22 APRIL 2026

Hi there.

It’s Chris Mead (mostly) here.

Another wonderful week of improv behind me. I participated in the Southend 48 Hour Improvathon - staying awake for all but two of those hours - directing a section overnight and playing Jason Statham for a large portion of the rest of it.

As ever, it was a spiritual and metaphysical experience that is hard to put into words. You create a world, live in it for what seems like a lifetime, caring so much and so hard for the lives and loves of a group of entirely fictitious characters - and when the spell finally breaks and reality rolls in like the tide - you find yourself left with a new community, bound together in mourning for a place that never existed.

Fun.

Rule of three

[Music] Click Clack Symphony
RAYE is back with a second single off her new album and, friends, it is predictably incredible. Click Clack Symphony is about struggling with depression, the power of friendship to lift you out of it and is undergirded by a soaring orchestral collaboration with Hans Zimmer.

[Improv] Technology
In Manila, I attended a brilliant workshop about the intersection between improv and technology, led by the man with the incandescent smile, Charles Alba. Charles has very generously allowed me to link to the tools he shared with us that day.

Convergence by Doug Neale
Play Mind Meld with a LLM. Fascinating how literal the Ai can be in making connections.

RapScript
Practice improvised rapping with backbeats and lyrical inspiration provided.

Can I Get A … by Vinny François
The best of the instant improv suggestion generators by the best of the improv human beings.

Beat Pad
To create your own beats to rap over when you don’t have a beat boxer.

[Film] Father Mother Sister Brother
Three different stories about family that share a handful of visual and thematic motifs (Skaters! Tap Water! Rolexes!). Everyone in this is brilliant but the Sister Brother sequence is particularly special in its intimacy and poetry. HOT TAKE: Jim Jarmusch is pretty good at writing and directing films.

Spotlight

WE’RE TRYING A NEW THING!

The Pretend Company presents the Lunchtime Lecture Series.

Step inside the minds of four of improv's top teachers with the Pretend Lecture Series, an 8-week deep dive into how great improvisers think. Join Patti Stiles, Katy Schutte, Feña Ortalli, and Inbal Lori as they let you behind the curtain and unpack shows in this online series.

Each teacher brings a show they love, breaking down choices, patterns, and instincts. Then, all four tackle the same performance, giving students four completely different perspectives on one piece.

Discover new approaches, sharpen your instincts, and transform how you watch and play improv.

Absolutely can’t wait for this. It’s online, it’s competitively priced at £85 for the eight weeks (plus numerous Pay What You Can and Scholarship options) AND we’re recording them, so even if you can’t make the series in person, you can get all the improv goodness at your leisure.

Katy, Patti, Inbal and Feña ALL in one course and for well under £100.

If you’re serious about improv, then this is the course for you.

Longform thoughts

Tom Mathias (who also recommended last week’s brilliant video game Öoo) writes:

When performing long-form, I have discovered that I have a signature move (like a wrestler or Street Fighter II character).

My personal Stone-Cold Stunner is having a character propose to their partner (I've done a good few in the rehearsal room and one on the Karlsruhe festival stage). What are your improv specials and how do you balance those big swings so they don’t become part of a rote playbook?

Read about my Signature Improv Moves in this week’s Longform thoughts. And then send me your own special moves by replying to this newsletter.

Radio contact

Reunited after the Improvathon.