30 SEPTEMBER 2026

Hello, improv citizens.

It’s Chris Mead here - your happy-go-lucky tour guide to the wonderful world of improvised everything.

Thanks for joining me on this gentle meander through the wide boulevards and twisting alleyways of make-em-up.

And this week, all three of my recommendations are about improv. I’m not sure that’s ever happened before.

Rule of three

[Film] Lost on the Road
It’s a WORLD PREMIERE (so I haven’t actually seen it)! But this movie is conceived, written, directed and performed by improvisers from our UK community. In particular, it is co-written by Briony Redman, who wrote my favourite episode of Ncuti Gatwa’s entire run as the Doctor, and who is a deeply-joyous performer and human being. Looking up the cast list on IMDB - I think I know almost everyone in it. It’s a who’s who of improv talent (a who’s who’s line is it anyway?). That world premiere is on Saturday 3rd October at the Genesis Cinema, as part of the London Independent Film Festival. I’ll be there if anyone wants to say hi!

[Article] Orange Tuxedo: The Substack
Space work gun to my head, if I had to say which teacher has changed my approach to improv the most, it would be Craig Cackowski. He is a Swiss Army Knife of an improviser - quietly excelling at everything from memorable characters to deft support moves and is the most generous and knowledgeable teacher imaginable. I notice he has an improv blog on Substack. I read through every article almost immediately and the density of wisdom in there is pretty breathtaking. Go check it out, truth seeker!

[Podcast] Helliday
If I’m lucky, I watch about two improv shows a year that attain an almost mythic level of brilliance. This year, one of those shows was Helliday at the Robin Hood International Improv Festival. Directed by Beata Różalska and starring a beautiful bunch of improv savants - it mixed skyhigh interpersonal chemistry with legitimate shocks, god-tier narrative choices and a billowing cloud of blood-red confetti. One of the cast, Hal Munger interviewed most of their castmates on a podcast afterwards - it’s an audio tribute to a beautiful performance that, by its very nature, will never be seen again. God, I love improv.

Spotlight

Let me tell you about Gael Doorneweerd-Perry.

He lives and breathes improv. I’m not sure I know a single practitioner today who pours so much of himself into every class, every show, every new project.

The level of craft he brings to bear is incredible. When he directed a show about the films of Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away etc) - he not only watched all of those films (multiple times), but he read a mountain of memoirs, essays and interviews too.

So when Gael calls a workshop - Scenework, Notes & Improv Nerds - he’s not kidding around. It’s going to be the nerdiest, most thought-provoking five hours of improv discovery you can possibly imagine.

(and next week I’ll tell you about his partner in life and love, Laura - to misattribute a famous quote - one of them is the best improviser in the world, and the other one is even better)

Longform thoughts

Before we move, we have to learn how to be still.

This is the first in a series of longform thoughts about how the five pillars of movement practice relate to improv.

This week, Stillness.

Radio Contact

LICK!