All this month, we are taking a look back at articles we have written earlier this year – today we look at Stephan Mangen and new improvisers that was published back in June.

I wasn’t really sure what to call this article but since the actor inspired me to write then I thought it was only fair to make him the star of the show and the said piece.

Last week, I had the pleasure of going to the Comedy Store in London to see Paul Merton and Suki Webster’s Improv Show. It is a show with lots of short form games and every week they have two guests join them on stage to create lots of silly fun. The evening that I went and saw the show the guests were Sally Hodgekiss and Stephan Mangan.

Right at the top of the show they mentioned that this was the second time that Stephan Mangan had ever performed improv and that automatically made me happy and very excited to see the show as it is always an incredibly special time when this happens.

There is something very special about watching someone (especially in the limelight) in the early stages of performing improv. The reason why I enjoy it because you can always see an interesting balance between excitement and complete fear in their eyes. When they are someone that you know from the media this can be incredibly fun because you get to see them in a different way and out of their comfort zone which you do not get to see very often. Also, just like someone who is not in the limelight, no matter who they are you always have huge respect for them for taking the leap to put themselves in that position in the first place and allowing themselves to become that vulnerable and being prepared to making things up on the spot in front of an audience!

It was so fun seeing someone like Stephan Mangan who is so well known for his writing, acting and television appearances in a position where you see that he was living in the moment and trying to adapt and work with the suggestions and the scenes that he found himself in.

The one place that this really shone was when Stephan and Suki performed the Moving Mannequins game where an audience member moves the players into positions by moving parts of their body and then the players have to react to what is happening. The suggestion they were given was grouting the bathroom and it never got to that!

It was such a great example of improv and it was actually hilarious and also fun to see a newer improviser in that position. Out of all the games that you can play as an improviser that particular game can really put you in situations that you are not expecting so you really have to be on the ball and ready to react what comes your way. A lot of new improvisers would find this game a really intimidating game to play and even though it is Stephen did a very well and really learnt how to adapt very quickly. It was absolutely hilarious but at the same time from an improv perspective, it really created a huge entertainment and worked on the idea of failure to create the humour.

This particular game was one of the best improv scenes I have seen in a very long time. From first glance you would not even know that Stephan was new to the comedy art form and that is why improv is so special. It can make people that are new, feel intimated create these amazing scenes without even realising it. The reason why this was such a good scene is that Stephan responded in a way that was so quick and at times unpredictable.

I know I have spent this whole article talking about only one of the players in the show but I wanted to highlight improvisers still getting used to the stage. Paul, Suki and Sally are well established and knocked the show out of the park as they are all so talented and very good at the comedy form. I think sometimes new improvisers look at the pros on stage and panic and have this imposters syndrome where they feel they can never be like the on stage but this is a great example that they can.

It is obvious that Mangan’s experience as a writer and an actor definitely played in his favour but that does not always mean that improv is their thing as it is very different. The fact that this was only his second improv show was fantastic and it will be really interesting to see his shows much later in his improv career to see how he flourishes and develops.