In Britain, Rob Brydon is currently one of Britain’s most popular comedy performers, and in his autobiography he makes clear just how important the application of improvisation has been to his success. In ‘Small Man In A Book’ he details years of professionally unsatisfactory work as a radio announcer, voice-over artist and bit-part actor, before his breakthrough – first with the heartfelt character comedy of Marion and Jeff, then with the six-part TV series Human Remains, and the consolidation with perhaps his best-loved role of Uncle Bryn in the hit sitcom Gavin and Stacey.

Now he is a regular host of chat shows and panel games on TV, and a big draw for his live stand-up comedy shows.  And what a significant part improvisation has played in his professional turning points. 

He describes his first work with me during his four years in my improvisation comedy team More Fool Us, during the mid-90’s:  “I felt like I belonged.  It was a good feeling, but it also reinforced my belief that I’d taken a wrong turn in becoming so wrapped up in radio and television presenting.  Paul had gathered a strong team of performers and we went on to play some great shows in Bristol, Bath and beyond.”

Those were classic improvisation shows, and it was some years later that Rob rediscovered the improvisation principles that led to his fame and fortune.  In Marion and Geoff, a low-budget solo show, Rob and his co-writer Hugo Blick would devise and shoot a script, then in his solo performance with his writing colleague hidden in the back of the car in which the entire programme was shot, ‘I was able to improvise and create material on the spot, which could be instantly edited and added to by Hugo as he sat crouching out of sight in the back of the car.”

Rob then draws on four other members of the More Fool Us team, Julia Davis, Jane Roth, Ruth Jones and Toby Longworth, to populate his next series, Human Remains.  His co-writer is Julia Davis, but things don’t go according to plan when they start scripting.  “Nothing happened.  I should, perhaps, say incredibly nothing happened, as we’d arrived full of enthusiasm… by the end of the afternoon it was clear that nothing was going to come and so we decided, in a mood of great disappointment, to call it a day… As an afterthought, I suggested that maybe it would be better if we just did what we’d done back in Bath – improvise and see what happened.”

Immediately characters came tumbling out. ”We were able to talk and talk, in character, for hours at a time, often making each other howl with laughter, weaving intricate storyline that arose entirely naturally and unforced.”

It’s interesting to note that the same improvisational processes, techniques and skills were to the fore as Ruth Jones co-wrote Gavin and Stacey (in collaboration with James Corden).  Ruth Jones describes her improvisation memories in an interview with the BBC: “It was started in Bath in the early 90s by a guy called Paul Z Jackson who was brilliant at teaching us the ins and outs of improvised comedy. The golden rule was ‘yes, and...’.  I used to love doing it. It was just like playing. Sometimes we were really funny. And other times we were painfully bad. Thing is, there's no way I could do it now. I used to say to Julia when we were filming, ‘God, can you imagine having to do an impro show now?’ I would die of nerves.”

Ruth and Rob had learned comedy improvisation performance with me, but it was not immediately obvious to them that applying the principles to comedy writing could be just as productive.  In fact, even more productive in many ways, as the freedom from responding to audiences’ frequently puerile scene suggestions, and the ability to refine and edit from the best of the material, made for richer final scripts.

In an interview in The Observer (22.11.09), we learn that Ruth Jones “discovered a new way of writing with Corden. They have found that they always have to be in the same room, and they tend to improvise the scene, acting out each of the characters, doing all the voices.”

And these scripts are typically strengthened even further by improvisational contributions from other performers. Rob again: “Toby Longworth had always been the star of the impro group…He came in to audition for Human Remains and blew us away with an improvisation, which we lifted in its entirety into the episode.”

As in the process described by Larry David for Curb Your Enthusiasm, scenarios are planned ahead to take the plot from A to B, but the precise way in which that happens is improvised by the characters as they respond to each other’s dialogue with the cameras rolling.  For that to work well, you need actors skilled in improvisation, and it is no accident that Brydon calls in the More Fool Us squad. “Paul taught me techniques that I still use today, the most basic of which can be summarized as ‘yes, and…’  Straight away we’re building the scene, as opposed to blocking each other.”

By the end of the scripting process on his TV comedies, Rob records, “I can’t imagine how we would have created such a fully realized world without just sitting there and talking to each other in character to each other over many hours, then painstakingly reducing it to the best bits and shaping what was left into a script.”

I’m thrilled that so many members of the team have flourished, and that applying improvisation proves central to unlocking their talents. I’m also delighted that they generously acknowledge my part in setting them on that track, whilst remaining slightly amazed that it takes so long for the pieces to fall into place – that creating the shows means improvising in the writing and character development, as well as in performance in the moment.
 

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