For June we are very excited to be able to go behind the scenes of Cambridge’s oldest Improv troupe, the group is a mixture of university students and members of the community. This month we talk to members of the troupe all about how they prepare for shows, stories from the stage and even get to speak to some of the troupes one on one to find out a bit more about them! In our last section of our interview, we sit down and do the traditional quick fire questions!

If you could be any animal what would it be and why? 

Cian: The humble sloth. Because nothing bothers a sloth. Have you ever seen a sloth running for a meeting? A sloth pulling an all-nighter to finish an essay? Of course not. Why? Because sloths don’t get stressed like that, obviously.

Dylan: A deer. They seem like quite majestic and calm animals.

Bella: City seagull, you eat chips, you’re an amazing flyer, basically nothing eats you.

Sophia: I’d be a fox because they think they’re really cool and sneaky but then you see them running about looking a bit of a mess.

Sarah: Falcon. Flight, sight and speed, baby.

Who is your favourite superhero and why? 

Sophia: Deadpool; I vibe with his humorous approach to everything in life and the fact that he stores all his weapons in a hello kitty bag.

Bella: Modesty Blaise, she fights with her fists 

Sarah: I do have a fondness for Bananaman because I dressed up as him once for a Year 10 PE day.

Cian: Deadpool. He is hilarious, which I aspire to be, and sweary, which I can’t help but be.

Dylan: It might seem uninspired but iron man. He just has a great sense of humour and wit to him. A superhero that doesn’t take themselves too seriously is always refreshing.

If a movie was made of your life, what genre would it be and who would play you? 

Cian: One of those low-budget indie tragicomedies that are utterly plotless but occasionally very quotable. Probably be played by Martin Freeman, in a Hobbity sort of mood.

Dylan: I would like it to be a Sherlock-style detective movie where I go around solving everyday problems with over-the-top complicated solutions. I think Kumail Nanjiani would play me in a funny way and the correct amount of sarcasm. Plus he has a great beard.

Bella: Genre, well hopefully a comedy, or a romance film, or anything with a happy ending I hope. Maybe if I’m super lucky it will be a sci-fi action film, there’s still time!  I’m not very good with actors but maybe Phoebe Waller-Bridge? 

Sarah: Mockumentary, and Martin Freeman, because he does an excellent “bemused” face.

Sophia: In my head it’s a Dark Comedy where I’m played by Aubrey Plaza but in reality its probably a Classic Y/A Coming of Age Tale where I’m played by Zooey Deschanel…oh no.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why? 

Cian: Switzerland. 90% because it’s immensely beautiful, 10% because Sherlock Holmes. Or maybe the 90% and the 10% are the other way round. Hmmm.

Bella: Saturn! Or Europa.

Sophia: I’ve always wanted to go to LA and see all that fame and money and craziness.

Sarah: The Carpathian Mountains. Castles and wolves, all you need in life.

Dylan: I’m a big foodie so I would go to this brunch place in Berlin. I visited a little while ago with some friends and we just went to amazing restraunts everyday. But for brunch one day we decided to visit this bicycle cafe and given the novelty of bikes all over the walls, I didn’t expect the food to be that incredible. But it was! It had some of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had and this novel invention called French toast croissants. I’ve been trying to recreate it ever since but couldn’t. The city itself is fine.

What would you do with your ’15 minutes’ of fame? 

Cian: Briefly attempt to inform the public about some of the grave socio-political issues of the world, realise they care very little about that, then concentrate instead on trying to set a hideous fashion trend to outlast my stardom by decades.

Sophia: Hopefully I’ll make someone laugh who really needed a laugh that day.

Dylan: Make lots of friends in high up places. That way I could influence (hopefully positive) change even after the 15 minutes is over.

Bella: I would address kids who struggle with their mental health, especially OCD, and let them know things can be okay. I would also play a slideshow of my pets because I think more people should know about them. 

Sarah: Hide.

What is one item you could NEVER live without? 

Cian: A pen. I mean, ideally something on which to write with it too, but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself here.

Sarah: My laptop. It’s work and leisure in one

Bella: My bed

Sophia: Just now I saw a youtube video of a guy named Samir rally driving really badly and his co-driver is screaming directions at him but he says “Don’t tell me how to drive” and it was very funny please go look it up.

Last time you laughed very hard out loud? 

Cian: Thinking about that clip from the Graham Norton Show where Chris O’Dowd drank a fly. Not even watching it. Nope. Just thinking about it.

Dylan: Having a heated argument with some friends about whether, if you are standing on the floor, you can reasonably say your socks are on the floor. Sometimes the stupidest things are the funniest.

Bella: There was a very funny fish in Blue Planet II that kept cleaning out its house. You had to be there honestly. 

Sarah: Watching the Mighty Nein’s shenanigans on Critical Role.

What is your favourite movie quote?

  Cian: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!” (Dr Strangelove; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1964).

Sarah: “Alan!” – Velociraptor, Jurassic Park 3

Dylan: You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan.

Sophia: That right there is the mail. Now let’s talk about the mail. Can we talk about the mail please, Mac? I’ve been dying to talk about the mail with you all day, okay? Pepe Silvia, this name keeps comin’ up over and over and over again. Every day Pepe’s mail’s getting sent back to me. Pepe Silvia, Pepe Silvia, I look in the mail, this whole box is Pepe Silvia! So I say to myself I gotta find this guy. I gotta go up to his office, I gotta put his mail in the guy’s god*mn hands! Otherwise he’s never gonna get it, it’s gonna keep coming back down here. So I go up to Pepe’s office and what do I find out, Mac, what do I find out? There is no Pepe Silvia. The man does not exist, okay? So I decided, ohh sh*t, buddy, I gotta dig a little deeper. There’s no Pepe Silvia, you gotta be kidding me, I got boxes full of Pepe! All right, so I start marching my way down to Carol in H.R. and I knock on her door and I say, “Caaarol, Caaarol! I gotta talk to you about Pepe!” And when I open the door, what do I find? There’s not a single god*mn desk in that office. There is no Carol in H.R. Mac, half the employees in this building have been made up. This office is a god*mn ghost town.

–          Charlie Kelly, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Season 4, Episode 10.

Bella: “Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.”