I’ve gone full circle again. This has happened a few times before.
I first got into drama/impro/comedy stuff (apart from early school things) doing John Cremer’s drop-in nights in Brighton. I loved it and decided to explore all forms of drama, so did a two week course with A.C.T in Brighton to find what area I was most interested in. At the end of that course there was a feedback session and the head of the school said “there’s this teacher I know who I think would be just perfect for.” I was really excited, who could this apparent match made in heaven be? I opened the piece of paper – it said ‘John Cremer’.
Few years later, I again felt the pull towards serious acting and away from impro. I was actually planning on auditioning for drama school, and signed up for an acting course and audition training with Act Up in London. I learnt serious modern pieces, and a selection of Shakespeare. When delivering the Shakespeare in the end of course mock audition I managed to get a laugh in the way I walked into the room, got addicted to it again, and kept pushing the button to make them laugh. It was more fun. In the end I said I couldn’t complete the audition piece because the other actor had walked off stage (it was an imaginary character). They asked if I’d ever heard of improvised comedy, as I was probably better suited to that. I didn’t audition for drama school in the end, which I’m actually happy about as I did loads of other stuff instead. So it was back to impro.
This Autumn I was pretty set on committing more to stand up. I even did the Amused Moose course with Logan Murray, which was great. I turned up having done written material in lessons, and it went down alright. I turned up one week having done nothing, and just ranted about carrier bags, and it went down really well. The next week I turned up and deliberately went on stage with no idea, and it went down best of all. Morale of the story – impro is my thing now and I can’t avoid it.