Anything Could Happen returns to Seven Arts this month. We chat with Carla Simpson to find out about the chaos and creativity involved in running a children’s improv comedy show.
Improvised comedy shows are always a fun night out, mixing spur of the moment suggestions with quick thinking from the performers. Throwing a child’s imagination into the mix seems like a match made in heaven, which is exactly what Carla Simpson was thinking when she set up Anything Could Happen: “Anything Could Happen is an improvised children’s storytelling show. The children give their ideas for what they would like to hear a story about and our improvisers, in their very clever and hilarious ways, bring them to life. It’s a bit like Whose Line Is It Anyway, which was an improvised sketch show on Channel 4. I grew up watching that, and when I was starting the company, I was finding all these improvisers to work with, and finding that you can take ideas from what children want to see stories about, and easily make something that is so funny and quick on stage. The children really respond to it. It’s built up quite the following in the last five years that we’ve been going.”
The show will be returning to Seven Arts on 26th October. Parents of shyer children will be happy to know that speaking in front of the audience isn’t the only way for kids to get their ideas incorporated into the performance: “As the children come in, I have a table set up with pens and paper, and they can submit ideas at that point, which is useful for the younger children who don’t feel confident enough to speak to me during the show, when I’ll be looking for children who have their hands up, looking for ideas. Children will get invited on to the stage and we’ll set up the start of the story, and then I’ll look for their suggestions as to exactly what’s going to happen, and they just let rip with their creativity.”
Carla’s background in children’s entertainment is what gave her a passion for helping youngsters explore their creativity: “I’ve been a children’s entertainer for 15 years, so I’ve worked and facilitated drama projects with children,” Carla explains. “And it just seemed a perfect fit because stand-up shows and improv shows exist for adults. Seven Arts often hosts them, actually. But there didn’t seem to be an equivalent for children. I think it’s so important, as the curriculum gets tighter, for children to have a creative outlet. And I don’t think you could find a storytelling show that has more of a creative outlet for children.”
“Whatever your creativity is telling you, go for it, because there’s opportunity in every suggestion.”
Seeing their ideas brought to life is a wonderful way to encourage children who are interested in storytelling: “An experience like this can really build confidence in children, which can also translate into
their creative writing as well. I think our show proves that anything can happen in
a story, there’s no right or wrong answer.
Whatever your creativity is telling you, go for it, because there’s opportunity in every suggestion.”
While it might seem a bit daunting at first, the children really come out of their shells once they get immersed: “We’ve seen children come to their first show and sit at the back and laugh along at what’s going on. Then, the second time they come, they sit a bit closer to the front and they might put their hand up. And then the third time they come, they’re sitting on the front row and they’ve already got loads of ideas and they’re telling you them before you’ve even started.”
Naturally, a show with so many variables has produced some very memorable moments: “Because of the nature of the show and how spontaneous everything is, sometimes you’ll give a show and then later in the afternoon you’ll start laughing about something that happened because it was just so bizarre. One of the first shows we did at Seven Arts, somebody had wanted to hear a story about giant chickens that were taking over the world. And then by the end of this story our improviser had gotten six children out of the audience and they were all chickens just flapping around the stage.”