Improv Insider

What started out as an interview with Cale Bain, this year’s Cranston Cup Director, about his vision for this year’s season, turned into a history of the Cranston and all it’s quirkiness, with Cale and Impro Australia’s Artistic Director Marko Mustac. Oh, and we find out if Cale has a vision. The Cranston Cup is a Sydney Theatresports institution, listen in to find out how it started and where it’s headed.

Episode10.mp3 (67.8 MB, 44m 38s)

Recorded on 19^th September 2011

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Not so much an interview, but a group chat with Pink Ladies. While I did have a quite structured list of questions, and had only planned to raise gender at a certain point, it seems you just can’t ignore what is still unfortunately the elephant in the room, and thus the issue of it being a troupe of women is raised within the first minute, and stays pretty much the focus until the end. They joked, they laughed, they drowned each other out for much of it, but what lies within is a great insight into why, regardless of gender, troupes are so important for the continued development and reinvention of improv in Sydney. We are in exciting times indeed.

Episode8.mp3 (46 MB, 57m 4s)

Recorded on 11^th September 2010, after their final rehearsal before opening night, with a small child running around at the time. So, situation normal. Pink Ladies interviewed were Linette Voller, Sophie Long, Cindy Tonkin, Jess Mallett, Jane Simmons, Karena Thomas, Louise McManus, Lucie Booker, Linda Calgaro and Erin Foy.

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Richard and Peter chat about long form (yet again…), the road from Keith to Del, going public with the great Sydney improv secret, touching upon a few of Richard’s previous improv projects, and chatting about Richard’s show A Night at the Improv and why he (at least) thinks its important. And that kind of stuff…

Episode7.mp3 (66 MB, 1hr 13m 22s)

Recorded indoors this time on 17^th August 2010, very late at night, with the odd drink slurp in the background, so kind of situation normal.

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Our interview with Lisa Ricketts, a professional improvisor and one of Sydney’s favourite players, chatting about how to get cast in the Sydney scene (kind of), female improvisors, Explosive Minds, improv festivals, growing balls, and breaking into the U.S. You can visit Lisa’s blog at Improv Bootcamp.

Excuse the odd wind effect, I left my wind screen at home.

Episode6.mp3 (66 MB, 48mins)

Recorded 19^th June 2010.

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Chicago and New York improvisor Ed Illades was visiting Sydney for a few months for personal reasons, so we dragged him into a series of workshops and an interview, chatting about Chicago, sketch vs improv, being in the moment, and short form vs long form.

We’ve also taken the leap to stereo and full length interviews, so the files are bigger, but still small enough to be downloadable. Use your pause button if want to hear it in smaller chunks.

Episode5.mp3 (71 MB)

Recorded 20^th May 2010.

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This is part 1 of our interview with Cale Bain, Sydney’s adopted Canadian improvisor, talking about the differences between Sydney, Canadian and Chicago improv. We’ve also switched to stereo, higher quality audio, and no avian sound effects. Enjoy.

Episode3.mp3 (44 MB)

Recorded 29^th January 2010.

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Here’s part 2 of our interview with Peter Lead, continuing with Peter’s production history, and finally ending with a few production tips, the original point of the interview.

Episode2.mp3 (27 MB)

Recorded 22^nd January 2010.

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Our first episode is part 1 of our interview with Peter Lead, which was going to be about producing your own improv show, the tricks and the traps, but instead turned into a history of Peter’s work and the Sydney improv scene.

Episode1.mp3 (14 MB)

Apologies for the embedded field recording, we did the interview in my backyard, due to this being the first house I’ve had which doesn’t have a quiet recording space. I should have checked that before buying.

Recorded 22^nd January 2010.

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