When you perform shows, whether it is in a local pub or in a tent at a festival there is one thing that you cannot do all the time – control your audiences. When I say that, I am not talking about the rowdy, offensive ones, no I am talking about certain shows that may stick in your mind that felt awkward and weird to you personally. There are a few shows that I can look back on where i didn’t feel that great but there was legitimate reasons why and I thought I would share a few of those with you today.

Football Crowds

The first awkward audience I ever experienced was in Newcastle when it was Derby Day and we had a show in the evening. Some of the fans from the match decided to come along to our improv show as it was in town as well. These football fans that decided to come, arrived late and were incredibly drunk. Due to they way that they were feeling they decided to keep shouting out throughout the show and interrupting. It was the first time that I felt weird being on stage in that sort of environment.

A guy from the past..

I had one show where a guy that I had a history with decided to turn up at our first ever show in the West End with a date. There was no pre-show warning and we had not spoken in a very long time and the last time we did it was not the best so it was very weird him being there. They decided to sit in the front row and he decided it would be fun to give me suggestions for scenes that had innuendos or dodgy references to them. I bit my tongue and spun all the suggestions on their head because I knew he was trying to catch me out and I was not going to let him do that. I got a lot of laughs and looked like I was having fun on stage but inside I was fuming.

A ‘Comedy’ Show

We had a show that we were asked to perform at and when we got there it was very apparent that it was a show that was mainly for stand up comedians and we were the only improv act on the bill. To add the cherry to the top of the cake, there was also hardly any audience and they clearly did not have a lot of experience with improv. The suggestions were very few and far between and we had to ‘wing it’ and make a show out of not a lot. It was very bizarre but a learning curve.

These are all examples of weird improv shows that I was a part of and I think since these times I had these shows, there has been a significant change in the way that shows are controlled and I think some of the examples above may not of been able to happen in recent times. I do think that it is important to remember these awkward moments because sometimes shows are not always how we imagine them to be. The suggestions can be bad, you may not be feeling it as a whole and sometimes you do get members in the audience you do not want there.

If you perform improv on a regular basis, there is always going to be a varied audience and their experience of how to approach suggestions for the show. Sometimes, audience members cannot see the difference between improv and stand up and it can be hard as well. I don’t look at these experiences above as awful I look at them at times that allowed me to develop as an improviser and become more aware of the types of audiences you can get. If I ever felt uncomfortable with an audience I would get security involved.

DUE TO FESTIVAL SEASON STARTING IN JULY, IMPROV CORNER IS TAKING A BREAK – WE WILL RETURN IN SEPTEMBER 2023