Contrary to popular belief, comedy isn’t all that difficult. Just about anyone can stand on stage in a wacky suit, read out a punch line and raise a titter. Take the script out of the equation, however, and things get much, much tougher, as expert improviser Steve Steen knows only too well. In town for a one-off, live reprisal of ultra-edgy ’90s panel show Whose Line is it Anyway?, we grabbed a word with Steve and found out that the benefits of being an expert improviser go way beyond the stage…
Can you remember any moments or sketches from last year’s show that went down particularly well?
The extraordinary thing with improvisation is that you can do it one night and then the next night you have no idea what you’ve just performed. Once I was walking across Trafalgar Square when I felt this hand grab me by the shoulder. There was a guy standing there and he said ‘I just want to thank you for the sketch you did last week at The Comedy Store, you know, the one about the parrot and the onion’ and I went, ‘I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, I’m sorry’ and he said ‘but you were in it!’ But by the next day, the material is gone.
Ever had a real off day?
Well that’s the great thing about being in a team. If one of you has an off day there are usually four more of you to compensate. I think it’d be difficult for stand-ups travelling on their own, because you can kind of lose the plot a bit. Whereas with us it’s always different and if somebody isn’t feeling that fresh then there are people to kind of take over. You rarely go blank, the whole joy of improvisation is that your mind’s blank in the first place.
How edgy do the shows get?
In a darkened room people will shout out the most vulgar suggestions you can imagine. So you can have situations where you think you’re treading on thin ice, but there’s always a discreet way around things. There are plenty of times when people have brought young children to the show, where I’m sure they’ve had to go home and explain one or two words to the kids. But we’ve been doing it now for the best part of 30 years. We know now that you can get around things, take a moment and evaluate whether the situation you’re about to step in to is a dangerous one or not. It’s a great way of keeping on your toes.
Ever used your knack for quick thinking in a social context?
Oh yeah in various ways. I don’t drive, I know nothing about cars. And yet I recently had a conversation with a taxi driver for about half an hour, about some new executive Mercedes model he was going on about. He was talking about the engine and the parts and the mileage and so on and I just thought I’d play along and fill in the other side of the conversation. I did it once at Waterloo Station too, purely for a laugh. I went to one of the rail guards and while standing in front of probably the world’s biggest exit, I pretended to be French and asked him where the exit was. And then, having turned me around and pointed me at it, as he wandered off I heard him say ‘bloody French!’
Do you miss being involved with the TV show?
The TV show was more clinical and it was edited, there were far more rules and regulations about what we could and couldn’t say. With the tension of the live show you get far more reward with what comes out. There are no yawning gaps, it’s just very slick, very fast. And for that reason alone it’s very rewarding for the audience to see.
Do you think the television show could ever make a real comeback?
Yeah I do. It may have to tweak itself a bit, to develop a little bit more. These days there are people doing full-length improvised musicals and stuff like that. So there are different formats, and I think it would be interesting to see if someone could pick up one of them formats and run with it a little bit more.
Steve will be performing with Stephen Frost, Niall Ashdown, Ian Coppinger and Andy Smart at Whose Line is it Anyway?, taking place at the Diyafa Ballroom, Crowne Plaza Yas Island on June 14 at 8pm. Tickets cost Dhs150. Call 02 656 3053 to book.
