2007 - A BLANKtrospective

Hello, it's Keira again.

If anyone in this cast is going to sound like they're going all PR on you, it's going to be me. Forgive me - I'm designated publicist so it's compulsive behaviour. For hi-res images, press releases, interviews...

*ahem*

I'm going to look back on a year of BLANKs (wow - Seasons of Love from the stage musical RENT just started playing at random on my iTunes. Normally I'd hit skip, but it seems oddly appropriate right now). As this blog is an expression of our self-obsession, it seems like the right thing to do.

So, how do you measure a year in BLANKs?

Last Tuesday night's A Very BLANK Christmas show at The Roxbury Hotel was "Ham the Musical". Though we had an absolute ball, we did violate a policy we created a few months ago: "No more food BLANKs".

But I think we can forgive ourselves. Food vocab is incredibly evocative - rife with associations, puns and double-meanings. Someone should do a thesis on that and use BLANK as a case study. Or maybe they should go for a walk outside in the sunshine and enjoy themselves - I’ll leave it to them to decide.

But there has been a lot of food. Our first-ever full-length BLANK, at Coogee Arts Festival, was "Cucumber the Musical". Our second, at Twisted Melon Impro Festival, was "Bacon the Musical". And in rehearsals we've had "Cracker", "Corn", and "Coffee", among others.

But they're not all food. During our season at The Old Fitzroy Theatre we had "Camera" (what's with all the C-words? Somebody trying to tell us something?!), "Antarctica" and the even less edible "Undulating" (what were they thinking?!). I'm not sure you'd want to eat a "Tinkerbell" either (mmm, crunchy), which was one of our Cracker Comedy Festival shows.

Taking the show to BrizImprovFest was certainly not food-related. In fact, good food was very hard to find...

All the same, the tour to Brisbane was definitely a highlight of BLANK 2007 - aptly-titled "Light-Switch". I may never forget about ol' Grandpappy Slappy, the ancestor without vertebrae. How we got there from "light-switch" is really anyone's guess. But that's BLANK for you.

At the Old Fitz, I loved "Weasel" and "Hostage". Thanks to our special guest, Rebecca De Unamuno, we learnt how to weasel our way out of anything - including OCD and speech impediments.

Another show that I really dug was "Bacon". And, lookee here, we're back to food! With Bacon and Ham, we’ve had two pig-based BLANKs, no less. "Pork" must be in waiting somewhere (but, dear audient, that is all up to you...).

Of course, "Bacon" was more about bakin' bread or bakin' on various illicit substances than it was about the meat. There was also an upstanding cop "bringing home the bacon" to his 'ho of a wife (FYI, we tend to have a few 'hos wind up in our shows because it's an easy rhyme) and a vegetarian/vegan/"I'm not sure which yet" who refused to eat anything if it comes from an animal. Unless it's dairy.

It may often be edible but, admittedly, BLANK isn't always delicious (*cough*Scapegoat*cough*Wisdom Teeth*cough* ... *ahem*). Sometimes things don't quite go our way. But two not-so-great shows out of sixteen in an improvised production's first year ain't bad at all.

Then, with a season back at The Roxbury, a reprisal at Cracker, more touring and a debut at Melbourne International Comedy Festival all slated for next year, the future of BLANK is looking pretty damn sweet.

Not surprisingly, then, at the end of 2007 we’re all feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves - and most grateful to you for supporting us.

Viva la BLANK!

Keira

Ready for the BLANK

Hello and welcome to BLANK the Blog!

We always have a lot to say about ourselves, so we figured what better way to be egotistical on a mass scale than via a blog of our own? But we hope that you'll find our musings enjoyable and wholeheartedly invite you to comment as we go.

Last night we had our last show for the year - and our first in a few months. And, I think we all loved being together again and loved what ensemble spirit we've created over the course of the year and loved having a full house and loved mucking around and loved knowing we could trust each other in a beautiful, lovely, lovey, dovey, lovey, love-in kind of a way...

Feeling sick yet? Sorry. You see, my sugary prose come from the fact that, with this show, the ensemble maketh the show. So it helps that our gatherings are lovey love-ins. And stuff.

Don't worry, we still make crass jokes (the closing message of last night's show was "find your inner-Wang"), we still do silly dances, and we still sing bolshy rock/soul numbers. It's not all ballads, braiding and barley sugars.

If you've never seen our show, or have only seen it once, or if you don't know much about improvisation, the main thing to know is this: what we do is made up. Completely. On the spot.

When we step on stage, we honestly don't know anymore about what's going to happen than you do when you sit down in the theatre. This includes our musician and our lighting op.

There are no set characters, no plot, no framework, no score, no set numbers, no set dances, no set harmonies. We go from having nothing, to having one suggestion from you in the audience, to having an opening number, and then stories unfold, songs get sung, and by the end you have a musical - one that you'll see once and never again (unless we've filmed it and put clips online).

Absolutely everything you see is being created as it happens. And then it never happens again.

All of this raises the inevitable question that BLANKers (and improvisers generally) get asked...

"Are you insane?!"

Obviously, the answer is "Yes". But, as the improvisation teachers say, it's a "Yes, and..."

Yes and it's fun. Yes and, more often than not, it works. Yes and people seem to like watching it. Yes and some people think we're lying when we say it's improvised (which is really bizarre considering how, well... bizarre our shows can be). Yes and, above all, it's fun.

You should come check it out next year on 8th January at The Roxbury (182 St John's Rd Glebe), 8pm. You'll have a BLANKing good time.

I also promise we'll stop using BLANK puns at you.

Maybe.