How To Train For The Giggle Olympics

In any arena there needs to be a King. Someone easily distinguished by the laurels held aloft by his or her noble ears that people can point to and in hushed tones whisper, "That fucker's the best". Improv is no different, and Australia's sword in the stone is the Theatresports National Championships. 

"It's the best teams of improvising comedians from five capital cities competing for national Theatresports supremacy," says competitive comedian Cale Bain. "It's the State Of Origin of improv comedy. 

"The genius of how quickly improvisers can come up with stuff, how immediately they can create scenes, worlds, stories..."

"It's been going on for 30 years already. It's a tradition that's seen the beginning of some of Australia's biggest comedy acts, like the Axis Of Awesome and Wil Anderson, hosted [this year] by the super handsome and hilarious solo act, Steen Raskopoulos." 

TNC 2016 will see Sydney's Cranston Cup Champions Kate Coates and Simon Greiner join forces with reigning champ Edan Lacey to go head to head with the most talented visiting teams Australia has to offer, a face-off that will "inspire people [with] the genius of how quickly improvisers can come up with stuff, how immediately they can create scenes, worlds, stories, songs and do it all with humour; with drama," says Bain. 

Crowd-inspiring comedic genius is a rare quality, but Bain and his fellow competitors know what it takes. "A good comedy hour is one where the audience feel invested, where they care about it enough to want to know more. A good improv show, the audience wants the players to succeed.

"An abysmal one is where the audience is the victim of the jokes and the comedian or comedians take them for granted and treat them like shit. Fuck those kinds of players. Audiences are beautiful and should be treated like smart angels."