Improvisation is only for the brave. And so, when reading the show’s blurb ‘a showcase of New Zealand’s finest, and a few world-renowned improv artists’, I felt hopeful. Would this show bring the hour of craziness it spoke of?
A Million Gallons of Improv
The Improvised Comedy Jam
NZ International Comedy Festival 2010
As I gently caress the vowels and consonants, I strike a sticky ‘t’, a hesitant ‘y’, and ponder the funnies of the night.
Improvisation is only for the brave. Things can so easily go horribly pear-shaped. It’s particularly difficult to be any improv act after ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ These seasoned improvisers gracing our television sets for years now, have set the bar.
And so, when reading the show’s blurb ‘a showcase of New Zealand’s finest, combined with Auckland’s best, and a few world-renowned improv artists’, I felt hopeful. Would this show bring the hour of craziness it spoke of? Would I be plucking the stitches from my spleen? This ‘new brand of improv’ that A Million Gallons (two blokes who hosted the night) were to bring to the festival stage…..no, as far as I could make out, these were your basic theatresports games.
7 actors (2 female, 5 male) cantered onto the stage to kick the night off, with one Aussie among them. Their opener -working together as one voice –that’s right, all 7 of them in unison, had to answer questions from the host.
‘Give us a line of work’ the host bellowed at the audience. I threw back, ‘entymologist!’ If the ‘mass’ lacked cohesiveness, the host got the actors to repeat the phrase at a faster pace. Clever, interdependent thinking; they were an instant hit and won the audience over in one deft manoeuvre.
The show hosts requested a certain number of actors at the start of each game or scene– and each actor was chomping at the bit to get onto the stage to do their ‘thing’. Invariably 6 jumped up, when just 2 were required. This was what I called ‘The Improv two-step’ –then the audience had to watch who would back down (which was almost everyone at once) and subsequently watch some get back on out there.
So, what would I give the show? I’m afraid, a meager 6/10. There were elements of hilarity, but in the main, a plethora of smile-inducing moments. It promised so much more but frankly the delivery was left wanting. A bit more organization would’ve gone down a treat too. The audience patiently endured the repetitive question: ‘What shall we do now, then?’
DON’T TALK ABOUT IT, IMPROVISE!!
By Catherine Pittams, May 2010
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