The Chemistry of Comedy: Building an Improv Family

Lloydie speaks with Jack Cross, a Nottingham-based improviser, who emphasizes the importance of trust and comfort among team members. According to Jack, the key to a successful improv team is having people who've got your back, no matter what. He shares that taking risks on stage comes easier when you have full confidence in your fellow performers.

Jeanette Bird-Bradley, another seasoned improviser, stresses the significance of a diverse skill set within the team. She compares the ideal improv team to the Spice Girls – a mix of different flavours and personalities that blend well together. This diversity, she suggests, helps each member raise their game and contributes to the natural chemistry that audiences love.

Chris Locke, an improviser and organiser of the Pride Comic Arts Festival, highlights the importance of being upfront about expectations and commitments. He talks about the challenges of organising a team, from managing venues to handling the administrative workload. Chris's experience underscores the need for clear communication and setting the tone from the start.

But it's not all about the logistics. The episode explores the personal side of improv as well. The guests discuss the challenges of balancing life changes, like having children, with their passion for improv. They also touch on the fear and excitement of returning to the stage after a break and the realization that the joy of performing is what truly matters.

Lloydie and his guests candidly share their experiences with burnout and the importance of recognizing personal limits. They discuss the need for outside coaching, as they recount how Tim Sniffin's guidance transformed their group, Rhymes Against Humanity, into a more cohesive and successful ensemble.

In this episode you hear from:

Jack Cross - Rhymes Against Humanity and The Improclaimers, Nottingham (UK)

Jeanette Bird-Bradley - Rhymes Against Humanity, Nottingham (UK)

Chris Locke - A Bristol (UK) based improviser

Hosted by Lloydie James Lloyd, this conversation isn't just about finding the right people; it's about the journey of trial, error, and the joy found in the unexpected moments onstage and off.

Podcast Theme:

Composed by Chris Stevens at Studio Dragonfly

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Transcript

Jeanette: You've got to accept that if you flounder a little bit at places, that's just a learning process.

Lloydie: This is the improv Chronicle. I'm Lloydie. Recently, in the Improv Chronicle newsletter, I talked about the basics of forming a team and some of the things that you might want to consider if you're about to do that. That got me thinking. I should probably get a few more opinions on this. So many people approach it in so many different ways. There's a lot of knowledge to be gained from having a broader conversation. So I spoke to a few people who I thought might have some interesting perspectives of it. Two of them have formed a team along with myself, and one of them wanted to talk about a really important area that perhaps isn't spoken about enough, but I've also spoken about in the latest Improv Chronicle newsletter.

Jack Cross shares his advice on forming a team in improv

Jack: Hi, I'm Jack Cross. I'm an Ottingham based improviser, and I've performed with rhymes against humanity, Denise's 50th, and the improlmers.

Lloydie: And you've just formed a brand new two, person team. a new duo as well, which I get to see tomorrow, which I'm excited about. I was wondering what your opinion on the basics of forming a team. are, because getting a group of people together in any walk of life can be a little bit difficult at times. So if you were going back and advising yourself on, oh, how to form a team, what would you say to yourself?

Jack: I think primarily, for me, it's about feeling comfortable with those people on stage and knowing that those people have got your back. And I've performed in lots of different ensembles over my time in performing improv, and some of them, you take fewer risks if you don't trust the people wholeheartedly on stage. And a lot of the time, that's because you've been thrown into a team last minute, or it's at, a, night where it sort of show up and have a go. And I think forming a team is making sure that you've got somebody who's got your back, no matter what choice you make, that they're going to, yes, it. They don't have to, and it. But they just have to yes, it, and agree that that was a choice that we're all going to accept. And that's, for me, is really important.

Lloydie: So you put a lot of emphasis there on the people being right, but also, different people have different commitment levels and abilities. how do you navigate that?

Jack: I don't think you need to navigate that, really. I think about when I've performed in teams that I felt have been successful. Having those different commitment levels is part of what makes the biology of the team, if you like. It's what the dna of the team is built on, and, you know, that actually roughly what to expect from each performer so you can play to their strengths. There might be times where you think, actually, this is an opportunity for us to challenge that in a rehearsal, and we might look to build on that. And I think having an open dialogue about what your strengths and weaknesses are as individuals within that team is really important during that rehearsal time and providing opportunities for people that, say, who aren't as committed normally to take more, of a lead role that they might do, or for people who are normally very, they play nice characters very well, actually, to give them an opportunity and force them into something different during a rehearsal to allow them to grow and develop. I think that's really important that you have that opportunity to do so, but you can only do that if you're open and honest with each other about what your strengths and weaknesses are.

How do we find time to be in an improv team in today's world

Lloydie: Jeanette Burr Bradley is a Nottingham based improviser who, along with Jack, was also in the early days of rhymes against humanity and indeed continues to perform with us. So what did she think was a key ingredient when forming a team?

Jeanette: People who generally get on, having a kind of diverse mixture of skills that people can bring, not just thinking, I need, eight people who are amazing at singing and dancing or, like, people who've got different comedic skills and different acts and just a range of, like the spice girls, a range of flavors, but just a range of different personalities, really. I think that's what we've had that has stood, out.

Lloydie: I mean, I'd love to say I thought about this at the beginning when we were forming rhymes, but I didn't. But we have got a lot of different sensibilities that somehow blend well together. Like, I think about Phil, who is just so funny, but he's like a little sniper. He'll come in and find a funny thing, whereas you've got people, like, I don't know, like Hannah, who'll come out and help build a world, and it is kind of a complementary skill set, isn't?

Jeanette: Yeah, definitely. And I think that helps everybody else raise their game a little bit, and it just makes it nice. It's just very natural.

Lloydie: Yeah, I think. Yeah. Leading with joy.

Jeanette: Yeah, I think we're all about the joy.

Lloydie: I hope so. I mean, it's difficult to do an improvised musical and not have the joy.

Jeanette: Yeah, I mean, it would really stand out if we didn't. It would be rubbish.

Chris: Tell people that you're working with upfront what you need as an organizer.

Lloydie: Chris Locke is an improviser, organizes pride comic arts festival, and has recently started doing tabletop role playing, game creation, e.

Chris: G. Then to respond in a timely fashion, e. G. If you're planning a show that you would like to take away from your local area, state that upfront. and state that you're going to be actively looking into this.

Lloydie: I can hear the sigh in your.

Chris: Trying not to rap. Don't get me wrong, trying not to rap.

Lloydie: If you do, you will have me completely on board. I can hear it in your voice, and what I can hear is something I recognize. If you are organizing, if you are the one setting up the team, if you are the one doing, shouldering a lot of the admin, then it's hard, right?

Chris: It's really difficult. Yeah. It's not only managing the people that are included in the team, it's managing the venues that, you're trying to talk to, managing the emails that you're sending out, or contacts that you're trying to make with those venues. The venues often not responding at all, and then you're just going, so where do I go next? Which has been my major issue, really.

Lloydie: What other things, when you're setting up in terms of what the improvisers need to know, do you think is important?

Chris: Tone is probably a good one. The show which I've created is a little dark. and if people are a bit afraid of that, that's okay. It's just like, you got to kind of be upfront with that. I think as well it's not dark, as in, like, we're always going to talk about these really bad things. It's just there's a lot of death involved, which some people find hard.

Lloydie: So in a world where everybody seems to be perpetually busy, how do we find time to be in an improv team? And how do we make our, time commitments fair to each other?

Jack: Oh, it's really hard. And I think it's been even more hard post Covid. I mean, I've just had a child, my first child, the person that I'm performing with tomorrow, of my newly formed team, they've also recently had a child. And all of a sudden your life's flipped upside down. But that doesn't mean that those skills that you've been taught and that you've honed over a long period of time, aren't there? And also, the more you trust them, the more you're able to demonstrate that when you come and perform. I am absolutely bricking it. Performing tomorrow again for the first time after a reasonably long hiatus, but also knowing that that person is there and has got my back. I think sometimes we can, over egg how important rehearsal time is or how important performing regularly is, because fundamentally, we're not doing it full time. We're not being paid to do this. And first and foremost, it's about, are you enjoying that time on the stage with the people that you're with? And are the people in the audience feeling that genuine connection that you have? The best shows that you see are, where the performers have a genuine connection with each other, and they'll give you, or they invest a lot in that performance if they can feel that the chemistry between you is that everybody's having fun.

Lloydie: So the fun is the priority for you, and not the admin?

Jack: Well, yes, strangely, yeah, absolutely. But again, it's a case of, I mean, you and I perform together lots of times, and we perform together in rhymes against humanity. And as you know, because you take on the majority of that admin, that's the least fun bit.

Lloydie: Yes, it is the least fun bit.

Jack: But also, without that admin, it wouldn't allow you to perform in venues where you get to sell 200, 300 plus tickets. You're not able to do that without that admin and that basis. And unfortunately, that does fall on somebody at some point. And I think it's a little bit like I liken it to being in a band. I performed in covers bands, for example, for a long time, and I knew it was a guaranteed income. I could play two, three gigs a weekend and get a lot of money for that. But ultimately, I didn't enjoy that. I wanted to express myself creatively with people that I wanted to make something new. And sometimes when you put in a team together, it's about, oh, what can I do that's new and interesting and try something different with a different collection of people you're still going to need, if you want to do it for a living, that opportunity to have something that's a consistent product, it's well organized, the admin is in place, but there is also something joyous about turning up somewhere on a Wednesday night. It's in a basement, and there's six people there, and some of the best shows and some of the best fun you have are in those sorts of spaces where you've just made it up as you've gone along. Oh, yeah. And I don't just mean the performance, I mean the actual putting of the show together. And I think that's part of the joy of improv, and there aren't that many art forms that allow that.

Jeanette: Don't think of it as your only opportunity. If you don't get in a team or you don't manage to, it's not a test. It's kind of like finding where you fit, and that might change. You've not failed. You just got to kind of find an in somewhere and make something work which might take more time than you think it will, or you might try and it might not work with a particular team, but, it's always constantly evolving, so don't ever see it as. It's not an audition, it's more of a coming together and, evolving. And, yeah, it's more about getting the right bunch of people together rather than who are the best. I think that's really important. Probably you've got to accept that if you flounder a little bit at places, that's just the learning process and kind of working it out together of what you're going to be. And, yeah, have certain goals and certain things you want to end up doing, or have aspirations to be a certain standard, but also building kind of trial and error to your process, I think.

Lloydie: Yeah, I think that's really important. I mean, I nearly jacked it all in about nine months into rhymes against humanity.

Lloyd says sometimes you need a nudge from the outside

Yeah, we were in that October, and I was like, we weren't improvising musicals at that point, and we'd kind of got to a point where we were like, I don't know how much further we can go. And that's when, actually, I contacted Tim Sniffin, who coached us a bit, and said, what would you do in this circumstance? And he sent a few things along, and then a few months later, he came and did some stuff with us, and then it was magic.

Jeanette: Absolutely changed everything, didn't it? It was. Right. Yeah, we get it now, but because we'd done, I think we had to do the. We're stuck. We don't quite know why this is not working exactly how we want it to, that he could then come in and we understood how to make it better, with that context of, oh, yeah, now we see where we were going wrong also, so we can make it better in a more deliberate, meaningful way.

Lloydie: he still is, but, I mean, when he worked with us, he was very gentle with us, but it.

Jeanette: Was nice, wasn't he? But he wasn't afraid to go, guys, what is this? Sort it out. And we were like, yeah, it was weird.

Lloydie: Sometimes you do need a nudge from kind of the outside as well. And I think with hindsight, I would have had more regular coaching early on because I think we had to learn a lot of lessons the hard way, that we probably didn't need to.

Jeanette: But maybe that gave us our fighting spirit.

Chris: I've already said it before, but for me, I wasn't upfront with my previous group about how much I wanted to go and do in other places. I think that where I usually perform feels too safe for me now, so I need to go and feel that, ambiguity. So my idea was to be like, let's try and do Edinburgh, let's try and do this, let's try and do that. And I wasn't upfront enough about that, so it's sort of managing. Reminding myself to manage my own expectations by making sure I set those expectations, like, really early on in the stage of things. and easy to say, hard to do. Try not to get too dissuaded by people not responding. we've said it, but people are managing maybe a full time job, plus doing this little bit of extra theater work. Maybe they're just the one person that replies to this email address, and it's very easy to get very annoyed at them and start to try and tweet at them or instagram at them and be like, yes, insert swear words here.

Lloydie: With you. With you.

Chris: So, yeah, try and manage that and find the signs, notice your own signs of burnout. And that is tricky, tricky, tricky. It's a really hard thing for people to do. It's taken me years to notice what mine are, but I'm getting better at them.

Lloydie: Yeah, me too. It's a slower process than I'd like, though. For a very impatient man, it usually.

Chris: Is because we're not paying attention to them. I think we have to experience it multiple times to get that into our bodies and into our brains to be like, what am I feeling? It's very similar to this other time that I felt that, and make those neural connections to kind of make sure that we associate one with the other. Be like, oh, it's that, all right. I remember what happened. If I didn't pay attention to that last time, I was just a really horrible person for six months. That's not good. I don't want to do that anymore. maybe it's old age. I don't know. I'm 48.

Lloydie: I've got two years on ye.

Chris: You should be teaching me then, Lloyd.

Lloydie: Right. You really don't want lessons on how to avoid burnout from me that would fuck you up for life.

Jack: No, just. I appreciate all the admin that you do.

Lloydie: Thank you. Sometimes it's frustrating, but actually, the admin part of it, there is a reward to it, because when you see it come off and you know you've been part of that creation.

Chris: Yes.

Lloydie: It's not quite as rewarding as seeing the creation together on stage of the actual show that you're making, but there is still a real benefit.

Jack: It's not as democratic a process, is it? As the performance on stage. And sometimes that can feel frustrating. I'm sure, yeah.

Lloydie: Oh, yeah. I won't pretend I haven't felt frustrated with some of the admin I do. You know that you can get the world of improv delivered to your inbox every week when you subscribe to the Improv Chronicle newsletter? Just go to improvchronicle.com for more. And if you like what this podcast does, follow us on your podcast subscriber and leave a rating and review. Those make a huge difference. And as I say, every episode, they really do help boost the algorithm. So, I don't know, maybe do it now. You can also donate to support the podcast. Thank you. To those who've done that recently. There's a link in the show notes, and if you'd care to sponsor an episode, it would be really great to involve you in the production process and show you a little bit behind the curtain. For previous episodes and for transcripts, make sure you go to the website improv chronicle.com.