Backstreet’s back
Don’t miss it!
Whose Line is it Anyway, say organisers.
Ahead of the show, tomorrow, at Ductac, Surka and Mathew gave a taste of the most absurd and hilarious unscripted moments from their tour in India. And what their fans can expect once they land in the UAE.
ABISH MATHEW
“Recently, we started to improv that Kenny was possessed by a ghost. Like most possessed ghosts, he started contorting his body, jumping and running across the room. Things took a turn when he decided to climb the wall, fell down mid-act and broke his leg. In improv, one of the golden rules is to say yes to everything. So for the rest of the scene, Kenny was hopping on one leg and the act went on. The audience was in awe. It actually generated more audience interaction, with real doctors shouting out advice on how to help, and we improv-ed as bad doctors trying to help Kenny — it was a hilarious and unforgettable night.”
“Part of improv is committing fully to the team — whether you like it or not. There was this one point, where in one of our first shows as The Improvisers, Kaneez and Kenny wanted to sing by Backstreet Boys. It sounds like fun, you know — you’re singing a retro song and dancing to the ’90s. Even between the four of us, we were polarised about it.
“But that’s the spirit of improv — even if we were unsure, you say yes and support. So even though we went out on stage to a confounded audience, soon enough, seeing our commitment to this absurd random song got them laughing their hearts out.”
The trifecta of jams
“All four of us can sing and we have integrated that into the show. We sometimes randomly get a guitar and start a musical improv with the audience. One of the games we play is three words; where we get the audience to shout out three words and we have to create melody and lyrics on the spot. One time, the three words we got were chocolate, umbrella, cricket and we somehow wove a song of missing a cricket match and having to hold an umbrella in the chocolate rain.
It was so illogical but the melody and the chorus we created was so infectious that whenever the chorus came along the audience started singing, “Chocolate Umbrella Cricket.”
It’s moments like that, that make us go back to improv — we couldn’t believe we made that happen on the spot and that we wouldn’t be able to replicate that. It was like a special moment between us and the 300 people in the audience.”
KANEEZ SURKA
“Strangely, one of my go-to characters to improv is an old lady or young girl. Comedy can be taught to a certain extent — not standup comedy — but strangely I started acted like an elderly conservative stand-up comedy trainer to Kanan
Tickets for The Improvisers, on tomorrow at Ductac, start at Dh250 and are available on ductac.org or platinumlist. net. Doors open at 7.30pm and show starts at 8pm.