19 March,2025 09:07 AM IST | Mumbai | Devashish Kamble
Krishan Hooda (in green) strikes a pose alongside a member of the collective
How many comedians does it take to make a vacuum cleaner? No, not to fix one - to physically become one. If you're at city-based improv collective Negative School's new live series, we'd say nearly five, if you include the hose pipe. One of the many games that feature in the bi-weekly series titled Improv Cage Brawl, is Human Tetris. The audience calls out names of imaginative machines and the performers on stage have 10 seconds on the clock to get in position to mimic it.
"The concept of a cage brawl is simple. Two teams of improv artistes come together to hone their skills through unscripted quickfire battles, judged by an impartial audience who scores the acts," shares co-founder Neeltarni Pratap, who has studied improv across premier schools including the iO West Improv School in Los Angeles, originally co-founded by comedy maestro Del Close in 1981. The shinier feather in her cap, however, is being at the helm of a team called Kool Kats in the upcoming brawls.
Neeltarni Pratap (centre) hosts a previous improv session
City-based filmmaker and co-founder of the collective, Krishan Hooda, admits that kicking the habit of a script wasn't easy. "I was hesitant at first. But there's a certain thrill to being onstage and not knowing where things will head the next moment," he admits. Now we're not sure if this would be a standout in Hooda's resume, but for full disclosure, he captains Patli Galli Ke Patakhe - the Kats' arch rivals.
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The two have locked horns before, at instructional classes and experimental shows across city venues. If the anecdotes are any sign of what the series has in store, we're sold. In a game titled, Gibberish, two comedians take centrestage to have an unintelligible conversation while teammates off-stage shoulder the responsibility to add hilarious twists with voiceovers. In New Choice, the audience calls the cuts, prompting the artistes to change their most recent dialogue until they're convinced the story has strayed far enough to continue.
A participant performs a cartwheel. PICS COURTESY/KRISHAN HOODA
As complex as the rules may sound, Hooda assures us the key lies in simply doing less. "We've seen people trying to pull off complex jokes that fall flat. The humour is not really in what you say, but in the format that transforms the mundane into magic. In that sense, the surprise element comes from the fact that here, the jokes crack themselves. The humour is inherent," he remarks.
Pratap chimes in with a thumb rule that we believe doubles as solid relationship advice. "The âyes and' rule is central to improv. No matter how ridiculous and nonsensical your teammate's line might sound, you must never dismiss it on stage to bring it back on track. Instead of beginning with a âno but', you simply say âyes and' and add your spin to the story," she reveals.
After testing the waters with the series, the founders are now scripting a bigger game plan. In time for the upcoming T20 league season, the duo is planning a pan-Mumbai improv league in the upcoming months. "We are also debuting variety open mics starting March 28 at the Jeff Goldberg Studio for comedians who want to step out of the confines of stand-up and explore musical comedy, roasts, puppetry and more," Pratap shares.
Are these bold plans, given the current atmosphere around overly-ambitious comedy shows? The duo doesn't think so. "We draw our lines very clearly. Sexual innuendos, jokes targeting religions, and politically themed jokes are all low hanging fruits. We strive to keep those off limits. There's so much more intelligent humour to aim for," Pratap remarks. With that line drawn, the age-old question remains, whose line is it anyway?
ON March 21 (every first and third Friday); 10 pm
AT Veda Black Box, Aram Nagar Part 2, Versova, Andheri West.
LOG ON TO in.bookmyshow.com
ENTRY Rs 293 onwards
