Improv

Comedy improv, not to be confused with stand-up comedy, is making up sketches, and scenes, on the spot with no script. If you’ve ever seen the TV show ‘Who’s Line is it Anyway’ or the film ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ you know what it is.

London’s underground improv scene is similar whilst mostly white, nerdy, middle-class males  prancing about on stage, including Louie Christie.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hoopla Impro (@hooplaimpro)

As a lone adventurer at heart, typically I would never join the sort of team that would have me as a member 👃 but I do occasionally perform on stage with my friends in:

• Mental Comedy
• Late night comedy improv jam
• Wildcard
• We Got Game
• Story Kitchen
• The Inflatables
• The Good Improv Show
• Wilmops – The Wilmington Arms Players
• Bubble milk

I’ve studied improv in:

• London UK
• Vancouver Canada
• Istanbul Turkey
• Skyros Island in Greece on a hippy retreat near where they filmed ‘Mamma Mia!’

Like a nerdy comedy train-spotter, I have slowly worked my way through most of the improv schools in London, including:

• The Comedy School
• The Free Association
• Story Kitchen
• Shoot From The Hip
• Monkey Toast
• Abandoman
• Hoopla
• Spontaneity Shop
• Imprology
• Crunchy Frog Collective
• Mrs Lawton’s
• Hooray Henry¹

_{[1] One of these is made up.}

Yes, you can actually learn improv. It takes a lot of training to be funny, not shit, and completely lost and unprepared on stage.

I once had a PhD proposal rejected to do with performing improv live with improvised 3D computer graphic locations… one day.