Sprout Roll of Honour
To see a full list of our guests and past
Sprout members click here !

Hows does an impro group grow ...?

SPROUT were formed in 1998.

Richard Felber brought together a group of about eight improvisers in the autumn of 1998.

He'd found a venue, in the Canal Cafe Theatre, prepared to give an impro group a permanent home to grow and develop. And with this as their goal the group began to rehearse together. Rehearsals simply took the form of repetitively going over games and scenes until we were
1. Good at the games
2. Comfortable at playing together

By the time of our first show we'd scaled down to five core performers. The first line-up was Richard Felber, Alasdair Buddington, Dave Bourn, Jo Emery and Grant Westbrook. And we'd also brought on board pianist Andy "Bobo" Fisher.

The show, a mixture of improvised games and sketches debuted in February 1999.

SPROUT's new format and Cocky the Bear

Whilst the first few shows were a great success, after about a month Richard was concerned. He pointed out that what we were doing, whilst funny and slick, was no different to most impro shows. The Canal Cafe had generously given us a space to do something different to their usual shows, so he wanted to experiment a little more. Richard had also brought an idea to this effect - "Why not let the audience choose their compere at the beginning of the show?" Also each of the comperes would be a "character". Dave took the idea a step further, every segment of the show could have its own regular characters introducing them - so no game was ever introduced as ourselves. All the "fishbowl" scenes would be introduced by two characters whose links could be as interesting as the scenes. We tried several pairs of characters introducing the fishbowls - and by far the most successful were "Brian & Lorraine" (Grant and Jo).

So these ideas became the backbone of the format - and any game that couldn't fit this format was dropped.

Incidentally some things didn't make the show (yet?) - compering naked, compering in a box, Cocky the Bear ...!

It's a SPROUTY Christmas !

Dave came up with the idea of the Sprout Specials. The Christmas Special came first. That is, a whole Christmas themed Sprout show. Not unusual you might think ... except that Sprout's Christmas specials occur all year round. And our Brazilian Summer Specials are just as likely to be in December as July.
Check your listings, or the webpage to see when the next one is - for an evening of seasonal spirit - without the present buying or family hassles.

SPROUT in Islington

In September 1999 Richard left to pursue a new career in Sweden (he took Cocky the Bear (right) with him) and was replaced by Jonathan Cohen. This coincided with a change of venue - a move to the Tut 'n' Shive, Islington. The show was changed slightly (we dropped "choose your compere") to accommodate the new space and "SPROUT in Islington" debuted on Friday 22nd October 1999.

By early 2000 the show was so successful that Tuesday nights were added. This show, still totally improvised, but more sketch based, was called, imaginatively, "More SPROUT in Islington", and began on 7th March.

Goodbye Floppy, Hello Gripper

On Friday March 31 2000 Alasdair "Floppy" Buddington performed his last gig (till he comes back, of course). Alasdair, had been our main compere, and with five years of constant impro performance behind him, our most experienced and consistent performer. Those who saw him will remember that a regular part in his compering repertoire was his dance. A tribute to which can be found at:

Floppy Tribute

Alasdair left to join his fiance in the USA. (Why do our members always end up leaving Britain?) So as another founder member bites the dust - enter Richard "Gripper" Croasdale.

Sprout in Edinburgh 2000

Although the SPROUT shows have constantly "evolved", the format has essentially remained the same since Richard Felber first suggested it. This evolution continued and accelerated with the preparation of SPROUT's first Edinburgh show. Suddenly we were faced with boiling down our two hour show to 50 minutes. After a false start or two we hit upon a pretty good result.

SPROUT performed at C (venue 34) every night from 2 August to 27 August 2000 and even managed a sellout!

We also found a new mascot, to replace Cocky the Bear - the dancing Sprout Man.

Another New Sprout

Vicky Custerson had for a long long time been a regular guest and during Edinburgh had to stand in for Grant for a few shows. She did so well we made her a permanent SPROUT. Thus fulfilling one of her two main ambitions. (The other being meeting Paul Squires.)

Sprout at the Movies

May 2001 saw the birth of SPROUT's first improv narrative show. "Sprout at the Movies". This was development of our popular "Film Review" segment which usually lasted about 10 minutes into a full length (40 minute) narrative. The last few gigs at the Tut'n'Shive all featured this long form impro.

Tiny Jo Moves On

After a "well-earned" break ... well ... a break. SPROUT returned in Autumn 2001 to perform at various London venues, including the Amused Moose, Soho, and the Hobgoblin, Brixton.

But its not all joy and laughter in the SPROUT camp though, because after two and a half years earning her impro spurs we lost "Tiny" Jo Emery from the team. In July 2001, Jo, another original member, decided to call it a day "to concentrate on her acting career". Shame on you, Jo, we are all ac-tors, luv! But best wishes all the same!

"Who wants to flyer?"

Managing the admin side of SPROUT has always been as problematic and challenging as the development of the performance side of things.
Initially Richard Felber did most of the work in this area. Towards the end of our Canal Cafe run we brought on board Zoe Abbott to handle help publicity and general admin and generally manage.
Although everyone was supposed to play a large part in the day to day grind not everyone pulled their weight. Take heed - the hard work is done not on stage, but off it.

To wit, Owoo

Michelle Owoo, who had been guesting for some time, was officially added to the SPROUT line-up in November 2001. Also, the musical duties, handled so well by Bo-bo Fisher, were split with Paul "Curly" Ayres.

2002...Richard number 2 leaves

2002 opened with SPROUT in their new all improved Islington home - the Old Queen's Head, but it was goodbye to our second Richard ... Croasdale.

The Future ...

There is always something new ... just around the corner.