All this month we are talking to acts that are performing at the Liverpool Improv Festival which takes place between Thursday the 24th – Sunday the 27th of April 2025. Today we speak to Neil+1 about the show Café Amour

Tell Us about:

Your latest improv show for Liverpool Improv Festival? 

Neil+1 Presents Café Amour is a two-person show about love and relationships, only I don’t know who my co-star is yet. A random, non-improviser audience member will join me on stage as we go on a theatrical journey to demystify matters of the heart. No gimmicks or safety nets, will love tear us apart or bring us together?

Your favourite suggestion you have been given?

I don’t have a favourite because I always end up forgetting them. But one memorable show back in my younger days; I used to perform with a troupe in one of Dublin’s most famous LGBT+ bars, Panti Bar. In total innocence, I took the suggestion “Boiler House” and proceeded to do a scene where I was a plumber. At the time I could not understand why people found the scene so funny before anything had even developed. To this day I have never lived it down.

Your favourite venue to perform at:

My haunt is the Teacher’s Club in Dublin so I’m obviously partial to that venue, but I do love Tinta Roja in Barcelona.

Improv hero:

God this question gets people in trouble! There’s never just one but if I was to go back to my roots it’s Ryan Stiles of Whose Line fame. I’ve never met him and it’s a dream to. When I was a teenager I wanted to grow up and be Ryan Stiles!

Dream venue to play at:

It’s got to be Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota. What an epic venue. Dying to go back!

Describe the feeling you get when you walk on stage to do a show:

Aside from the obvious feelings, I’m just grateful that I can be on stage not worry about real life stuff while I’m there. But I do also hear my Dad saying “XYZ Neil – eXamine Your Zipper”. Definitely important too.

The hardest improv suggestion to perform and why:

There are no hard suggestions. That’s a myth. It’s what you do with the suggestion that matters. If you take a suggestion on its face value, you’re limiting an infinite number of possibilities down to just one.

Essential items you always take with you to a show?

A manbag made from recycled articulated lorry tyres. Its what’s in it that’s the real mystery. (A phone charger, Airpods, and a hat. Mystery solved)

Describe your fans in three words:

Best parents ever.

What we can look forward to from you this year: 

It’s a fine line between “look forward to” and “endure” but onstage genuine unpredictability and a blend of laughter and drama. Off stage, if I talk too much about movies and improv its ok to walk away. Unless we are in the pub and it’s your round.

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