Room for improv-ment

It’s probably the Russian Front of comedy, a stand-up show where the suggestions for material come from the audience and the performers have no opportunity to fall back on tried and tested routines. In the eight years that the team - currently consisting of Tara Flynn, Michelle Read, Ian Coppinger, Brendan Dempsey, Joe Rooney and Paul Tylack – have been staging the Comedy Improv at the International Bar they’ve attracted a regular crowd of improv fans who are familiar with the phenomenon and offer original and challenging suggestions, thus avoiding what Michelle refers to as: “The gynaecologist in a Scorsese movie syndrome.”

For those unfamiliar with the genre, the formula is as follows: the MC introduces various scenarios and asks the audience for suggestions concerning plotlines, characters, accents or acting styles and the players follow the audiences insructions, switching from suggestion to suggestion at the direction of the MC. Thus it is that within minutes of the show’s start I’m observing a bemused Tara Flynn, possessed of a rather excellent French accent, being questioned by two west country British policemen concerning the murder of Shirley Temple in the White House. Beaten to death with a banjo, apparently.

What makes it clever is that Tara is the only person in the room who’s unaware of what she’s being accused of. What makes it absolutely amazing is that she works it out within three minutes. What makes it hysterically funny is the frantic efforts of the players to tie up these disconnected elements into a cohesive plot, while at the same time dropping in more gags than you’d find in the basement of Rubberworld Retail. The audience, including one Tommy Tiernan, are in stitches.

“A lot of it is down to the audience,” explains Brendan Dempsey later. “The more original or off-the-wall the suggestions are the better we like it. It would get pretty dull if every sketch involved two New York mafiosi trying to pretend that they weren’t gay… although that might be funny. The beauty is that we have a certain amount of leeway over which suggestions we take on. While we usually take the first audience suggestion we hear, we will turn down stuff if we don’t think the majority of the audience will get the gag. That the performers won’t get it isn’t an issue, in fact, that’s part of the fun.”

The current team are a bit of a mixed bag and come from backgrounds as diverse as acting, musical theatre, busking, stand-up and TV comedy. How did they initially come together?

“I had come across the Improv when I was playing with the Nualas,” says Tara, “it’s the sort of group that you just drift into. Many Irish comedians, people like Dylan Moran, have been through the ranks. Because of the nature of the beast it’s really important that the players know each other very well. You need to be able to anticipate where somebody’s going to go with an idea. You also get to know what particular strengths people have, maybe a facility for accents or an ear for melody and you can play on that.”

Joe Rooney agrees. The one-time musician turned stand-up is familiar with working as part of a team, since he’s been duetting with Paul Tylack for some years and has latterly been seen accompanying Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly on stage as Scribbler O’Donoghue.

“There’s a physical factor as well,” explains Joe, “in that when you’ve got three or more players on a stage you need to be able to allow the person who’s at the centre of the piece the room to work. Not only are you writing the scenes as you go along but you’re also directing them. While confidence is a must in all types of comedy, in improv it’s probably the most important factor. You can’t hesitate and not only do you have to keep the audience interested but you’ve got to let the people you’re performing with know where you’re going. In regular stand-up you can set up little gags early on and refer back to them later, but in improv you’re frequently setting up a gag that you hope somebody else will follow up on.”

The musical element is an important one in the show as the crew sing several accapella numbers again responding to hints from the crowd. “It’s one of the reasons that we’re looking forward to recording the show for radio,” says Michelle, “since we’ll have a real piano player this time around. I initially started out in musical theatre in London so it’s always been an interest of mine, and a couple of the others also have a background in music so I think we’ll do quite well. Having a real pianist will mean that we can introduce musical genres like country and western or boy-band or whatever. That’s difficult to do accapella as you might imagine. We’re sort of limited to doo-wop, or opera, which funnily enough sounds okay without musical accompaniment. The other thing the musical numbers add to the proceedings is a certain order or structure. You know where you are with a song and we’ll throw one in if we think the audience are getting confused, poor dears. We also include an advertising break where we create ads and jingles for imaginary products or brand-names invented by the crowd. Some of the names are really good. I’m surprised we don’t get more advertising types down. Or product development executives. But again there’s almost a formula to that segment of the show which paces things nicely for the audience.”

Since the team all have successful careers outside of the improv group what is it that prompts them to return to this organised mayhem week after week?

“It’s exactly that unpredictability that makes it appealing,” explains Brendan. “When you’re doing regular stand-up you more-or-less know what you’re going to say before the show, and most stand-ups have favourite routines or gags that they’ll use frequently. In improv, you never use the same gag twice and you generally have a lot more fun because, after all, even the person saying the lines has never heard them before.”

Joe concurs: “It’s also a help to someone like myself who also does stand-up in that it

encourages you to think on your feet. It also teaches you things about yourself that you didn’t know before. Like, before tonight I always thought I could do a passable stab at a Norweigian accent, and now I know I can’t. Now that I’ve said that I suppose every smart-arse in the audience will shout ‘Norweigian!’ every time we ask for an accent. Curses!”

Are the team looking forward to the RTE recordings?

“It should be a lot of fun because we’re recording in The Shelter at Vicar St., from February 11th to 14th,” says Tara, “and it’s quite an intimate venue, which is what we’re used to. The stage is about four times the size of the one in the International though, so we might try some Busby Berekley type

numbers… It depends on the audience.”