James Abraham is a writer, creative and comedian, based in London. He studied improv with The Free Association and Second City.
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Miztli Rose is a London based actor-comedian and qualified yoga teacher. She trained as an actor at RADA and has studied improv and sketch with The Free Association and Upright Citizens Brigade.
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Rachel Copel is a theatre maker and performer originally from Chicago. She received her MFA from The Central School of Speech and Drama, and currently resides in London.
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Verity Babbs is a History of Art graduate, art writer, and curator. She hosts ‘Art Laughs’ on YouTube, interviewing the UK’s rising comedic stars about their favourite works of art.
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Aram is a documentary photographer and feature writer from London. His work has been featured in The Guardian, Narratively, and The Calvert Journal, as well as on BBC television. So far, the same thing cannot be said about his improv.
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Kasia Kugay is a singer-songwriter from San Francisco, California currently exploring her cultural roots in Istanbul, Turkey. Her earlier studies in psychology have given her a fascination with the healing power of art and self-expression.
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We spoke to FA improviser and actor Nadège Nguyen about how an improv class in LA led to her becoming an actor and why every actor should train in improv.
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When I started out in sales, I was trained in specific techniques, such as how to get people to open-up and talk; how to get your prospective client to talk about something specific by asking leading questions; how to make your desired fee totally reasonable and valuable; how to get your client to say ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘sure, let’s book a zoom call for next Friday at 11am’ – and many more…
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I did my first Free Association course in late 2018, armed for the first time in my life with both the time and the money, and recklessly determined to spend both on something purely for me. I’d wanted to do improv for years but a less than stellar experience with a boy in my university’s improv society had put me off…
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As part of our new blog series, Improv In Real Life, we chatted to Megan Blair, an improviser in the FA community and hospital pharmacist, about how taking an improv class has impacted on her life inside and outside the NHS.
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It feels like the older I get, the more comfortable I become in my own skin. Or maybe I’m just becoming more comfortable feeling uncomfortable.
On a daily basis I’m present in body, but my mind is elsewhere. Staying present is difficult and for most of us it’s a Herculean task to stay present for any significant length of time.
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Being funny on stage is such a strange dynamic.
You are stepping out in front of a room full of people you hope to make laugh as loudly as possible for as long as possible. To do that you want to show that you are comfortable, at ease and in control of the room, because if the audience feels that you are desperate for their laughter then they are less likely to give it to you.
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When you catch the dewy tears glistening in his brown fawn-like eyes, your anger evaporates. It’s not his fault his bum is a leaky spigot. It’s a physical reaction. He’s suffering a fight or flight response. He was scared. He got “The Fear.”…
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Two-person scenes are the building blocks of great improv shows, especially two-person ones. In The Homunculus, with my twoprov castmate Tim Grewcock, we’ve performed around the world over the last decade. Here’s some tips we’ve picked up along the way…
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Oh my god, Henry just played a lusty carpenter and no one laughed. NO ONE. Not even Dave who comes to every show and once guffawed at Ben’s spacework of emptying a bin. WHAT is going on?!’
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When you’re improvising you are constantly using a set of skills that are incredibly valuable to any employer. I know this because some of the biggest, most forward-thinking companies in the world bring The Free Association in to train their staff in business-specific improv skills!
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What can we learn about improv comedy - an art form that bubbles into existence entirely from the joy of building ideas through group connection and feeding off the reaction from the audience - in a situation where all of those things are made more difficult?
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An improv stage is pretty basic - a patch of floor and a few chairs. But, if we own the space, we can create anything. Here’s some ways to get more from your scenes physically:
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I think that most of us at some point or another feel the devil’s paralysing presence, and I for one have struggled frequently. Let’s try to turn down the volume!
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To some, a Car Scene can sound frustratingly restrictive. In fact, the beauty of the Car Scene is that you are trapped…
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