After two weeks in the UK, I woke up today finally adjusted to the time change, just in time to fly back to LA tomorrow. Great work, body.
It’s raining in London, which is what you want as a tourist. Seriously! I picture London fashionable but gloomy. I’ve been enjoying the grey skies from the top of double decker buses. Climbing a double decker bus as it pulls away from the stop feels just like climbing up a ferry.
Sarah, Monika and Billy have gone home or on to other travels. Jim and I are making a fast stop in London to visit the Free Association theatre. Jim co-founded it, and it’s a favorite of mine (thank you for having us, Graham and Alex and Naomi). I’m writing this in the FA’s green room, and I’m drinking a tea (Earl Grey, lemon, one cube of sugar) I bought from the bar downstairs. The bar seems full of attractive people with rich clothes, but maybe I’m just intimidated by the accents.
Passion of Smaller Theaters
The FA teaches game of the scene. That’s rare in a non-UCB improv theater. They also encourage train students “voice of reason,” pulling premise and the Harold. All pretty rare. Way more common to see theaters that are a mixture of short-form games and narrative shows. Not that theaters need to do it “my” way, but it feels like home here.
I know I’ve lobbied against pulling premise and the Harold in this space, but that’s in reaction to the dominance of my beloved UCB in Los Angeles. On the road, I’m the biggest advocate for game, premise and Harold you could find. You guys wouldn’t recognize me!
Teaching on the road makes me appreciate the passion that smaller theater communities have for improv. It’s one thing to be obsessed with improv if you’re on Harold Night at UCB — with full enthusiastic houses in a cool theater in a big city. It’s quite another to do a Harold in a rented event space upstairs from a bar with 10 people watching (not thinking of any place in particular — that’s just typical of what I’ve seen). There’s no coolness in it. It’s almost a leap of faith, that if they labor at this difficult form that some magic community will evolve.
We spent five nights in Liverpool courtesy of The Atom Theater (Thank you Al and Becky). They’re another rare improv outfit to focus on game, playing it real, premise and Harold. Really funny players too.
One asset the Liverpudlians have is great audiences. We did two shows and both nights we had engaged and reactive crowds. Lots of “ohhhs” and “ahhhhs.” All of the UK is funny, but Liverpool seems to have an extra helping of bemused cynicism. Maybe it’s all the Beatles docs I’ve seen, but in Liverpool I feel like eveyrone is , metaphorically speaking, a salty sailor ready to hit the pubs.
I dragged my friends to my usual round of Beatles tourism, by the way. New this time was a trip to Pete Best’s childhood home where Pete’s nephew gave us a tour of the homemade rock club where the high school Beatles did their first shows. Roag Best Jr. was a charming storyteller — truly the best Beatles guide I’ve encountered. Though it’s funny to hear such a Pete Best-centered version of the tale. Kinda like hearing Star Wars told from the point of view of Luke’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru who are killed 1/3 of the way into the first movie.
Another theater community I like is the GIT - Glasgow Improv Theater. True improv nerds there. They took a million classes from me and others online over the pandemic. They’re so truly funny. The Glasgow team “Yer Da” (think “Your Mom”) crushed their set at the Edinburgh International Improv Festival.
The EIIF was really fun, by the way (thank you Jason and Laura). Lots of funny and fun people wandering as a pack from the shows at the Scottish Storytelling Center to the jams at the Monkey Barrel. A mini roaming improv village.
Plus I got to see Tom Riddle’s grave.
People ask me to summarize the differences in improv from country to country. But it’s the theaters that make the biggest difference. If the founder studied at UCB or a Keith Johnstone theater — that ends up having a way bigger impact than the country. Wait, the audience also matters. Having funny people come watch, like in Liverpool, helps.
So does the presence of other good improv shows to watch. This is probably the things that small improv communities are lacking the most. Live in person examples of a variety of approaches. Even in the early days of UCB New York, when there was just one theater, we had The Swarm’s patience, Respecto’s speed, ASSSCAT’s profane madness and Mother’s commitment to acting — all to inspire different kinds of shows. No matter how devoted a team is, it’s tough if they’re the only team in town.
I guess that’s how people like me end up being able to travel! The UK theaters are happy to see a show from an outside team! And someone to present some new exercises and notes.
Wide Eyes and Furrowed Brows
Here’s my dumbest and most fun exercise I’ve been doing:
Three people up. Two must keep their eyes wide open the whole time and the third has to keep their forehead furrowed.
The “wide eyed” people are supposed to be “fools” and the “furrowed brow” people should be the “voice of reason.”
But I don’t even care if they actually play fools or voices of reason. I just make sure 2 have eyes wide and the other has a furrowed brow.
It kinda works!
Okay, see you next week when I’m exhausted again!
Come to Improv Theatre Sydney, Will!
Thanks for a great workshop yesterday Will. Loved the cat action in the show too!