Welcome to the feature which we are going to feature ever so often as part of Improv Corner. Ever so often. we are going to talk to improv acts about some of their favourite things about the comedy form. Today we speak to different acts performing at The Greater Manchester Improv Festival between June 6th-8th 2025 at The Kings Arms, Salford with all tickets being £5.

What is your Favourite: 

Improv style

“As a group, most of us started in shortform, but love doing longform too. What we think is great about this festival is we’ve found a really strong balance of different styles, genres and forms. from quick-fire competitive shortform to quick-witted Shakespearean longform, from musicals to murder mysteries, there’s really a little bit of something for everyone here.” Sean, The Totally Improvised Musical

Short form game

“We have a game called Roll Play, where the outcome of a player’s actions is determined by the throw of a dice. You’re really putting your fate in the hands of a dice and means the story and your reaction can go anywhere. Pure chaotic good.”Bron, ComedySportz

“New choice! Followed closely by three-way dub. New choice is just great because it shows you how a great a scene can be if your reject your first reactions for things. Three way dub is a mind bender but it’s great fun if you get the hang of it!” Alex, Skunkhaus

Improv act 

“The super cheesy answer is every act taking part in this festival! But I love cheese, its our favourite audience suggestion! But also, a lot of us have been really enjoying Schwartz and Friends clips online.” Bron, ComedySportz

Film or television show

“Can I cheat by mentioning a FEW faves? Anything that has a high re-watchability rate due to a dense joke count. The Simpsons, This Country, The whole Tina Fey Oeuvre. I also like the playfulness of Taskmaster. That’s one that seems tailored for improv fans.” Kate, Murder Inc.

Venue to perform at

“There are lots of great small venues across the city, but of course we need to highlight the Kings Arms, Salford home of the Greater Manchester Improv Festival. It’s an award-winning theatre pub and it has its own cat. Oh, and it’s where Bron and I had our wedding reception, so we have a lot of love for it.” Sean, The Totally Improvised Musical

Way to wind down

“Hanging out with friends.” Alex, Skunkhaus

Way to warm up 

“We like to make sure we do a mixture of physical and mental warm ups before each show, get our bodies moving and our brains ready to invent and react in the moment!” Jonathan, Roll With It Improv

“We like doing dullprov.” Anthony, Absolute Onions

Suggestion

“A judgemental judge.” Emma, The Communimps

Show by another improv act

“Ooh that’s a tough one I’m a big fan of the musical improv troupes because they are doing improv with an extra layer of difficulty and it’s just all the more amazing and impressive. Baby Wants Candy was one of my favourite shows last time I went to Edinburgh fringe.” Alex, Skunkhaus

Memory of a show

“An audience member shouted out to have an audience member play in one of the games as a suggestion. So, we did what every great improviser would do… YES AND! We brought someone up from the crowd and got them involved in the scene. Thankfully they were good fun and enjoyed themselves.” Millie, Ladies Who Improv

“It involved ending it all in a fish threshing machine!” Anthony, Absolute Onions

Part of rehearsing a show

“We like to experiment with new games and format a lot to keep things fresh, so occasionally we’ll try something new out and you can just feel that it’s going to fit perfectly into our shows, and there’s a lot of excitement when you can feel a format working.” Jonathan, Roll With It Improv

Thing about performing 

“I love that even though we’re pratting about, improv still has the power to move people. We’ve had some very poignant moments come from scenes that were ostensibly “comedy” – I remember the audience audibly gasping once during our Soap Opera game when one character betrayed another, because they were so genuinely invested in the narrative. Nothing beats the feeling of being able to pull something like that out of thin air.” James, Improv On Demand

“I love it when it all just seems to come together! Sometimes right at the end and it’s like you’ve built a tower of cards or pulled off an awesome magic trick right in front of an audience and you think; right, we’ve exceeded ourselves here and we’ll never be able to recreate this again but it was awesome.” Alex, Skunkhaus

Quote

“Your job as an improviser is to make others look good.” Emma, The Communimps

“Love, and do what you like.” Anthony, Absolute Onions

Thing about the improv industry at the moment

“I love that the improv scene – specifically the Manchester improv scene – is so healthy and diverse at the moment that something like GMIF is even possible. Most of us know each other from performing on various billings together so it’s easy for us to trick ourselves into thinking it’s a small community, but the fact that there are enough unique acts in Greater Manchester alone to fill a venue across three days straight without repeats? It gives me so much hope for the future.” James, Improv On Demand

Thing about this year so far?

“It feels like the community has really come together for 2025. With the launch of Improv Wednesdays at 33 Oldham Street every week and the Greater Manchester Improv Festival in June.” Bron, ComedySportz

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