March 12, 2025

#157 Three years

Heart. Body. Hand. Head.

12 MARCH 2025

Well, here we are.

By my count this issues marks THREE YEARS of the Chris Mead improv newsletter landing in your inboxes every Wednesday.

I’m so proud of this little community and incalculably grateful to everyone who continues to support and interact with me regularly.

As basically ALL social media sites move from being bin fires to becoming toxic trash conflagrations of biblical proportions - I don’t know what I’d do without this outlet to share my ideas and recommendations - and to receive such wonderful missives back in response. So thank you from the bottom of my improv heart.

As you’ll see below, I’m starting a new journey of learning and discovery this year. I hope you’ll follow along as I head out into the unknown, cultivating a movement practice for myself and my work. The aim is to fold it all back into improv and see what new things we can create.

Ultimately, I feel as inspired as the day I wrote the very first issue of Improv Fables back in 2022, as excited as I felt watching long form improv for the first time in 2001.

A life marked by new challenges, always racing towards new horizons. I guess that’s not a bad way to live, huh?

---

Rule of three

[Movement] Fighting Monkey practice
In Zürich I was inspired by another improviser to look into the practice of natural movement and it’s blown my mind in an epic way. I’ll discuss my thoughts more in the new section below but suffice to say, I haven’t been this excited about a potential new practice since I found improv. As an introduction, listen to Fighting Monkey founder Jozef Frucek talk about communication with the environment and speaking with your own voice.

[Comic] Extremity
I don’t think anyone can draw frenetic action better than Daniel Warren Johnson. His work is just so bloody visceral. The marketing copy for Extremity (about an artist in a post-apocalyptic world dealing with the loss of her dominant hand) describes it as the beauty and imagination of Studio Ghibli meets the intensity of Mad Max and fair play, that’s a good description.

[TV] Ludwig
I’m only now catching up with the BBC’s Ludwig, about a cryptic crossword setter who, in a delightfully inexplicable turn of events, ends up solving crimes whilst posing as his DCI-ranked identical twin brother. It’s cosy, gently funny, pretty clever and fun. Like if a cup of tea was a TV programme.

---

Spotlight

Still a chance to come and attend the FIRST EVER Pretend Night in Farnham this Sunday. Londoners, why not brave the invisible forcefield the council have put up at the end of zone 6 and come join us?

Pretend Night Farnham | 16 March
A show that’s half improv jam and half long form set with veteran improvisers. Cast includes Emily Kerr, Ed Fargher, Liam Webber and Chris Mead.

And if you’re in Amsterdam in April, I’m putting on a new workshop called Helpful and Heartfelt with Flock Theatre, just before we attempt an overnight test version of the Improvathon format, with the hope we’ll expand it to the full 50 hours next year.

---

Longform thoughts

After recently publishing my general survival guide for improv festivals, a surprising number of you got in touch to ask for one specifically focussed on teaching (especially if it was for the first time). I’m so glad, because it means festivals are continuing the good work of reaching out to new voices, rather than just falling back on tried and tested facilitators. Here’s what I wish I’d know from the start.

Presenting my Improv festival survival guide for new teachers (and yes, I know the name is a bit unwieldy).

---

Movement for change

Hello, and welcome to the new section.

As a bit of context, I’ve struggled with regular exercise my whole life. Firstly, I was a theatre kid and relatively poor at ALL SPORTS. Secondly, everything I’ve tried, from the gym to CrossFit and even to yoga and pilates has seemed too repetitive and linear to hold my attention. This has led to a point where, at 44 years old, I’m in the worst shape of my life and that’s starting to impact what I can do on stage.

BOOO! Obviously we can’t have that.

So a couple of weeks ago, I was introduced by a fellow improviser to the natural movement community. What that means is hard to explain and obviously I’m right at the beginning of my journey but if you imagine a spectrum with martial arts at one end and dance at the other - natural movement is that whole space in-between. It means moving your body in order to play, eschewing structured workouts in favour of exploration and spontaneity, seeing nature as a playground full of obstacles and affordances.

I’d never even heard the word affordances before this week.

So basically, I’m committing to a year of exploring and creating my own movement practice. I’m already seeing so much crossover with improv and I’m truly excited at what it might all mean for my wider theatre-making.

I’m taking my first movement class this evening - so this is my first step into a new space.

Each week, for the next year, the plan is to share one exercise, one game or one snippet of theory in the newsletter.

I’m so far out of my comfort zone, it’s exhilarating.

Wish me luck!

---

Radio contact

Why do you keep pointing that camera at me?

Because you’re so cute, Radio.

---