be a good thing. It's a tentative toe-dip in an improv pool that can only be improved by a braver jump into the shallow end. And then a doggy paddle.

For impro virgins with a whetted appetite, there's so much to discover (shortform, longform, musicals, theatresports, impro soaps, harolds). If you want to discover more, don't limit yourself to a TV show that's controlled by TV executives, seek out the good stuff:

in London:
hoopla!
showstoppers
music box
8bit
grand theft impro
school of night
horse aquarium

in Brighton:
the maydays
the noise next door

anywhere else:
start from the London Improv website, and work outwards.

and then demand that TV execs allow this kind of thing to happen:


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