I first encountered longform improv in 2001 at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. I’ve told the story so many times now, it feels like my own personal folklore. I was there with a student production and the very next company to use our venue each day was legendary Chicago team, Baby Wants Candy. I stayed to watch their opening night, was so astonished at what I saw that I fell in love with the art form immediately and spent the rest of the festival running their front of house so I could see their show every night.
After that, I promised myself that I would go and study at their home theatre - iO in Chicago. It took me until 2014 to fulfil that promise (that’s the short version of the story, the long version includes being refused entry at the border, a midnight crossing at Niagara Falls, getting locked in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and winning an international mini-golf tournament).
But when I finally did get to Chicago, I spent 10 weeks absolutely soaking up the massive improv scene there. The classes were brilliant but the real secret sauce of that improv odyssey was the sheer weight of shows I got to see on any given night. And the real gems were often at indie nights, improv shows organised outside the auspices of the three major theatres - iO, Second City and The Annoyance. In fact, the best improv I saw in my entire time in Chicago was an independent team called Sand, who ran their own night entirely separate from the main players. The Sand shows I saw were complex, less structured; darker and more interesting than what was on offer at the big theatres. They expanded my understanding of what improv could be.
And that’s why I’ll always love indie nights. I think they are essential to the evolution of the art form.
The reason for this is simple - major theatres and schools need to balance two urgent factors - giving their community time to play and improve AND putting on shows with mainstream appeal as a kind of shop front for potential new students.
The community shows are, by definition, performed by newer improvisers who are still finding their feet on stage. They are often charming, energetic and uplifting but perhaps slightly inaccessible to audience members who aren’t improvisers themselves.
The mainstream shows are presented by teachers and veteran players but tend to be structured around that particular theatre’s improv philosophy. If they’re offering a lot of Harold classes then you’ll undoubtedly see a lot of Harold teams on their schedules.
What’s missing from this entirely understandable commercial strategy is room for experimentation. Where can experienced improvisers find stage time for odd, ambitious, hard-to-categorise shows? The answer is, of course, indie nights. Where we can just play, free of the need to sell classes or espouse a particular style.
I’m not saying that the major theatres can’t be experimental, just that they are ultimately a business that needs to keep making money to continue to exist, and so maybe they aren’t able to schedule your Strip Checkov improv/ burlesque fusion idea on a Friday night at 7pm.
With only a few large improv theatres operating in any given city, that’s a major bottle neck on stage time - there are only so many Friday and Saturday nights per year, you know? This is particularly true if you’re no longer an absolute beginner but neither are you a trusted 20-year veteran who will be offered shows regardless.
The London indie scene took a hit after COVID but seems to be finding its feet again this year. I’ve noticed a number of new nights starting up, each one spearheaded by a group looking to champion an alternative take on improv.
So if, for instance, you particularly like slow, grounded, theatrical improv (to pick an example entirely at random 😉) - then why not start a night where that kind of work is performed regularly? If you can keep going long enough, perhaps you’ll find other performers (and an audience) who want that too?
And wouldn’t that be something?
I’ve started a (nowhere near exhaustive) list of indie nights below. If you’d like me to add your night (I’m concentrating on London but will happily add shows from any city) please email the details to [email protected]
Swipe Night - at Shoreditch Balls - run by Swipe Right [details]
Can We Have a Word? - at The Comedy Lounge - run by The London Improv Theatre [details]