Cut & Paste Impro’s 2nd Birthday
Two years can seem a long time in comedy, but one show that has survived this amount of time is Cut and Paste Impro. Every fortnight, the team improvise their way through various games for the entertainment and amusement of the punters.
According to Vanessa Bennett “There’s nothing like the freedom (and yes, sometimes terror) of walking out in front of a room full of people and thinking I have absolutely no idea what I’m about to do and what’s going to happen in the next few minutes. It’s kind of an odd thing to do really, but when it all somehow comes together or some character just comes out of nowhere, it’s the best feeling. Sometimes you just get in this zone where you do feel like you’re 3 steps ahead of yourself. All this stuff is coming out & you’re almost thinking what am I doing, where is this coming from? But impro being impro, it’s not all gold, but even those strange moments are very funny in a different way for the audience and performers.”
Danny Alder, Gillian Alder, Geraldine Hickey and Vanessa got together to form Cut and Paste in July of 2004. “We decided to form the group because we were doing impro classes together”, explains Vanessa, “but wanted to be regularly performing in front of an audience. There’s nothing like the extra level of risk & reward that comes with a live audience. Essentially, we were a group of friends that felt a real rapport with each other and had such a great time performing together that one day we just thought, why don’t we start our own group and create a show that reflects what we’re all about. And so Cut & Paste was born. My brother Marcus runs the fabulous Glitch Bar & Cinema so it was a natural choice for the home of the show. Its intimate and relaxed vibe is perfect.”
Not long after forming they were joined by Simon Scott who stuck around to be a regular cast member. Another huge part of the team was Wayne Dixon, who was with the group before moving to Sydney last year, “but fear not, he’ll be back!” assured Vanessa. They are regularly joined by guest improvisers who have included Adam McKenzie, Dan Walmsley, Craig Barfoot, Justin Kennedy, Rob Lloyd, Nick Jamieson, Adam Vincent, Janelle Koenig and Harley Breen. They also had the honor of being joined by Perth’s Xavier Michelides, direct from the Australian Impro Championships held earlier this year. Vanessa noted that _“they’re all great friends who do impro and stand-up and it does kind of feel like a play date that way, just having some friends over to muck about.”
Cut and Paste have a group of regulars that “come back show after show, but people are always bringing along new people as well, so it always feels like this really nice connected network,” pondered Vanessa. “At the same time, we often have people wander in off the street that have no idea what they’re about to see, and then just love that they stumbled across the show. That’s what you aim for and Melbourne is a great place for that kind of thing.”
Vanessa agrees that “Cut & Paste love a special event” and they have hosted several over their existence. There was a Honeymoon Fundraiser for Danny & Gillian Alder where they raised almost enough cash to cover a taxi to the airport. Wayne Dixon was given an almighty send off to the Harbour City and their Christmas show celebrated the holiday in style. If these events are anything to go by, their birthday celebration is going to be huge!
“We have had such a great time doing this show over the last couple of years,” Vanessa reflected. “Sitting on the side of the stage watching a couple of the others doing a scene and just genuinely laughing so hard at what they’re doing, and then looking over at the faces of the audience doing exactly the same thing. Let’s face it, there’s no better feeling than that, and that’s what we want to capture with every show – that uniting force of shared laughter.”
Cut and Paste’s 2nd Birthday Show is on Wednesday July the 12th at Glitch (318 St George’s Rd, North Fitzroy) starting at 8:30. After giving the punters two weeks to recover from that party, Cut and Paste swing into a third year of improvised excellence every 2nd Thursday.
Visit Cut and Paste on thier website Many thanks to Vanessa Bennett for her assistance