One of the most intriguing and impressive elements of the fest was the music. The musicians were an integral part of many shows, contributing to the action, both following and leading the other performers.
One such muso is Dan Walmsley who plays with Melbourne impro group The Crew.
Trained as a classical pianist, Dan quit when he was 15 once he had reached grade 8 because the options for continuing down that path were decidedly narrow. “I didn’t want to go to uni and do music and I didn’t want to be a music teacher,” he said.
Meanwhile, he was busying himself writing and acting in sketch comedy shows at Monash University before getting into stand-up comedy.
Dan joined the Crew in around about 2002 as a performer of the non-musical variety.
“I did say to them ‘oh, you know, I can do piano too’,” he recalled of his early days. “But they didn’t really believe me.” That was until he jumped on a keyboard at the Kitten Club one night and bashed out a few tunes. The penny dropped and he became the troupe’s regular tunester.
These days, he provides the Crew with a soundtrack most weekends and meets up with members at random to do overseas shows.
“All the members of the Crew have stand-up careers as well, so sometimes a few of us will all happen to be at, say, the Edinburgh Fringe at the same time and we’ll throw together a late night show for the week.”
Oh the life of the international artist!
But artist’s life is not all fun and games as another of the festival musos, Brisbane pianist Tim Wotherspoon, attested.
For the talented musician studying jazz piano at QUT, the last minute gig playing this weekend was a godsend.
Tim wrote impressive on-the-spot scores for a few of the shows, including an interlude of the theme from Doctor Who, which drew hoots and cheers of excitement from the audience.
“That theme used to freak me out as a kid,” he said when asked how he knew it off the top of his head. “You probably noticed that I didn’t really get it at first, I kind of got it about half way through and that’s when everyone cheered.”
At the moment he’s working on an as yet untitled EP, which he says is jazz–pop–funk fusion. The album, Argo, is due out sometime next year.
Local muso Matt Hadgraft, who plays with festival sponsors Impro Mafia, got a great response from his instant rendering of Mozart to give one of the improvisors a clue in the game they were playing.
Unfortunately it didn’t help.
While Matt, an aspiring actor, plays impro regularly, he has supporting gigs teaching and writing radio copy.
He’s also a talented singer, having sung with the Brisbane Chamber Choir, Choir, Canticum, St Stephen's Cathedral Choir and the ACU Choir.
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Stay tuned for more post-fest articles, interviews and deconstructions over the next few days.
