Brighton Fringe

I am currently in Brighton for the Fringe and for anyone who has never been to Brighton Fringe I highly recommend it. In comparison with the Edinburgh Fringe, it's a lot more laid back, the people are so much more friendly (most will actually thank you for a flyer and not just pretend you don't actually exist), it's far cheaper to stay, and if you live in London it's a much shorter and easier journey! Sure you don't get so many big names here - Marcel Lucont and Robin Ince being the A-listers this year - but I don't really bother to see the big names in Edinburgh, with the exception of Stewart Lee who is undoubtedly the comedian I've given the most money to ever.

I watch mostly free shows in Edinburgh, and I've watched mostly free shows here, the only difference is that here you have less choice, but as most people generally decide upon seeing free shows by convenience to your proximity rather than the actual title and description, it doesn't matter so much. Also the norm here seems to be a three to five show run, rather than the half or full run norm of Edinburgh, so you can see completely different shows on different days in the same handful of venues.

The people here are lovely, and consist mainly of the locals (who love the Fringe as opposed to many of the locals of Edinburgh) and Londoners here for a short stay. Nearly all the shows (the free ones at least) seem to be work in progress / previews, and the audiences really seem to actually like that fact, knowing that they are instrumental in shaping the final show. As an audience member, I'm really not too bothered when a standup is glancing at notes all the time if it means they are going to get the joke right, rather than forget to put part of the set-up in!

As a performer it's nice to know you've got some leeway and you won't get heckled by drunken Glaswegians (it's statistically unlikely at least)! I've had some great audience feedback, but the best feeling is that people have come to the show because they've read or heard about it and want to come, rather than just showing up because it's nearest free one as they usually do in spoilt-for-choice Edinburgh.

I would say the weekends are a bit more lively with many shows throughout the day, rather than the weekdays where most shows start after 6pm, but if you're here for a while that gives you some important time to relax and do something such as sit and write a blog. This is a fringe spanning four and half weeks, taking in five weekends, and two of those are bank holiday weekends. Coincidentally they are the two weekends all of my shows are on, which is particularly awesome...

About The Improvised Improv Blog and The Improvised Improv Show

The Improvised Improv blog is so named after the show as getting your branding right is an important part of selling a show, and although I like the idea and ethos of writing a completely improvised blog, where all mistakes must be justified and deleting and rearranging bits is not allowed, it would not make for such good reading. I am, however, fairly lazy when it comes to editing, so it will be as much of simply writing what I'm thinking as will be coherent. But then I believe that's just the general idea of a blog anyway, and I couldn't just call it 'The Blog', because, boring as it is, it is already taken.

So now I've told you about the blog, let me explain about the show. The Improvised Improv show was an idea I had in 2012 at the Edinburgh Fringe. I had been doing improv seriously (I will explain what I mean by 'seriously' in another post) for less than a year at the time and was hungry for as much improv as possible - A hunger that is never truly satisfied, but a taste for certain flavours may develop. At the fringe there were so many improvisers there, some with shows, some just to watch.

I was there for two weeks, which is quite a chunk of the three and a half week fringe, and in that time I heard about an impro jam, although never quite managed to find out where and when and attend. I'm sure there must have been a few more than one, but I didn't hear about any others. And I really wanted to jam!

I thought at such an event where so many improvisers flock there should be a daily impro jam! I really wanted one to happen so I could be part of it. And then I thought I'll just put one on myself! It would be much easier than trying to persuade someone else to put it on for me. Also I was planning on taking my first solo show to Edinburgh that year, and if I was going to all the trouble to rent a room and travel to Edinburgh, I might as well make the most of it and put on two shows. Every day.

So I applied for the 2013 fringe and got both shows with the Laughing Horse (whom I shall also blog about in a subsequent post) as part of their free festival. The  first outing of  The Improvised Improv show was a complete success in my mind as every single day of the 25 show run, enough improvisers turned up to make putting on a good show possible, and we had an audience every day as well. Numbers did differ quite considerably but all in all it was the start of something awesome...