Improv America

‘a lotta lotta laughs’

In tough times like these, who couldn’t do with a giggle? Comedy clubs are surely what everyone needs in their life right now, right? In and around London there is of course no shortage of great places to meet up with friends and laugh your belly off over some food and drinks.

A quick look in your local paper or scour of an online search engine will give you all the information you need to find your local clubs. So whether you are finding yourself spending your evenings sat at home playing solitaire on your computer or if you are looking for some light hearted entertainment with a twist, your local comedy club could well be the place for you. The beauty of the comedy club concept is that it allows unknown and emerging talents the opportunity to showcase their acts live and as a member of the audience you may be lucky enough to see a future star in the making.

Comedy clubs are found at all sorts of venues, nightclubs, bars or maybe even restaurants; therefore you can compliment your evening with food, beer and cocktails – perfect! Furthermore, don’t be fooled into thinking it is all about stand-up comedians eager to get a raucous applause, you are likely to see a range of acts such a impersonators, ventriloquists or magicians. I can’t promise you Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee but what I can promise you is a fabulous night out and hopefully (in the words of Cilla Black) ‘a lotta lotta laughs’

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Second City Improv

What do Alan Arkin, John Belushi, Bill Murray, John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, Dan Castellaneta, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert and Tina Fey all have in common? They’ve all done comedies yes, but I was hoping for a more specific answer. Be gone, you have disappointed me…….come back, please! I was joking, hand on heart. The answer I was hoping for was that they are all alumni of the comedy theatre troupe ‘The Second City’ (SC).

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Has Ricky Gervais Gone Too Far with Derek?

Ricky Gervais has this week stepped forward to defend his new programme named ‘Derek’ for the Channel 4 network in the UK – a show blighted by criticism of his apparent ‘mocking’ of the disabled. Described by Gervais and the show’s producers as the tale of a “simple, vulnerable man working in an old people’s home” the one-show special has attracted huge controversy for Gervais’ portrayal of a lead character who suffers for learning difficulties. Members of the public and certain influential comedy figures alike have voiced their concerns that the show as a whole makes something of a joke of mental health problems.

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Comedian competition

It’s tough enough trying to make a living as a stand-up comedian without other people trying to muscle in on the competitive improvisation circuit here in the States. I’m referring, of course, to those amateur comedians currently running for the Republican Party’s Presidential nomination. Those guys (and girls) should stick to politics and leave us to make the US public laugh; even though they are sometimes way better at it than I could ever be!

I kid, of course. When politicians try and be funny it inevitably backfires and they might as well walk around carrying giant banners with the world “LOSER” in six-foot high letters. When politicians are unintentionally funny, though, clips of their gaffes spread all over the world within hours and rack up millions of hits on YouTube before they’ve even realised what they said.

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Where are they now?

You can’t really talk about improvisational comedy in the US without mentioning the hugely successful TV series ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?'hosted by Drew Carey and featuring some of the best comedians from both sides of the Atlantic, along with the regular performers Wayne Brady, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie. Not a lot of people know that this unusual programme, where the stars had to create comedy sketches from suggestions shouted out by the audience or do something funny with executive office furniture, actually started life as a British radio show. It seems weird that such a visual show would be a success on radio, but those Brits always did have a weird sense of humour…

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How Does It All Survive in Chicago?

I’ve recently moved to Chicago, and I’m absolutely baffled at how so many improvisation troupes can survive in this city. Not only is iO running shows every night of the week, but you also have The Playground, CiC, ComedySportz, Second City, The Annoyance, and tons of independent troupes doing bar-prov all over the city. I understand that the community is incestuous, but I’m wondering if there’s more to this improv culture here than just students watching students.

I brought this up recently in a bar with my friend, Doug Hyde (not his real name). Doug did the Second City Conservatory and is currently performing with ComedySportz in what is known as their “rec league.” He has a theater degree from BU and is considered a “rising star” in the improv scene. How much money does he make off of improv? $0. How much has he spent? I can’t begin to wonder. But he does this stuff basically seven nights a week, and so does his girlfriend.

Is this all we’re all doing here, giving our money to teachers and then performing for one another? Is this about the pure joy, or does everyone here think they’re going to be big someday? (I can tell you that there are plenty of people who are definitely not having fun on stage here, so you can forget the pure joy theory.) Is everyone hoping to make a Second City company? I’m not sure, but I don’t think anyone else pays except ComedySportz. I’m sure people have self-produced improv shows and succeeded, but I’m betting it’s the exception rather than the rule.

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Improv America – Beware Of These Consequences Of The Show

Do you love watching Improv America? Well, the show is very entertaining and amusing but viewers must exercise caution. It is advisable to watch out for the following problems that one may face after watching the show.

An honest desire to replicate the funny tricks that were seen on the show. Do not be surprised if you contemplate the idea of using your cell phone to disturb a colleague making a presentation just to check whether the reaction will be the same as seen on TV. Your colleague may be talking about the best deals on red diesel Gloucestershire and you may be thinking how the public would react if you walked out of the office without wearing any pants.

The only thing that I can advise is – Don’t. The show is good and may even work in real life but it is best to avoid this risk. Try getting yourself into the show if you are really keen on trying the stuff you have seen on this show in real life. At least you will get paid for it.

The second amusing consequence of this show is that you will burst into laughter when reminded of funny episodes. Your colleagues or passengers in the subway may be wondering why you have started laughing like a maniac for no particular reason. Having a laptop in your hand can be even more dangerous because you may feel the urge to check it out immediately on the internet. Try to hold the urge until you get back home.

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Another Fine Comedy You’ve Gotten me Into…

Don’t you just love slapstick humour? There is just something enormously funny about seeing people doing dumb things and getting ‘hurt'as a result!!! Of course, slapstick has been around for donkey’s years and the pioneers of this genre included; Charlie Chaplin, The Three Stooges, The Keystone Kops and The Marx Brothers. However, for me, the undisputed grand masters of early slapstick humour had to be Laurel and Hardy!

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had an instant likeability. Their ill-fitting clothes and bumbling manner made them an overnight success and they appealed to cinemagoers of any age. Laurel and Hardy didn’t even have to do anything very much to raise a laugh from their audience because they both had such a wonderful variety of facial expressions! Everything about them is so memorable; the head-scratching, blubbering stupidity of Stan Laurel and the constant exasperation of Oliver Hardy (Humph!).

Besides, who could ever forget that famous scene of them delivering a piano to a house on a hill? If you were ever thinking about hiring removal services of this calibre, then self storage would definitely be a much better idea!

Of course, slapstick humour has never gone away and new acts continue to appear on the scene. But the antics of Laurel and Hardy still hold a particularly special charm; it is probably because their stories were so innocent and childlike. And if a bumbling duo could be so amusing without having to rely on four letter words, then you cannot help but wonder if the crudity and bad language of modern humour is actually necessary….

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Why America Dominates Global Music Industry

While trying for some roaming and worldwide coverage , I got into a discussion with course mates about the American music industry and its dominance of world trade in that field. The United States as most music lovers are aware have the most popular artistes in the world. When we raised this discussion in class, a few people said the reason the US has more popular artistes is because of their population size. Some of us were however able to refute the claim saying china has the population advantage more than any other country in the world. We all agreed that English language was another advantage the music industry in the United States of America has. When we have discussions like this, they are usually very educating as well as entertaining.

We continued the argument by looking at the different genres of music and the best names within each category. While we spoke about the dominance of Americans in rap music, an African joked that the people within that category are African-Americans who are actually from Africa. To this colleague, world rap is in fact dominated by Africa. We all laughed of his usual sense of humour. But the main conclusion we arrived at was that the cultural industries of the United States in general have more global appeal especially when compared to those from other developed countries. The dominance as we observed is not limited to the music industry only but also extends to the movie sector as well.

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Music Box

America is known for its quality and quantity of live improvisation and many comedians and writers have graduated from Improv groups such as Second City to go on to Saturday Night Live among other TV shows. In America improvisation is considered an art form by many of its die hard fans. In Britain however improvisation has so far taken a back seat to theatre and stand up comedy, but in recent years this has started to change. In London and Brighton improvisation nights have started to spring up here and there and with groups such as Abandonman breaking through in to the mainstream and with Fast and Loose on television is seems that improvised entertainment is finally taking off. Hoopla at The Miller Pub in London Bridge is home to numerous improvisation nights and last week I went to see Music Box a troupe who improvise a musical on the spot with the title taken from audience suggestions. The audience suggestions can of course be anything; white diesel, pigeon war, or in this instance “Squidgy”. The night I saw Music Box I was really impressed by the show. The characters were formed quickly and sustained throughout and were very likeable too. The songs were well sung and often very funny and the humour never relied on smut or lowest common denominator jokes which is sometimes the danger with improvised songs. All the players were great but in particular Steve Roe (a stalwart of all things improvised) was excellent and added a nice dose of surreal humour in to the mix. Also Georgina Bream, playing the lead in this particular musical managed to be funny, sweet, witty and truthful all at once. It would have been easy to make the protagonist in this instance a grotesque character but Bream avoided this and produced a very likeable heroine. All in al this was a lovely, funny and slick night of improvised musical comedy by a talented group.

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