Improvising a Musical
It's nearly a year since the CSz team started putting on the Totally Improvised Musical, and I'm loving every minute. The team have been doing improv for years, of course. Since the end of the 'pando' we've really got into our stride with this new Manchester Musical. We have events booked into art centre theatres and festivals and I'd I'll love to on a tour next year.
It's given me a newfound affection for Musicals. The last musical comedy I saw live was The Book of Mormon and before that probably Little Shop of Horrors.
The improvised musical is of course different every time. If you're a fan of the Edinburgh festival or live in London, you might have been lucky enough to see Showstopper or Baby Wants Candy. Both are amazing, and the industry benchmark for just how good these shows can be. I saw Showstopper for the first time in Edinburgh this year, with a full house and a standing ovation.
As they say, this is Manchester and 'we do things differently here'. It's great to be putting on our own Manchester Musical every month in the centre of town.
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I was invited to give a talk at PechaKucha Manchester recently. It's a speaking format using 20 slides, and 20 seconds on each slide, to give a talk of around 6 minutes...pretty tight.
I chose to speak about my near 20 years in comedy and try and condense it right down. My relocating to Manchester years ago to make a go of stand-up. Getting a comedy agent, taking up improv, performing at the Edinburgh festival and going on tour support around the country with comedians far more well-known than myself!
It was a liberating talk to give. I'd not given it much thought before suggesting the idea and it was a nice way to reaffirm my personal history. I'm often so busy thinking about my next project that perhaps I don't always acknowledge the skill of my experience that I should give myself credit for.
Pecha Kucha is a global format which takes place all over the world. The event I attended had scientists, engineers, clothing manufacturers, climate change specialists and me, I might have felt a little out of place, but on refl,ection I wasn't. Stand-up comedy is a very niche career choice.
I was also challenged by Kyle the organiser to give a second talk completely improvised, without any knowledge of the slides. Of course I relished it, as to me that's a 'no pressure gig'.
One of the other speakers commented on how terrifying the idea of an improvised talk was. From my perspective, it's just fun.
I think it's still very much an issue that some folks aren't comfortable speaking in public. PechaKutcha was really supportive and a great platform for that.
I hope to change that perception in the training I do, I'm currently promoting a talk on improvisation.
Building on my TEDx Talk in July, I go to teams and companies who are perhaps a little intimidated by improv. Instead of a workshop with participants, the talk, explains the benefits of improv, for work andfor fun, in a way I hope will understand and encourage teams to try improve themselves and build the brain muscle skills that I now take for granted. Just saying 'Yes, and'.
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