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Demure types, keep off
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It's impromptu, highly charged, and audience driven. `Improv' comedy jolts the city this week via The Comedy Store Players from London, writes C.K. MEENA
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"AUDIENCE MUST audition before entry. Those without a funny-bone will be disqualified." One dreams of seeing this sign outside the Ballroom of the Grand Ashok when The Comedy Store Players let it rip for three nights this week. Improvised or "improv" comedy as it's come to be known is entirely unrehearsed. The audience is the catalyst. What an improv troupe does not need is a room full of demure spectators. It enacts topics thrown up by the gathering, lifting the performance to a level of fine-tuned mayhem. And no two shows are the same.
By now, the couch potatoes among you would have guessed what this reminds you of: the American show Whose Line Is It Anyway? If you go by The Daily Telegraph, Whose Line... is "a pale TV imitation" of The Comedy Store Players formed in London 18 years ago. The mother ship is The Comedy Store, which turns 25 this May. It gave birth to a new brand of alternative comedy when it opened in '79 above a striptease club in Soho, the kind of sleazy joint where actors had to change in the broom cupboard and pee in the sink.
The Store moved in '82 to a cramped cellar in Leicester Square that used to be a gay nightclub. The comedians enjoyed the luxury of a backstage toilet only when The Store finally moved in '93 to a custom-built basement in Piccadilly Circus which seats 400. Robin Williams has dropped in here for impromptu acts. Many stars of British comedy sprang from this institution, which now has branches in Manchester and Leeds.
The unique format of The Comedy Store Players was devised by founder members Mike Myers (of Austin Powers fame), Kit Hollerbach, Neil Mullarkey, and Dave Cohen. Their first show, in October '85, had an audience of only 20, for few were used to the idea of comedy without a script. A month later, Paul Merton, coached by Myers, joined the act. Richard Vranch, who came in to play the piano during the interval, soon became part of the troupe, and Josie Lawrence followed shortly after. In '92, Jim Sweeney was roped in, and along came Lee Simpson and Andy Smart to form the current six-member team that performs twice a week at The Comedy Store in London. The line-up is not frozen, however, and guest comics fill in for Players who have other engagements. Guests include stars such as Eddie Izzard, Rory Bremner, Nicolas Parsons, and Tony Slattery, to name but a few. Richard Vranch once described what he liked most about the show in these words: "No line learning, no rehearsals, no set to dismantle, and great people."
No line learning, no rehearsals, no set to dismantle, and great people.
Bangalore audiences will interact with Merton, Vranch, Sweeney, Simpson, and Susannah May (Suki for short) Webster. The Players will kick off by talking to the audience, and initial suggestions that come from "a few wannabe comedians" should get the show warmed up, hopes event manager Ajit Saldanha. "Humour is universal," says Saldanha, pointing out that half the audience in the London venue usually consists of tourists, some of whom don't even speak much English.
The Comedy Store Players will perform, courtesy Hutch, on February 12 and 13 (and on February 11 for Hutch invitees only) at The Grand Ashok Ballroom. The show starts at 7.30 p.m. and runs for an hour and a half with a short intermission. For home delivery of donor passes, call 51109266 or 98861-98861.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
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