A question, dear reader, a quiz if you will: what are the two most terrifying words in the entirety of the English language? ‘Serial’ and ‘killer’? ‘Student’ and ‘loan’? ‘Darth’ and ‘Vader’? ‘Ant’ and ‘Dec’? If you chose any of the above in response, then I am afraid to tell you that you are incorrect; do not pass Go, do not collect £200. ‘Twas, I fear, a trick question, for the answer is so much more horrifying than any of those, perhaps even more petrifying than all of those things put together. The reply that I sought was, brace yourselves, ‘improvised’ and ‘comedy’. Yes, two very innocuous-seeming words, but ones laced with horrific connotations: standing up on a floodlit stage whilst desperately trying to come up with something funny to say for the benefit of the scowling masses; panicking as one realises that one hasn’t the slightest idea what it is that one’s partner is miming; forgetting how to speak at all and ending up staring blankly at the audience for a full five minutes, all whilst your compatriots backstage sadly shake their heads and tut. To me, improvised comedy is the true battleground of the comic world, the field [...]
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