Hello! Welcome back to the Improv Diaries! New Look, New Season, lots more improv! How was your summer? Did you have a nice time? Did you manage to get to any comedy festivals? Well as you will soon see, this summer has been a busy one for me and I have kept a diary along the way! The normal format of Improv Diaries with a case study will start again next week but here is a Bumper Summer Edition for you to read! Enjoy!

29/7/19

This week we had a rehearsal with Paul and Jimmy again – it was all about running through the whole show. It went really well again, their new ideas have meant that we have thought about games and been able to develop some on the go. I really like what we have managed to achieve with Greatest Hits. It is our biggest and most popular game that we are really putting a lot of time into it to make it as big and great as we can.

1/8/19

Saw the theatre play Noises Off tonight! Whilst it may be a scripted play, there was so much in it that actually was really interesting and relevant to improv. The play has so much physicality that it is so entertaining and it also has part of it that has no audio and that is also very funny watching the physicality in the scenes.

4/8/19

Today we had final rehearsals for City Impro Laugh Island – it is always really fun catching up with the group and I always have a fantastic time performing with them. There has been a few changes to the show so we have adjusted to them to make sure that they work well. They are like my second improv family after Punders and sad that my time working with them this year is coming to an end. I am really looking forward to Camden Fringe and it is going to be super fun.

8/8/19

Hello been up the Edinburgh Fringe for the last few days which have been intense. I have deliberately not gone to see many improv shows as I see and interview so many groups so instead I went to loads of stand up and theatre. I went to all of Noise Next Door shows, well two of them and was so glad I did. They really up their game at Edinburgh and love seeing them. Their afternoon show was wacky and fun and the ending an audience member nearly knocked Matt out!

I felt sorry for Robin as he had coke poured down his trousers and Sam nearly fell off the stage as a dinosaur! Not your average improv show but great to see what happens when improv shows get a bit out of your hands. Their evening lock in show was great fun and was the Noise Next Door that I know and love.

I didn’t know what I would think of them as haven’t seen them since Tom left and they have had so many lineup changes (with matt leaving and then returning, Charlie leaving and Robin joining) but it still works great and are still hilarious. The new arrangement with no Charlie and a Robin refreshes it and brings more wacky as I feel they always Try and pimp up Robin as he is the newbie / youngest and its so great. They always inspire me to be a better improviser when  I see them.

9/8/19

Today was day one for Laugh Island at Camden Fringe. The location of the Canal Café is in a really nice area near little Venice and it really lovely being able to walk along a canal every time that we do a show.  At tonight’s show I was Dorothy the German teacher who loved end of the world films. In themed dates i was able to use my only Made In Chelsea knowledge I know of Jamie going on strictly and it got a huge laugh and I got to sing This Is Halloween.  I also  got to use my silent film improv training.

10/8/19

Tonight was Laugh Island day 2 at Camden Fringe. This time I was Lola the lawyer who loved horror films and for someone who doesn’t watch them I loved doing puns for it. My favourites included using the films What Lies Beneath, Saw, IT. Also its nice to see all the acts of Law i learnt in one year of Journalism got put to good use today as well being able to use the Bend and Snap from legally blonde. Such a fun show, so sad it is all ending tomorrow.

11/8/19

Tonight was the last performance of Laugh Island at Camden Fringe and I think the last performance of the show as well. It was OK, the crowd was a bit of the weird one and I ended up having to play a very similar character to the day before. I tried to think of it as fresh show but the audience just did not react a lot throughout to any of us so it was a very difficult show to play. I wasn’t feeling it and I know some of the other players were not feeling it too, so it was sort of an anti climax to the run. Saying that, we were all in good mood and we ended up celebrating with a drink at the end of the night.

13/8/19

Today we had rehearsals for our Punderfest show on Friday – it was so fun to be back with Punders it has been a long time, well two weeks, since I have been in the same room as them. It was so fun to do rehearsals and there was a lot of laughs. Paul joined us as he is representing City Impro at our show and it is really fun to have that different angle to short form games. Today we focussed on the games that we are playing in shows this weekend and we are super excited as we are also heading to Camden Fringe as well.

16/8/19

Hello tonight was the first Pundefest – it went so well! All of the acts were so good and there was such a good audience turnout. This was the first time that we did a whole hour in a Punder show instead of having a break and it worked so well. The energy kept going and so did the fun. The melodies on Greatest Hits were on point and all the games went across really well with the audience. It was such a fun night and it felt like such an achievement being able to put on a show like that.

17/8/19 

Tonight we took part in City Impro’s Improv Deathmatch, going into it we knew we were not going to win as they had a lot of friends in the audience but it was fine as it was so much fun! They are such as fun group to be around and it was such a great little venue to do a show that I had a whale of a time! We played all our games as best as we could and we even got to play Story Story Die! I love that game and I am so happy I got to play it for the first time in forever. It was a fun night and stayed behind with the guys by celebrating with them afterwards

20 /8/19

Hello! This week we didn’t have many people at rehearsals so we decided to use it to plan the next set of shows as it is really important. It is sometimes nice to have these mini meetings because it means that you can stay focused on what you want to do as a team and not waste time planning games when everyone is around. Yiannis, Amanda and I sat down and worked out what was happening and came up with a game plan.

28/02/19

Hello! Today we had rehearsals and the return of Jake to the party! This week we focussed on the show that we have at Swipe Right at the weekend – we are trying out a lot of new games as we want to mix up the running order of our main show so thought it would be a good place to try out new content. A lot of the new games run on high energy and wit and they were so fun to play that we all kept breaking down in laughter.