From showstopping musicals to impromptu Shakespeare, and from freestyle rap to improvised murder mysteries, at Birmingham Improv Festival, no one can ever be sure quite what to expect when they arrive – and that includes the performers! Following the huge success of its inaugural event in 2016, the festival is back at the Blue Orange Theatre this month with a jam-packed line-up that promises to be “bigger, better and Brummier” than ever. We spoke to festival founder and director Jon Trevor to find out more.
 

You launched Birmingham Improv Festival last year. Tell us a bit about how it started.

It started as a mad idea in my head! I decided that we should have a festival and so we did, and it was a year in the making the first time. Over the last eight or nine years, the Birmingham improv scene has been steadily growing from very small beginnings, and I felt that it had reached the point where there was a big enough groundswell of interest to put something together.

With the first festival, I wanted to achieve two things. Our two stated aims were: 1) To put improv on the Birmingham map, so that people living in the city would know that it exists and understand what it is; and 2) to put Birmingham on the improv map, so that companies outside Birmingham would recognise that there is a home for them here, where they can come and be seen and get an audience.
 

How have things grown and changed this year?

Last year’s festival took place over one weekend. We had ten performing companies and eight workshops and altogether it was a fabulous success. Several of the shows sold out, and our tickets sales were mostly around the 80% mark, which is pretty good for the first year of a festival – so that’s why we decided to do it again.

This year, our slogan is “Bigger, Better, Brummier”. Firstly, we’ve gone twice as big. We’ve now got 21 shows taking place over a whole week rather than just a weekend. Also, we’re going to be featuring a lot more local talent. Last year was more about bringing in headline acts from around the country; this year, we’re continuing with that, but we’re also giving local performers the opportunity to shine.
 

Birmingham already has a comedy festival: why did you feel like improv needed a separate event. Do you think it’s a style that’s under-represented in mainstream comedy?

It’s under-represented and misunderstood. People often confuse improv with stand-up comedy, but of course it’s a very different beast. Stand-up comedy is one person with a carefully manicured script, delivering lines to dominate an audience and make them laugh. Improv, on the other hand, is a group of people working together to make stuff up in the moment with no script.

They’re so different that we felt it needed it’s own space just to help people understand what it is, because a lot of people still don’t. People tend to either have no idea at all, or they think that it’s just what they remember from Whose Line is it Anyway? Which it can be, but it’s a lot more as well. To ask why it needs a separate event is a bit like saying, “Birmingham’s got a classical music festival, so why do you need a separate jazz one?”
 

How do you choose the acts who perform there?

I go around watching groups – everything is very carefully curated. I spend time at the Edinburgh Festival this year because I’m already looking at booking shows for next year. All of the acts are either groups I’ve seen, or that somebody very close to the organisation whom I trust has seen.

At the moment, we’re not holding open call-outs, but we’re hoping that in future years we might be able to. I’d like for us to eventually be big enough to have an “official festival” with acts that we’ve invited, and a fringe festival where people come and do their own thing, a bit like in Edinburgh. My ultimate ambition is to be the Edinburgh Festival of improv in Birmingham!
 

Tell us about some of the acts you’re particularly looking forward to this year.

I’m especially looking forward to a return visit from the sell-out company Showstoppers, who came last year and were absolutely brilliant! We don’t deserve them, really: they’re a big, headline act who won an Olivier Award for a 9-week run they did at a theatre in London. We actually can’t fit all of them on stage, but they’ve been kind enough to send us a subset of their group at a very reasonable price to do an improvised West End musical. This year, they’re going to be doing an adults’ show and a kids’ show. So I’m really looking forward to seeing them again.

I’m also looking forward to seeing The Maydays, who do Tim Burton-style dark and twisted stories, and Impromptu Shakespeare, who create brand new Shakespeare plays complete with iambic pentameter, thees, thous and thuses, and all the costumes. There’s also Murder, She Didn’t Write, which is an improvised murder mystery, and Notflix, who are an all-female, sell-out company whose show is based around people’s Netflix viewing habits.
 

Improvised musicals and literary-inspired shows seem to be recurring themes. Have those always been popular on the improv scene or is that something that’s on trend at the moment?

Musicals have blossomed enormously I think since the success of Showstoppers in the West End, so that is very much the flavour of the month at the moment. But of course, they’re all different because there are very different styles of musicals. Some are sort of Sondheim-y and some are more conventional West End style, for example.

People do seem to have always enjoyed literary shows. There is a very successful company that tours the country called Austentatious, who do shows in the style of Jane Austen. Sadly we can’t afford them yet, but hopefully in future years we might be able to. This year we’ve got Shakespeare and Dickens-inspired shows instead.

Given that there is so much variety within the genre, what do you think it is that makes a good improv performer or show – other than being brave enough to go up without a script?

Srangely enough, the key is practice and rehearsal. I know that sounds odd, but the best analogy I’ve heard to date is that it’s like a football team. You never know where the ball is going to be or what the opposing team are going to do on the day, but you still practise passing, kicking a goal, and working as a team, so that you can be prepared for whatever happens, and that’s exactly what we do. Some of the people you’re going to see have been doing this for 10-15 years and have been honing their skills the whole time. People often think it’s all about being very funny and clever and witty, but actually, it’s mostly about working fantastically well as a team, and listening to each other really carefully.
So yes, there’s a certain amount of bravery, or call or foolhardiness if you like, in being willing to step in front of an audience and be prepared to get it wrong. But it’s delightful when it goes wrong and audiences love it, so we don’t mind it either.
 

You’re also running some workshops – what can people expect from those?

We’ve got all sorts of things. People can come to a Showstopper workshop and learn how to make up songs on the spot. They can come to MC Hammersmith’s workshop and learn how to rap. Or they can come to the Impromptu Shakespeare workshop and learn how to speak in iambic pentameter off the top of their heads. Also because it’s happening during half-term week, on the Wednesday morning, there is going to be a workshop specifically for kids, followed by a kids’ show in the afternoon. So Wednesday is kids’ day at the festival.

Your own background is in acting and then directing. How did you get interested in improv?

I was very briefly an actor for two or three years before I discovered how bad I was! Mostly I was a director – I was a theatre director for about 20 years. And though I’d used bits of improv in rehearsals and things like that, I didn’t really know a lot about it.

In the year 2000 I gave up professional theatre and started doing other things, and after about eight years I started missing that creative input. I remembered that I’d read a book on improv once and thought it sounded fun, so I looked around in Birmingham for an improv company, and there was nothing. I couldn’t find anything happening here at all, improv-wise. And I was shocked by that, because this is the second biggest city in the country and there’s plenty going in places like Edinburgh, Manchester and Liverpool.

So I started my own improv drop-in on a Tuesday night, and I ended up teaching other people when I didn’t have any idea myself! But I set up Box of Frogs in January 2009, and it’s been going ever since. Several hundred people have now been through the process, and have since peeled off and started setting up their own companies. So we’re now at a point where there are at least half a dozen local performing companies, all of whom have come through from that.

What’s nice about it is that we all know each other – it’s a very strong, supportive scene. And we often work collaboratively together – people are in more than one group, a bit like with jazz bands where musicians will each play in a couple of different groups. It’s constantly growing and flourishing and I’m determined we’ll continue to get bigger and better year on year.

With your background in theatre, do you think that this type of comedy has more in common with that than with stand-up?

Absolutely! There are very few improv groups who play stand-up clubs, because a stand-up audience has very different expectations. We tend to play in theatres to audiences that appreciate drama. Also, it’s not necessarily all funny. There are groups doing stuff that’s not aiming to be funny. It doesn’t mean there aren’t still laughs – there are laughs in Shakespeare, even in the tragedies – but there are improv groups who are aiming for something other than just to make you laugh, for something richer, fuller and more meaningful, and who will send you away having had a really memorable experience.
 

What can we expect for next year?

Last year and this year we have been working solely in one venue, the Blue Orange Theatre, which limits how much we can do. This year, I’m in active conversation with other Birmingham venues, though I can’t say who or what yet. But what I hope is that next year we’ll be able to spread out into a few different places. I’d particularly like to have a larger venue so that we can get some of the bigger companies in and hopefully sell more tickets!

Birmingham Improv Festival runs at the Blue Orange Theatre from Monday 23 until Sunday 29 October.