Tuesday 20 May 2014

The Improvised Improv Show Goes to Brighton!

I'll fill in more details about the previous year the show has been running in due course, but as I have only just decided to write this as a blog, I will start with things as fresh in the memory as possible!

This year I was accepted to put on three shows as part of the Brighton Fringe; The Sinister Tales of Doctor Synistra (an improv horror show), Amusia (my solo musical comedy show) and The Pirate Captain's Silly Sea Shanties - Arrr, it be a free family show, mattes! Each of these shows has been performed three times so far (and gone really well, I might add), and with a further 3 performances still to catch on the 30th, 31st of May and 1st of June - plug!

Upon announcing that these shows would be taking place, my aunt incredibly generously gave me the use of her holiday home in Brighton as she and her husband would not be using it during that time. I say aunt, I'm actually her cousin-once-removed, or as she calls my generation - the cousins who ought to be removed, but that's a little convoluted for people who don't really need to know all those details, so I've just been referring to it as 'my aunt's flat', which is where I currently sit typing this.

Seeing as it was now going to cost me very little to be in Brighton, I made the decision to spend as much of the fringe as I could in Brighton, traveling back up to London only to work (I busk for a living and, at this time of year it's only really worth doing at the weekends and if the weather is good). And seeing as was here, I thought I could put on The Improvised Improv show to see what it's like in a different location! I contacted Alex Petty of The Laughing Horse and asked if he had any gaps, and there was a show that had dropped out, so I could put it on and without any of those pesky fees you usually have to pay to cover advertising and professionalism!

With only a week to advertise the show, I printed posters and flyers in black and white and photocopied them in Brighton's lovely Jubile Library for only a couple of quid, and began sticking them up / handing them out. I also posted it all over Facebook and twitter.

Unfortunately I had chosen to do the show on weekdays, and most of the improvisers who were performing at the fringe were only down from London for the weekends so I hoped that I would get some local support! I had absolutely no idea what to expect! Was Brighton's improv community going to support me? Or was I going to have to do my first solo improv show in front of a crowd that had paid nothing? All I knew is that whatever happened it would be awesome...

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