Second City improv courses: Blowing my tiny mind

Barry Ferns, who runs the Angel Comedy Club in London, talks about what it was like to take an improvisation course conducted by acclaimed American group Second City. The tutors are returning to the capital in late May and June 2016.

Last year I was lucky enough to take a series of Second City Courses.

Angel Comedy brought them over, in association with Comedy Blogedy (like we are again this year) and they were a real surprise.

Kevin Frank, the Artistic Director (pictured in this Guardian article), was an absolute gem of a human being and so were Lisa Merchant and Jason DeRosse who came over to teach as well.

I took all the classes I could and, even after many (too many) years of doing stand-up, they were some of the most precious lessons I've learnt recently - especially in starting again, of failing, or embracing failure. Just brilliant.

Second City have been teaching for over 50 years and it shows, their style and methods are slick and get under your skin in subtle and powerful ways - it was amazing to be so affected by them, by often such simple techniques taught well.

There were a number of lessons I came out with, ones that I still hold to this day. I feel that even though I've taken other improvisation courses, Second City embodied a spirit of "there is no wrong way" that just lit up the class and encouraged. It wasn't chaos - well, sometimes it was - but, even then, it was carefully managed chaos.

The constant reminder to stay positive and embrace failure was such a humble and brilliant lesson; and one that the courses drummed into us, exercise after exercise. I know in my head that, in Einstein's words, "show me someone who's never failed, and I'll show you someone who's never learnt anything new"... I know that, but to do exercise after exercise that put you emotionally in that place (in a safe environment) was exceptional.

I can see why so many people get fanatical about improv, it really does suggest a "way of life", a way to live, to embrace change, mistakes, and confidently, and positively roll with them.

As a stand-up, it's often the opposite situation - every mistake is held up in the spotlight, and you can feel burdened by a pressure to get it right every time - but that is never the case on stage (or in life) if you just roll on and accept the mistake / situation as it is, you can really - truly - make a scene work.

The other amazing lesson was that funny didn't come from my head, but from listening to the other people in the scenes. Again, rolling with the line. In fact, in that scenario - when someone makes a mistake - it's BRILLIANT, a great offer to play with the unexpected, and create a gem from a leaden pebble.

And the other huge lesson from Second City last year was the sheer spirit of support and encouragement that the tutors offered each other and the students. I was lucky enough to spend a few days with them out of class, and I can genuinely say that they were the most kind, open, people I've worked with. They were generous with their energy and humble too. And everyone I've had contact within Second City has that same vibe of openness and acceptance. As someone who runs a comedy club 7 nights a week, I aspire to even create 5% of that feeling. It sounds shtick-y, but Second City really do treat each other like family, and that is something that MUST come from the technique, from the acceptance, from embracing failure and alchemising it into success just through a simple "Yes, and..."

They are a great organisation... perhaps the best I've ever worked with (and I've worked for both Islington and Camden Councils, so bare praise!)

There aren't many courses left for their visit to the UK this month - but if you can get on one - they are that rare organisation that actually practice what they teach.

All the info is on angelcomedy.co.uk

See also: 'Making It' in comedy, a great article Barry wrote for us which contains some wise words on end goals.