#193 A good improviser is like a dog
Useful. Happy. Cynical.
12 NOVEMBER 2025
Hello, wonderful humans!
Welcome to The Pretend Post. I’m your host, Chris Mead, improviser, dog owner and co-founder of The Pretend Company.
And it’s been a busy time for The Pretend Company in general. In the last few weeks we have:
Started going through the applications for our 2026 Improv Actor Training intake
Continued to publicise our five day Improv Actor Training Intensive 2026 (there’s still time to apply here)
Performed at Hoopla, The Free Association, our own Pretend Night and the Nottingham Comedy Festival
But enough about us, how have you been?
Rule of three
[App] Readwise Reader
I’m really excited about the potential for this app. In a nutshell, you throw all your digital reading at Readwise Reader - PDFs, online articles, eBooks, even Tweet threads and YouTube transcripts - and it collates them into a lovely cohesive library that you can then tag and highlight to your heart’s content. After you’ve done that, it puts all your highlights into a spaced repetition system that returns those nuggets of wisdom to you regularly via email and summary digests. So you don’t just read something once and forget it - you keep being reminded, just as you were about to forget. I think this feels very powerful and exciting. I’m going ALL IN on the system for six months and I’ll let you know what I think. I’m even going to feed it all my improv notes. Learning is fun!
[TV] Plur1bus
It’s the new show from Breaking Bad’s Vince Gilligan and I already love it. I can’t really tell you anything about it. It’ll spoil it. But I CAN SAY it’s as beautifully filmed as anything he’s ever done and, part way through the first episode, you might think you know what the vibe of the show is going to be, and you are almost certainly wrong.
[Newsletter] Garbage Day
I find it really hard to follow the news currently. You know, because of the break down of everything I consider moral, compassionate or logical. But I always read Garbage Day - which is a newsletter about life and politics through the lens of internet culture. It makes me feel less alone.
Spotlight
It’s Pretend Night in a few weeks on 26th November and we’ve got another great workshop/ show combo for you.
Ali James | In the Space
Really excited to have Ali teaching the pre-show workshop this month. She’s one of the best improv teachers in the world and a wildly successful performer and director in her own right. I find her classes to be focussed, thoughtful, perceptive and just so kind and welcoming. As always, places are £25 and include a ticket to the show afterwards.
Pretend Night | Lost to Life
We’ve been trying to get the Improvised Play along to Pretend Night for a while now. Their brand of committed, theatrical play is perfect for what we want to champion in the improv community. There’s also a jaw-dropping ensemble this month - including all three Pretend directors, Monica Gaga, Rebecca MacMillan and Tara McEntee (all the way from New Zealand).
PS - we also have a few more tickets to Elana Fishbein’s workshop Let Yourself Be Vulnerable on Monday 17th November. Liam recently met Elana in Belfast and confirms she is an absolute improv genius.
Longform thoughts
By my calculations, we'll be hitting 200 issues of The Pretend Post on 31st December 2025.
I always want to do something special for a landmark issue and this year I’ve decided to gather as many answers as I can to the following question:
What is your favourite visual image, mental model or metaphor to explain a facet of improv?
I'll unpack that a little more, it was suggested to me by the brilliant improviser Alex Menhams. Basically, is there an image, a metaphor or a story that you use to explain an aspect of improv more concisely?
Some examples would be:
If you bring a brick and I bring a brick then together we'll build a cathedral.
Playing a scene is like a game of table tennis - after each line of dialogue (SMACK!) you have to let there be a reaction (BOUNCE!) before you say your line in response (SMACK!). And so it goes on.
A good improviser is like a dog in a play stance - paws out, head up, tail wagging. They are using everything available to them to SIGNAL they want to play with you.
I'm interested in collecting as many as possible (the dream is 200 but we'll have to see).
Please send them to me in whatever format makes sense: you can draw a picture, take a photo, make a graph, film a video, or simply write it. Or maybe something I haven't thought of? Make a sculpture? I guess I've thought of that now too.
Please do include your name and a social media handle or website if you'd like.
You can send them to me by replying to this very newsletter.
Deadline is 22nd December 2025.
Thanks so much and do ask questions if you have any!
Radio contact
Radio helpfully demonstrating one of the visual metaphors described above.