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The Comedy Store Players
The Comedy Store Players is a group of improvisational comedians who perform at The Comedy Store in London. The group first came into being in October 1985. Members of the group have included: *Dave Cohen *Jeremy Hardy * Kit Hollerbach *Josie Lawrence *Paul Merton *Neil Mullarkey *Mike Myers *Lee Simpson *Andy Smart * Jim Sweeney *Sandi Toksvig *Richard Vranch Currently there are five regular cast members; Josie Lawrence, Neil Mullarkey, Lee Simpson, Andy Smart, and Richard Vranch. Sweeney retired from performing in 2008 but is still listed as a member and is also the group's President. The Players currently perform once a week on Sunday, but have also in recent times performed once each on Wednesdays and Sundays. Performances are usually with the regular cast, although occasionally a guest performer will appear, which have in the past included the likes of Niall Ashdown, Marcus Brigstocke, Stephen Frost, Eddie Izzard, Greg Proops, Steve Steen and Phill Jupitus. Shows sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Improvisational Theatre
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script. Improvisational theatre exists in performance as a range of styles of improvisational comedy as well as some non-comedic theatrical performances. It is sometimes used in film and television, both to develop characters and scripts and occasionally as part of the final product. Improvisational techniques are often used extensively in drama programs to train actors for stage, film, and television and can be an important part of the rehearsal process. However, the skills and processes of improvisation are also used outside the context of performing arts. This practice, known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niall Ashdown
Niall Ashdown is an English comedian, actor, improvisor and writer. He has previously improvised in such television shows as Lifegame, Animo, Improbable Tales at the Nottingham Playhouse, Impropera and with the Comedy Store Players. He has written and performed two acclaimed solo shows, Hungarian Bird Festival and The Man Who Would Be Sting and is in Note to Tale, a work with the improvising classical quintet Between the Notes. He is also part of Impropera - a group who improvise operas based on suggestions from the audience - they are currently developing a show for a younger audience. Ashdown was the creator of the 'Robbo' Robson character who blogged on the BBC Sport website for nine years, finishing in 2010, although the Robbo blog is still alive and well, along with the odd podcast. Ashdown has also appeared in Chambers, Swiss Toni, Outnumbered and, as writer/performer, Barking and Confessions. Ashdown was in the original British version of Whose Line is it Anyway?, app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1985 Establishments In England
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a new agreement on fishing rights. * January 7 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches ''Sakigake'', Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union. * January 15 – Tancredo Neves is elected president of Brazil by the Congress, ending the 21-year military rule. * January 20 – Ronald Reagan is privately sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. * January 27 – The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is formed, in Tehran. * January 28 – The charity single record "We Are the World" is recorded by USA for Africa. February * February 4 – The border between Gibraltar and Spain r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House, London. The station controller is Mohit Bakaya. Broadcasting throughout the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands on FM, LW and DAB, and on BBC Sounds, it can be received in the eastern counties of Ireland, northern France and Northern Europe. It is available on Freeview, Sky, and Virgin Media. Radio 4 currently reaches over 10 million listeners, making it the UK's second most-popular radio station after Radio 2. BBC Radio 4 broadcasts news programmes such as ''Today'' and ''The World at One'', heralded on air by the Greenwich Time Signal pips or the chimes of Big Ben. The pips are only accurate on FM, LW, and MW; there is a delay on digital radio of three to five seconds and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Masterson Inheritance
''The Masterson Inheritance'' was an improvised comedy series broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 1993 to 1995 billed as ''"an improvised historical saga of a family at war with itself."'' There were three series and two Christmas specials. It was broadcast from 1993 to 1995. From time to time, repeats of the show are broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra. In each programme, the cast members – Josie Lawrence, Phelim McDermott, Paul Merton, Caroline Quentin, Lee Simpson, and Jim Sweeney – would be given a particular historical setting, and, incorporating suggestions from the audience, would improvise that episode in the saga of the Masterson family. One episode, ''The Marooned Mastersons'', was never broadcast but is available on Jim Sweeney'website Music Each episode of the saga was introduced by and ended with Erich Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897November 29, 1957) was an Austrian-born American composer and conductor. A child prodigy, he became one of the most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (UK TV Series)
''Whose Line is it Anyway?'' (shortened to ''Whose Line?'' or ''WLIIA'') is a short-form improvisational comedy television series, created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, presented by Clive Anderson, and produced for Channel 4 between 23 September 1988 and 4 February 1999. The programme's format was on a panel of four performers conducting a series of short-form improvisation games, creating comedic scenes per pre-determined situations made by the host or from suggestions by the audience. Such games include creating sound effects, performing a scene to different television and film styles, using props, and making up a song on the spot. The programme originally began as a short-lived BBC Whose Line is it Anyway? (radio series), radio programme, before the concept was adapted for television. During its history, the programme featured a variety of noted comedians from Britain, Canada and the United States of America, United States. While initial series were frequented with perfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the television licence, licence-funded BBC One and BBC Two, and a single commercial broadcasting network ITV (TV network), ITV. The network's headquarters are based in London and Leeds, with creative hubs in Glasgow and Bristol. It is publicly owned and advertising-funded; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. Until 2010, Channel 4 did not broadcast in Wales, but many of its programmes were re-broadcast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phill Jupitus
Phillip Christopher Jupitus (, ''né'' Swan; born 25 June 1962) is an English stand-up and improv comedian, actor, performance poet, cartoonist and podcaster. Jupitus was a team captain on all but one BBC Two-broadcast episode of music quiz ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' from its inception in 1996 until 2015, and also appears regularly as a guest on several other panel shows, including '' QI'' and BBC Radio 4's ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. Early life Born Phillip Swan in Newport on the Isle of Wight, he took his stepfather Alexander's surname Jupitus (a corruption of the Lithuanian name Šeputis) when he was 16. Jupitus attended a comprehensive school before winning a place at the boys' grammar school Woolverstone Hall School near Ipswich. Career Jupitus worked in Essex at the Manpower Services Commission, part of the Department of Employment, for five years, while he also wrote political poetry and drew cartoons. He resigned from the department in 1984, hoping for a care ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Steen
Steve Steen (born 26 December 1954) is a British television, radio and theatre actor and comedian, known for improvisational comedy works. Early career Whilst a pupil at Clapham College in London, Steen became friends with Jim Sweeney, and they joined Oval House theatre club in 1972, performing improvised comedy. They wrote and performed in a show that parodied much of the other shows being held in London that year. Then they formed their own theatre company and wrote and toured its productions around the United Kingdom through the 1970s. Television In the 1980s Steen and Sweeney moved into television production, appearing together for the first time on TV in the ITV children's show '' CBTV'' in 1981, followed by one of Channel 4's first comedies, ''Little Armadillos''. In 1985 Steen appeared in the Ben Elton comedy ''Happy Families''. Rory Bremner recruited them as resident support performers on his first sketch show for the BBC. In 1987 they starred as the Romantic poets Byr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greg Proops
Gregory Everett "Greg" Proops (born October 3, 1959) is an American actor, stand-up comedian and television host. He is widely known for his guest appearances on the U.K. and U.S. versions of ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?''. He has also voiced the titular character on the U.S. version of ''Bob the Builder''. Early life Proops was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in San Carlos, California, a suburb south of San Francisco, attending San Carlos High School. He attended the College of San Mateo and spearheaded the comedy duo "Proops & Brakeman". Later, he took courses in improvisation and acting at San Francisco State University, though he never finished college. Career Improv comedy After college, he joined an improv group with Mike McShane. Both Proops and McShane impressed producers Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, who put them on their show, ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?''. He frequently instigated jokes concerning various idiosyncrasies and differences between British English an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Izzard
Edward John Izzard (; born 7 February 1962) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime. Izzard's stand-up comedy tours have included '' Live at the Ambassadors'' (1993), ''Definite Article'' (1996), '' Glorious'' (1997), '' Dress to Kill'' (1998), ''Circle'' (2000), ''Stripped'' (2009), '' Force Majeure'' (2013) and, most recently, ''Wunderbar'' (2022). She starred in the 2007 television series '' The Riches'', and has appeared in numerous films, including ''Ocean's Twelve'' and ''Ocean's Thirteen'', ''Shadow of the Vampire'', ''The Cat's Meow'' and ''Valkyrie''. Izzard has also worked as a voice actor on films such as ''Five Children and It'', '' The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'', '' Abominable'' and the Netflix original series ''Green Eggs and Ham''. Among various accolades, she won two Primetime Emmys for ''Dress to Kill'' and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Frost
Stephen Frederick Eustace Frost (born 28 December 1955) is an English actor and comedian. Early life Frost was born in Redruth, Cornwall, and is the son of the abstract artist Terry Frost and brother of painter Anthony Frost. Career Work with Mark Arden Frost is known for his work in the 1980s with Mark Arden as part of the double act The Oblivion Boys on '' Saturday Live''. Veterans of the alternative comedy scene, he and Arden appeared in '' The Young Ones'', and later had their own TV series '' Lazarus and Dingwall'' on BBC2. They played the lead roles in the 1987 revival of Tom Stoppard's play, ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' at the Piccadilly Theatre. They also played two robbers in ‘Big Deal’ series 2, in the episode ‘Popping Across The Pond’. In 1994 the Oblivion Boys starred opposite the comedy duo Raw Sex (Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron) in the partially-improvised comedy film '' There's No Business...''. The duo appeared in a series of British ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
