Adam Meggido tells how this year’s Festival may be in the vanguard of an improvisation revolution Just making it up as they go along
To those of you who don’t like improvisation, I sympathise.
At its worst, improv is scrappy and self-indulgent. The performers vary from awkward and amateurish to geeky and glib. The whole thing can feel very uncomfortable.
However, this Fringe might be the time for you give improv another chance.
The legendary British theatre maverick Ken Campbell threw down a gauntlet, saying, “There’s no point improvising unless it’s better than scripted stuff!”
Campbell wasn’t suggesting that the resultant content, if written down, should be better than something a writer has time to refine and polish (although that seems no bad thing to aspire to). Instead, Ken was referring the spirit of the enterprise.
Audiences, knowing the performers are making everything up in the moment, can refresh their appreciation of theatre’s essential quality – its liveness.
The high wire act is nothing without risk. In these uncertain times, audiences are showing greater appreciation for performers who dare to play boldly in the realm of the unknown.
In the late ’80s, the stars of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and The Comedy Store Players did much to boost the public’s awareness (and appreciation) of improvisation. Paul Merton, Colin Mochrie, Josie Lawrence, Greg Proops, Ryan Stiles, Mike Mcshane and others, are still a big draw for audiences 30 years after improv’s television profile peaked in the UK. However, most attempts to televise improv since have failed to make an impact.
Recently, improvisation has found another route onto the screen. Since Larry David’s semi-scripted HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, there has been a rise in the number of shows where actors improvise scene content and dialogue. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s
The Trip is a particularly engaging example. Peter Kay took a similar approach with a Car Share one-off special.
Murder In Successville, part-story, part-game show, is generated by spontaneous interaction between cast and special guest. And members of my troupe, Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, have been part of this trend too, with Ruth Bratt as series regular Roche in BBC’S Baftawinning People Just Do Nothing, and Lucy Trodd in Channel 4’s recent hit Lee and Dean – both shows featuring improvisation by the actors. Earlier this year I improvised eight online therapy sessions with ventriloquist and Edinburgh favourite Nina Conti.
Improv thrives in Canada and the US where the artform feeds straight into mainstream comedy, film and television. Their list of improv alums includes Tina Fey, Steve Carrell, Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert, and many others. But being in an improv group serves as a common training for writers in North America too. Watch
The Simpsons, Family Guy, Bojack Horseman, and you will find examples of, and direct references to, improv.
Although the UK has been slower to embrace the potential of improvisation for performers and writers in the mainstream, a revival has nevertheless been gathering momentum.
Improv is austerity-friendly. It rarely needs a set, props, costumes, rehearsals, or a production team. Like musicians, the players don’t even have to know each other in order to jam together. This revival in low-cost entertainment coincides with the rapid growth of social media, where new groups can promote their shows for free. And a younger generation, born into the internet age, is exploring less virtual and more visceral, live, interactive entertainment, from immersive theatre events to escape rooms and cosplay.
If you are already a fan of improv, you’re spoiled for choice at the Fringe, with everything from murder/ mysteries to Regency romance. If you are looking to catch some improv for the first time – and I hope that you will – be aware that all improv is different.
For quickfire games, songs and scenes à la Whose Line?
check out The Noise Next Door, or Marcus Brigstocke and friends in There Will Be Cake. The charming Italian company I Bugiardini improvise a silent movie (you don’t have to speak English or any other language to enjoy it). The talented performers of Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel guarantee hilarity and elegance in equal measure. Musical acts include the high octane ‘hip hop-rov’ of Abandoman, and, if you haven’t yet seen it - Showstopper!
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical started out as a late-night experiment in a small portacabin in George Square, back in 2008. Our aim was to create a different musical every night. Not an improv show with songs – there were plenty of them, and good ones too – but instead a show that felt like a real musical, just one that happened to be improvised. Showstopper! places audience experience at the heart of the show, engaging with them throughout the action, requesting song styles, locations where scenes are set, and voting to determine where the story should go (‘Does she take the job or turn it down?’). We want the audience to feel like the star of our show. Edinburgh feels like home for Showstopper! where audiences have nurtured and followed us faithfully for years. They were prepared to stick with us as we learned ways to develop the show and realise our vision. Our regular show is family-friendly but we also have another show designed specifically for kids.
The improv revival shows no signs of slowing down. Indeed, it is likely to reach a much wider audience once TV finds trust in it again, probably within the next few years. This new wave of improv needs a champion – a producer with the guts to see a show they love and simply put it on television as it is.
As much as TV needs some good improv shows again, there is also an urgent societal need for the skills and ethos practiced by improvisers, whose training is based on finding agreement and working with each other’s ideas. People who are prepared to listen without prejudice and co-operate without fear (or in spite of it), are desperately needed right now.
If you haven’t enjoyed improv in the past, times are changing, and now is the time to give it another go. Don’t wait for the television executives to find their backbones, say you saw it here first at the Fringe.
● Adam Meggido is the Artistic Director of the Olivier Award winning Showstopper! The Improvised Musical which will be at The Pleasance Grand until 26 August. For tickets go to www.pleasance.co.uk
This article features sections from his forthcoming book Improv Beyond Rules: A Practical Guide To Narrative Improvisation, to be published by Nick Hern Books in 2019.
Improv is austerity friendly. It rarely needs a set, props, costumes, rehearsals, or a production team