Saturday 31 January 2015
Monday 26 January 2015
LOYAL FANZ
Ella Littlewood, niece of one of our Sunday League players Jen Banks, shares her favourite things about ComedySportz UK and why the show is so popular with people of all ages!
Why I like ComedySportz by Ella Littlewood, aged 10
ComedySportz is a family friendly improvisation show and it is super funny. There are different types of shows you can attend, such as Sunday League, which is a show on a Sunday evening where two teams go head to head for your laughs. The main show is basically the same but the audience is bigger as the show is held in a bigger place and the players are more experienced. ComedySportz also hold a tournament every year with lots of different comedy teams from around the UK, so you won’t see them in the Sunday League or main show but both the Sunday League and the main players competed in the tournament, and the winners in 2014………. were The Discount Comedy Checkout from Leeds! Well done :)
The way I found out about ComedySportz is because my auntie does the Sunday League so we go to watch her and we also go to the main show just because we enjoy watching comedy. There are lots of really funny players but my favourite boy player is Lukas Kirkby because he is very funny and he is only 20!!!! But everyone else is hilarious as well, and Maggie is my favourite girl player, and my auntie Jen, of course!
The games are super funny and amazing to play at home or with friends at school. Here are some games I like to watch and play.
* Situation Navigation
* Top That
* My Sitcom
* Back in My Day
(If you want to know how to play these games and see them for yourself then come to the next ComedySportz show!) The reason I like these games is because they make it very easy for you to be funny but with some games it is harder to make people laugh.
It is great being in the audience at a ComedySportz show because you can get involved in the games and give suggestions. The first show I went to, to decide which team went first, they played ‘What did Ella have for breakfast?’ but they didn’t get it right - they guessed Coco Pops and toast but I’d had a bacon sandwich, lol. Do you love laughing with your friends? Because Comedy Sportz is great for birthday parties too. How cool is that? There were kids celebrating birthdays last time I went to a show – and the players sang them a special song! Hope to see you at the next one ;) x Ella
Why I like ComedySportz by Ella Littlewood, aged 10
ComedySportz is a family friendly improvisation show and it is super funny. There are different types of shows you can attend, such as Sunday League, which is a show on a Sunday evening where two teams go head to head for your laughs. The main show is basically the same but the audience is bigger as the show is held in a bigger place and the players are more experienced. ComedySportz also hold a tournament every year with lots of different comedy teams from around the UK, so you won’t see them in the Sunday League or main show but both the Sunday League and the main players competed in the tournament, and the winners in 2014………. were The Discount Comedy Checkout from Leeds! Well done :)
The way I found out about ComedySportz is because my auntie does the Sunday League so we go to watch her and we also go to the main show just because we enjoy watching comedy. There are lots of really funny players but my favourite boy player is Lukas Kirkby because he is very funny and he is only 20!!!! But everyone else is hilarious as well, and Maggie is my favourite girl player, and my auntie Jen, of course!
The games are super funny and amazing to play at home or with friends at school. Here are some games I like to watch and play.
* Situation Navigation
* Top That
* My Sitcom
* Back in My Day
(If you want to know how to play these games and see them for yourself then come to the next ComedySportz show!) The reason I like these games is because they make it very easy for you to be funny but with some games it is harder to make people laugh.
It is great being in the audience at a ComedySportz show because you can get involved in the games and give suggestions. The first show I went to, to decide which team went first, they played ‘What did Ella have for breakfast?’ but they didn’t get it right - they guessed Coco Pops and toast but I’d had a bacon sandwich, lol. Do you love laughing with your friends? Because Comedy Sportz is great for birthday parties too. How cool is that? There were kids celebrating birthdays last time I went to a show – and the players sang them a special song! Hope to see you at the next one ;) x Ella
Wednesday 14 January 2015
THREE QUOTES
Our new batch of workshops start this Saturday and we have our first ComedySportz match of the year at Sale Waterside Arts Centre (New year! New games! New players!) so with that in mind Sean Mason shares three quotes to remember when improvising on stage or off. Well. Four quotes really but let's not be picky, just stop, collaborate and listen.
"Only he who is well prepared has any opportunity to improvise."
- Ingmar Bergman, The Magic Lantern
How can you prepare for improv? It's all made up right? Preparation for improv is workshopping. Learning to play, exploring styles, formats and ideas. Learning to remove the inhibitions and allow yourself to be vulnerable. Because if you are vulnerable you are open to ideas. Preparation for improv is playing and having fun. Preparation for improv is exploring all the different styles of performance that will be thrown at you. But that's all the technical stuff. Preparation for improv is, most vitally, knowing the people you are working with. Their strengths, their weaknesses. Developing trust and knowing what the other person is thinking.
"With Improv it's a combination of listening and not trying to be funny."
- Kristen Wiig
One of the first things we say in our workshops is don't try to be funny. Trying hurts. It's painful to do and it's painful to watch. Trying can unbalance the scene and wreck the game. To quote the great philosopher Homer Simpson, the lesson is Never Try. Trust in the scene, in your partners and yourself. Listen to the great offers your partners are making. The funny will come. The joy of improvisation is watching all the puzzle pieces fall into place, that moment when a perfect joke, emotional beat or response happens so completely in the moment. That "you couldn't write it" moment. Trying to be funny is bringing a fully built house instead of a brick. Trying to be funny is scripting. If you're on stage with people you know and trust then you never have to try because their job is to make you look awesome and your job is to make them look awesome.
“THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, only opportunities.”
- Tina Fey
“Fall, then figure out what to do on the way down.”
– Del Close
It is impossible to fail in improv. I am not a master of Japanese Noh theatre but it's fun to watch me do it. Not everyone is the best at improvising a song with a complete rhyming structure, but conviction is just as powerful as accuracy. We are human, we make mistakes. If you mishear your scene partner you have created an opportunity to go off on a whole new tangent. If you drop something in a scene then you make it part of the scene. Everything that happens on stage is a gift and an offer to build from and create something unique and exciting. Trust in the audience. Trust in your scene partner. Trust in yourself.
Sean Mason 14/01/2015
"Only he who is well prepared has any opportunity to improvise."
- Ingmar Bergman, The Magic Lantern
How can you prepare for improv? It's all made up right? Preparation for improv is workshopping. Learning to play, exploring styles, formats and ideas. Learning to remove the inhibitions and allow yourself to be vulnerable. Because if you are vulnerable you are open to ideas. Preparation for improv is playing and having fun. Preparation for improv is exploring all the different styles of performance that will be thrown at you. But that's all the technical stuff. Preparation for improv is, most vitally, knowing the people you are working with. Their strengths, their weaknesses. Developing trust and knowing what the other person is thinking.
"With Improv it's a combination of listening and not trying to be funny."
- Kristen Wiig
One of the first things we say in our workshops is don't try to be funny. Trying hurts. It's painful to do and it's painful to watch. Trying can unbalance the scene and wreck the game. To quote the great philosopher Homer Simpson, the lesson is Never Try. Trust in the scene, in your partners and yourself. Listen to the great offers your partners are making. The funny will come. The joy of improvisation is watching all the puzzle pieces fall into place, that moment when a perfect joke, emotional beat or response happens so completely in the moment. That "you couldn't write it" moment. Trying to be funny is bringing a fully built house instead of a brick. Trying to be funny is scripting. If you're on stage with people you know and trust then you never have to try because their job is to make you look awesome and your job is to make them look awesome.
“THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, only opportunities.”
- Tina Fey
“Fall, then figure out what to do on the way down.”
– Del Close
It is impossible to fail in improv. I am not a master of Japanese Noh theatre but it's fun to watch me do it. Not everyone is the best at improvising a song with a complete rhyming structure, but conviction is just as powerful as accuracy. We are human, we make mistakes. If you mishear your scene partner you have created an opportunity to go off on a whole new tangent. If you drop something in a scene then you make it part of the scene. Everything that happens on stage is a gift and an offer to build from and create something unique and exciting. Trust in the audience. Trust in your scene partner. Trust in yourself.
Sean Mason 14/01/2015
Tuesday 6 January 2015
MINDFULNESS AND THE IMPROVISER
ComedySportz UK Regular and Stand Up Comedian John Cooper on how awareness and the immediacy of improvisation is vital both on stage and off.
I’ve been reading up a lot on mindfulness recently. Partly for personal development, but also it’s a bit of a buzzword that comes up a lot in corporate speak when employers discuss the qualities of good employees. To be mindful is to be in the moment, aware of the present, the ‘here and now’. Observing what goes on around you in a way that’s not judgemental, but takes a moment to absorb as much as sensory information possible, while at the same time acknowledging how you feel within yourself. It’s an activity that facilitates good decision making skills.
Being in the moment is what improvisers do on stage all the time. Back when I started doing improv I thought I was using the same parts of my brain for improv as I was for my stand up. Over time I realised this wasn't actually true. With stand up I think as fast as I can and plan ahead, my brain gets three of four gags ahead of my mouth, assessing material based on the taste of the audience that night, and knowing what I’m going to say. Improv is very different. It requires me to be in the 'now' all the time, no planning ahead, no looking for gags, just finding them. There's an old improv proverb which says something like; “don't bring the house, just a brick will do”.
Mindfulness is nothing new, it goes all the way back to Buddhist practices and is a form of meditation. Imagine you’re driving on a quiet road late at night or if you don’t drive, washing the dishes. These tasks don’t require your whole attention span, you can comfortably put your actions into ‘automatic pilot’ and allow yourself to focus on other things. What if you just thought about what you were doing in that moment and took time to notice all the small things you don’t normally experience, the feel of the steering wheel, or the clean plate in your hands, the sounds and the temperature around you. By practising awareness of noticing small things we are nurturing our attention span and allowing more information to come in through all our senses and in turn we become more alert and aware.
As a working stand up comic I'm passionate about how improv feeds into my night job and vice-versa. Written material delivered word for word is very different from going into the ‘now’ moment and each have their place. For every well written gag there’s also a ‘one time only’ ad-lib, or turn of phrase that is exclusive to that show and that audience on that night and has payoff laughter that cannot be recaptured at any other time.
For me one of main strengths of improv is how it translates so well to other areas of life, you really can take it with you. There's no arguing that doing stand up comedy, even for a short while makes a person more confident. With improv I'd argue the rewards to the individual are even greater.
With so many online social networking distractions, text messaging and screens invading our attention span everyday it’s hard to be mindful, and easy to be removed from the moment, how we feel, how we react, and how more emotionally detached we can become. By being mindful, and embracing our inner improviser we can make more use of the now, the real verbal and non-verbal communication that help us create stronger relationships and live happier lives. Improvisers know this, and you should too.
John Cooper 04/01/2015
I’ve been reading up a lot on mindfulness recently. Partly for personal development, but also it’s a bit of a buzzword that comes up a lot in corporate speak when employers discuss the qualities of good employees. To be mindful is to be in the moment, aware of the present, the ‘here and now’. Observing what goes on around you in a way that’s not judgemental, but takes a moment to absorb as much as sensory information possible, while at the same time acknowledging how you feel within yourself. It’s an activity that facilitates good decision making skills.
Being in the moment is what improvisers do on stage all the time. Back when I started doing improv I thought I was using the same parts of my brain for improv as I was for my stand up. Over time I realised this wasn't actually true. With stand up I think as fast as I can and plan ahead, my brain gets three of four gags ahead of my mouth, assessing material based on the taste of the audience that night, and knowing what I’m going to say. Improv is very different. It requires me to be in the 'now' all the time, no planning ahead, no looking for gags, just finding them. There's an old improv proverb which says something like; “don't bring the house, just a brick will do”.
Mindfulness is nothing new, it goes all the way back to Buddhist practices and is a form of meditation. Imagine you’re driving on a quiet road late at night or if you don’t drive, washing the dishes. These tasks don’t require your whole attention span, you can comfortably put your actions into ‘automatic pilot’ and allow yourself to focus on other things. What if you just thought about what you were doing in that moment and took time to notice all the small things you don’t normally experience, the feel of the steering wheel, or the clean plate in your hands, the sounds and the temperature around you. By practising awareness of noticing small things we are nurturing our attention span and allowing more information to come in through all our senses and in turn we become more alert and aware.
As a working stand up comic I'm passionate about how improv feeds into my night job and vice-versa. Written material delivered word for word is very different from going into the ‘now’ moment and each have their place. For every well written gag there’s also a ‘one time only’ ad-lib, or turn of phrase that is exclusive to that show and that audience on that night and has payoff laughter that cannot be recaptured at any other time.
For me one of main strengths of improv is how it translates so well to other areas of life, you really can take it with you. There's no arguing that doing stand up comedy, even for a short while makes a person more confident. With improv I'd argue the rewards to the individual are even greater.
With so many online social networking distractions, text messaging and screens invading our attention span everyday it’s hard to be mindful, and easy to be removed from the moment, how we feel, how we react, and how more emotionally detached we can become. By being mindful, and embracing our inner improviser we can make more use of the now, the real verbal and non-verbal communication that help us create stronger relationships and live happier lives. Improvisers know this, and you should too.
John Cooper 04/01/2015
Monday 5 January 2015
WELCOME!
Thanks for visiting the ComedySportz Manchester UK Blog! Keep checking back or subscribe for the latest on shows and workshops, behind the scenes information and our thoughts on improvisation both on and off stage.
WHO WE ARE
ComedySportz Manchester UK is the top all ages improvised comedy group in the North West. The show started 13 years ago at Chorley Little Theatre before moving to Manchester where it continues to grow and recently formed a Sunday League show featuring some of the best talent to graduate our workshops. We have regular shows at Sale Waterside Arts Centre and teach workshops in improvisation and stand-up comedy. For information on how you can get involved in workshops, book tickets or hire private shows and bespoke workshops for your school or company visit www.comedysportz.co.uk.
WHERE WE ARE
Our regular family friendly ComedySportz Show is at Sale Waterside Arts Centre but under the CSzUK banner we also host ComedySportz Sunday League (same show, same rules, different shirts) and Comedy Unplugged at Fuel Cafe Bar in Withington and Let's See What Happens at the King's Arms, Salford (adults only). We also perform shows across the UK and are regular survivors of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
WHAT WE ARE
We are a competitive, fast paced, super witty, kinda cute, family friendly improv comedy group. We are also a proud member of the ComedySportz Worldwide family. Our players create quick witted sketches, scenes and songs from whatever suggestions are thrown at them by the audience to create shows that are fast, feel good and always unpredictably funny.
WHY WE ARE
We believe in the joy of improvisation and play and bring that ethos to our shows and workshops nationwide.
HOW WE ARE
Great! Thanks for asking.
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