6 d. ago
Improv was British comedy’s ‘ugly stepchild’ – so why is it enjoying a resurgence?
Long derided, improvisational comedy is now attracting big-name stars such as Kiell Smith-Bynoe and One Day’s Ambika Mod. There’s more to it than showing off, they say – and don’t get them started on Whose Line Is It Anyway?It’s Saturday night and I’m standing alone at the back of a north London pub when a befuddled-looking couple in matching anoraks come up and ask if this is the queue for the show. My heart sinks. I’d come to This Doesn’t Leave the Room, a night of improvised comedy hosted by the Free Association, with a theory: that improv – that most ridiculed of comedic forms – is finally becoming cool, thanks to a slew of millennial sitcom star practitioners and a stream of trendily branded shows. But as I trudge up a staircase into a room full of empty seats – me on one side, the confused couple on the other – I realise I may have been mistaken.But then, all of a sudden, the atmosphere changes. People start flooding in with a sense of anticipation – rambun...
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