Off The Cuff (Comedy Improv)

ON THE CANVAS...
We're down and out.
OTC ran from 2007 to 2016, mostly monthly. With this year's passing of one of our finest members in the form of Ian Baldwin, founder and manager Barnaby Eaton-Jones is retiring OTC for good with no more revivals or resurrections.
... Thanks for coming and thanks for suggesting. Without YOU, we wouldn't have had our show.
Look around you and you'll find another improvisation show to attend somewhere. Or set up your own!
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The very final moment of the very final OTC - everyone died a horrible death. Luckily, the audience laughed.
Photo: Simon Walden

When OTC bowed out in 2013, it wasn't the end it was supposed to be. I was persuaded to resurrect it again, with a new cast, for a few shows in 2016 before my health got the better of me. This year, I was supposed to be doing a series of two-man shows with original member Ian Baldwin but it wasn't to be as he passed away at a ludicrously young age and with so much creative talent still to give. This is the final OTC show featured he and I together and, although we were only i...n a handful of games together, we really flew that night. We knew it. I was told afterwards that the audience could see the chemistry and I've never heard such laughs at the 'Sound Effects' game, which we both thought was the best we'd ever done. I'll always have that memory and I'm just so sad I won't be standing on stage with him again in the future. He was a true legend and loved by every single person that he came into contact with.
Barnaby Eaton-Jones (Founder)
Photos (c) Trevtography
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A while back, I announced that OTC would come back in a new form. In actuality, the excitement was that Ian Baldwin and I were talking about doing a two-man show under the banner and, hopefully, persuading past members to contribute to some shows. As ever, life got busy and we were doing big creative projects that pulled us away from the discussion.
"We'll do it next year." he said, in early 2017.
Well, a year later and today, I'm sad to announce, the best improviser - bar n...one - that I ever stood on stage with has left us to entertain in the ether.
So, here's my advice. If you love improv and you love improvising with someone, do it as often as you can. If you're Cheltenham-based, like OTC, you can go along and watch Comic Sans Script or Knowing Smirk - as well as participating. You can go along to the Cheltenham Improjam too, to get involved.
Anyone who saw Ian on stage will attest to the fact that he was sublime. Never stealing the limelight, always happy to set up a joke, never blocking other performers but ALWAYS delivering the most solid and most funny jokes and end lines to a game that you could hope for. He was the improviser's improviser, without doubt.
RIP Balders. He was the humblest and the kindest, as well as blessed with an immense talent for making people laugh.
Best wishes & rainbow fishes, BARNABY (Founder)
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Our spluttering resurrection, last year, came to an abrupt end due to ill-health - leaving our new improvisers hankering for more opportunities.
So, we have something in the works. Oh yes. And look at our idiotic founder, desperately trying not to open his mouth and announce it too early...

I'm proud to have sponsored a chair in the brand-new (and very first) Improv Theatre, based in Bristol. So, if you do go there, and you really should, then see if you can find it and have a read. Apparently, others were a little more serious. Ahem.
Best wishes & rainbow fishes, BARNABY (OTC Founder)

I am very proud, in the many years of doing this comedy improv show, we never once did a 'wacky' publicity group shot. There's plenty of photos of us being idiots within the actual show but I knew, early on, that every 'comedy' group (especially when you couple that with the Edinburgh Fringe) did the same old, tired photo to show how 'funny' they were and you can never translate actual funny to a single frame.
On a serious note, it's the exclusion that grates - and that can easily permeate to stage, if you're not careful. You're clearly finding it funnier than the viewer is.
Here's an idea: have a logo. It's so much easier and infinitely less punchable.

THE END...
The brief revival was, sadly, a little too brief and it was purely my decision to stop it. I truly hope the monthly show continues at The Playhouse Theatre in Cheltenham under another name.
I once tried to run OTC from afar and it didn't work at all, so - whilst time and health get the better of me - it's only sensible that OTC gets put back in the memories of those that saw any of our shows. Thank you, all. Maybe it will return another time, maybe it won't. But, ...for now, the hooter has been put back on the bicycle, the Host's cards have been filed away, the musician has been paid off and the bar has been closed.
OTC. 2007 - 2016. It was always childish humour for adults.
Best wishes & rainbow fishes, BARNABY (Producer/Performer)
Photo: Trevtography ("So, in 2016, OTC ran for *this* long!")
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TONIGHT'S SHOW IS CANCELLED!!! So sorry. Circumstances beyond our control. We will be back in April. Please spread the word.

February's show (2016) - 'Moving People'.
Courtesy of Trevtography.

There's a whisper on the wind that this month's OTC will be free. Yes, free entry and free Jaffa Cakes and free comedy. Plus, we have a fully-stocked bar that costs half the price of normal places and it's profits get ploughed back into the theatre we're performing at. I think those are some very good reasons to join us on Sunday 21st of February. More details soon...

January 2016. The Return Of OTC. Our next show is on February 21st. Doors open 7pm.

Thanks to those of you who braved the cold tonight to be at The Playhouse Theatre in Cheltenham.
What a lovely 'workshop' that was and a nice turn-out too - a sort of free-for-all show for January. I wanted this first 'show' to be a warm-up, to get people along and allow anyone to get up on stage to give it a go. I'm hoping to create a 'new' OTC team. We've got a year, stretched out ahead of us, to build the audience, the chemistry, the new games and the friendships. There's... no hurry. But, I have to say, based on tonight's mucking-about, we've got some gifted improvisers ready to be polished and sold to the world. I'm a pretty good judge of who's got funny bones and who hasn't. I would, if I'm honest, be remiss by not saying you should ruddy well start adding the Third Sunday of Every Month in your calendar as OTC night. It's all about the fun and the funny.
Best wishes & rainbow fishes, BARNABY (Originator/Performer)
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On Monday, we'll be announcing our January 17th line-up and creating a Facebook event. Ooh, the anticipation! As it's our first show back, after a couple of years away, we're doing a special door price of £2.50 (and free Jaffa Cakes for you ALL!). Keep your improvising eyes peeled!
DISCLAIMER (read in a very, very fast voice): The information in this status update is for general guidance on your choice of improvisiation group to see and is not legal advice on which show to attend. Other improvisation groups in Cheltenham are available.