What Will I See At Improv? How Do They Do It? Can I train or try?

Problems
1 Where can I see something totally new and funny?
2 Can I get a preview to see how I like it?
3 How do they do it?

Answers
I am going to tell you about Toastmasters International speakers clubs, Amused Moose and other comedy training and performances, London comedy clubs, the Edinburgh Festival, and comedy clubs in the USA and worldwide.

Toastmasters
At a Toastmasters International not for profit speakers' club in London I met David Jones who has won many club and Area competitions for humorous impromptu speeches. If you want to try a one to two minute impromptu speech, go to any Toastmasters meeting worldwide. Tell the Toastmaster of the Evening in advance that you would love to be chosen to speak. You also often get a chance to introduce yourself, and to give pubic feedback on what you enoyed about the meeting, at the end of the first half before the networking break, or at the end of the evening.

Amused Moose
Prize-winning David told me about a commercial group called Amused Moose, which trains would-be comedians. Their courses run on a regular basis above pubs in central London.

I signed up for an Amused Moose course. Mine was evenings. The cost then was about £350. The price was more than I wanted to pay, but fulfilled my lifetime dream of doing comedy.

I later discovered that there are courses all over London, all over England, and all over the world. I have joined mailing lists and Facebook pages and regulalry get sent invitations to attend shows or sign up for courses. Once you are on the list they email you frequently in the hopes of getting your money, or simply your presence, as is vulgarly said, "bums on seats".

I now want to do a course in Edinburgh which culminates in a one-night show at the Edinburgh Festival. Performing at the Edinburgh Festival is my dream. I want to be discovered and given a TV show and to be invited to be on panel games.

Toastmasters
I received a rapturous reception for my humorous table topic (impromptu speech) on 'breathing' at HOD Toastmasters Speaker's group on Thursday, September 2017, I was hunting for an Improv group I could join. I discovered a website for booking an Improv show. They have two or three of their previous acts you can watch online for free and see what they do.

Amused Moose Improv
At Amused Moose we did one session of Improv when we were in pairs or groups of three.
I watched what they did and analyzed it. I did a training at Amused Moose. Unfortunately, when I did it, we were a group of three and one of the other three dominated the whole scene, leaving me with only a line or two to speak. The director had to eventually tell the main character to let me speak. I was demoralized, disappointed and discouraged. I am still looking for a partner or a group to join, and thinking of starting a group.

The problem of one person dominating the group at the Amused Moose training session was 'solved' by the director stepping in and ordering the person doing most of the acting to let me say a word or two.

Actors Handing Over
The actors themselves can hand over at least two ways. One is for the actors on stage to signal when they are ready to leave, "Here comes your mother!" As the next character enters the front stage, the person leaving exits back stage. Or the newcomer enters back stage and goes forward, bows to the audience and leaves from the front stage. Or they have a handshake or hug, with a funny action, prepared and repeated.

The other way is for the off-stage person to appear unannounced. They can speak, or stand miming, perhaps blocking the audience's view of the people on stage behind. They could have a regular miming action, such as carrying a window cleaner's bucked, pretending to climb a ladder and peering in through a window, ahsking head in disbelief and shock, open mouthed.

Interruptions
For example, the son already on stage says, "Hello Gran!" She does not reply, but adjusts her hearing aid and asks, "Who are you!"

He shakes his head, tuts, shrugs, and leaves the stage.

The group has to be sufficiently organised to have a set point at which each person leaves the stage and signals to the next to take over. From the audience's point of view it does not matter when. So long as one or two characters have created a funny scene, presumably the characters all have their pay and billing equal. The characters either switch after a minute or so to create variety. Or they change when they run out of energy and ideas.

The system is this:
On comes the leader and explains they will create an Improvised drama on a theme suggested by the audience. The members of the audience are invited to shout out words, objects, subjects. One was cheese.

Accents
In rehearsals, they have already found for each actor a character who is convincing, with correct accent or pitch of voice, with amusing gestures. Each person or group might have three sets of accents, or more. The shows I watched had one Finnish speaker (the other mimes). The second was Italian.

Characters
The team probably have a set of planned characters, two or three per person. That is enough, if they do three short 20 minute sketches, to create three totally different surprising story lines, and for each person to appear extremely versatile.

Each person only has to be two characters. For example, one man will act the son (an angry young man) or sexy daughter, another the controlling father or protective mother, another man is a vague granny or drunk grand-dad, another man is a gay man or police woman.

A member of the audience shouts out a subject.

He Said, She Said Game
It operates rather like those games we play at Toastmasters to fill in time and be amusing at the start of the meeting. Each person has one minute, about three sentences, to say something on a theme. When they stop the next person takes over.

Three Characters
Imagine which three characters you would like to act. You could take aspects of yourself at various stages of your life, and different careers, yourself and people you worked with or for. Take people that are the opposite of yourself, or two contrasting characters, such as the overworked and angry restaurant boss and the dumb waiter as in Fawlty Towers.

My three characters would be:
The Queen (or mock upper-class accent, very serious face).
The Little Girl (about 5-7 years old, happy and keen but puzzled and skeptical, commenting on strange things parents do or say).
The Teacher (based on the Joyce Grenfell character) bossy but attempting to be nice to a little boy causing havoc by pulling the hair of a little girl or exposing himself.

My three accents are:
Upper Class English
New York
Southern USA.
I could keep these up for several minutes.

As a foil to another, I can briefly try a repeated exclamation, or a one word response, or sentence in imitations of:
French (oui, non!),
German, (Ja, Nein);
Italian,
a Russian,
Scottish (a bonnie wee lass),
Spanish (si, si);
mock Irish (to be sure);
Yiddisha Momma (oy veh!).

If you are invited on stage from the audience, you will be more successful and have more fun if you know in advance what you are likely to do.

You may be invited up if you are from somewhere distant and have a foreign accent contrasting with the person speaking, or mimicking their accent. For example, if the compere shouts out where are you from, and you are from Scotland, you put on a heavy Scottish accent, or if you are from the USA, exaggerate your New York accent or a Southern drawl.

If you can sing, or have a musical instrument in your pocket, such as a mouth organ, this is your opportunity. You can demonstrate playing it, or not being able to play it. Have a song in mind, such as
a well-known classic, out of copyright ballad.

Another time filler for a compere is to ask whether anybody in the audience has a joke. Ideally have a joke which typifies your organisation, profession, or country. You might have a medical joke if you are a doctor. Even if not asked for a joke, you can introduce it or ask, "Would you like to hear a joke?" To maxiize your chance of being chosen, sit in the front row, wear a funny hat or ee-tshirt, laugh loudly at the jokes said by the person on stage,  point to yourself and the stage and raise your eyebrows as if to say, I'd like to be on stage. If you want to avoid being picked on, sit at the back or side, or ask your partner of the person sitting next to you if they want to go on stage. Then if you are asked to go on stage tell the compere and the audience, "I'll give this chance to my friend who really wants to be with you!" (Or say, 'my friend wants to shake hands with you / kiss you'.)

Have one joke ready. (If you cannot remember jokes, write it out in your diary, or type it and keep it in your pocket to read it out.)

Now that you know what to look for, you can enjoy the show as well as analysing how they do it and thinking what you could do if you were invited on stage. Enjoy!

PS -  I was placed in the top two of a Toastmasters International club speaking competition and will be in the Area competition at the next level later this year. I am a member of Harrovians Club and HOD club in London, and Braddell Heights Advanced Club in Singapore.

Tips On Where To Find Websites and More Information
Amused Moose comedy training and shows open to the public:

Free Shows
Edinburgh Festival and some London Theatres have free shows. Bear in mind that the actors have given up their evening, spent on training, and spend hours rehearsing to entertain you. They may pass round a hat or collect donations at the door. Have ready a small coin or two if you think the show is a complete waste of time, or as much note money as you can afford and are prepared to give if you thought you had a wonderful evening.

More Information:
http://www.imprology.com/bookings. (Courses and explanations of what poeple do in courses and brief videos.)
https://thefreeassociation.co.uk/fatraining/
London Theatre Bookings For Groups, Teachers and Students:
education@encore.co.uk
tel:020 7492 1525 (Student group bookings and free online educational resources for key stages 3, 4 and 5)
Toastmasters International Find A Club
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkDv3sXWrFU (Ted talk on improv.)
TED talk on memorising piano music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJouIL6uaoc
Shoot From The Hip You Tube On Finnish Speaker and Translator and Mime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57qJa9azDRk

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, Humorous Speaker. I have other blogs on speeches and Toastmasters meetings and I am on Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube. Please follow me here or there and share links to your favourite posts.