Cliffhanger With Sarah Reuben

The 2016 Melbourne Comedy Festival returns again this year with an added big hoo-haa! The Big HOO-HAA is an improvised comedy group bringing their show Cliffhanger for a fifth year with yet another new formatted show. The gorgeous 34 year old Sarah Reuben who trains week-in and week-out with the ensemble gave me a rundown of what the audience can expect from Cliffhanger.

Differing from their weekly shows, the Big HOO-HAA wanted more of a challenge for themselves. They wanted to create a different experience for the audience and for their regular clientele to see. ‘Its really nice to give them something new, exciting and something different!’

The improvised comedy show will consist more of  ‘breaking down the form of movies and genre, bringing [the audience] some nice long stories’ instead of one-liners and gags giving the show more variety and more hilarious scenarios.

The show begins with suggestions from the audience where the improv group of a rotating cast of 20 people (8 per show) can work off. These suggestions then flow into stories, where again the audience can suggest things they like or don’t like about it.

‘[The ensemble] builds a format around an idea’ from what the audience suggests; if the audience likes an idea or the group gets a good reaction from it they will work off that and continue the story as such. This gives ‘a lot of diversity for the audience’ to create a story they will enjoy. The audience has ‘ultimate power’ and control to how the story unfolds.

What are the fundamentals of improvised comedy you may ask?

Well, ‘we don’t work on… say if someone yells out “spatula”, we don’t have a planned set for each singular word. If you get a suggestion, say “ashtray”, the first thing that would come to mind would be cigarette, right? And so rather than go with cigarette, you don’t go to the A to the logical B, you might then go to the C. So the C suggestion from “ashtray” might be lipstick, like a lipstick stain on a cigarette.’

Building up their skills for Cliffhanger in workshops since October 2015, the ensemble doesn’t face too many challenges on a day-to-day basis. Everyone in the ensemble has a say and ‘everyone’s ideas are heard’ – the only issue they ever have is having too many ideas to run with!

Rather than jump from idea to idea, they would rather focus on one thing and ‘produce it really, really well.’ As a director, the hardest part is saying no ‘for that particular format and show’ but ‘ideas are revisited often’. 

You can catch Sarah Reuben and the Big HOO-HAA cast performing Cliffhanger at the Comedy Festival from the March 23 to April 17!

Cliffhanger 
The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place, Melbourne
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from March 23–April 17, 10:00pm , 12:00pm-11:30pm
comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/cliffhanger-the-big-hoo-haa-melbourne