Five Questions With Scott McAteer

This is a post in our "Five Questions" series of interviews with Improv Conspiracy members.  We aim to publish one per week over the next few months!

What was the first improv show you saw that made you think "wow, I'd like to do that!"?

Back when I was a tiny boy-child, TheatreSports was on ABC TV, hosted by the guy who played the alien in "Watch This Space", it was all pretty dull for a child except for one team of three who came out in cheap black suits and *attitude*, and most importantly, one player had a Elephant-Man-Style Hessian-sack mask over his face *for the entire show*. There was something about a dude playing a waiter while still playing a masked monster that broke my tiny child mind with the incredibleness of it. Plus I can still remember the song "Hobart, City of Sin" that another team did. 

But the show that made me think, "I'd like to do that" was probably an Impro Crew show featuring the marvellous Janelle Koenig and Rob Lloyd. Seeing them made me actively seek out Impro Classes.

And the show that made me think "I have to do this" wasn't actually a show that I saw, it was an idea told to me by Evan Jones and John Corry: an improvised Pulp/B-Grade Movie show. It my first introduction to long-form impro.

What aspects of the Harold do you find the most rewarding? The most challenging?  

I find the most rewarding aspect the escalation of narrative elements, whether it be through following a character's plot or reprising scenes or gags that call back to previous gags; from an audience point of view these are all an escalation in the theatrical action. Doing a third beat scene and getting spontaneous applause for saying three words is pretty rewarding.

For me, the group games are the most challenging - stepping out knowing that you have to all make the scene work in the same way is like letting go of a trapeze and letting someone catch you; except that *everyone* has to catch everyone. And there's no net. And instead of a broken neck you get humiliation.                     

What would you like your team to be capable of by Comedy Festival? A year from now? 

By the end of Comedy Fest I'd like to see us producing Harolds that look to the audience like organic sketch shows; with the Harold structure being something we're aware of, but that the audience can't see.

In a year from now I'd like us to be filming something and putting it out there for the world. It's nice that impov is intimate and ephemeral, but I don't think it has to be.

Which Conspiracy members do you have improv crushes on, and why? What do they do that inspires you?

The conspiracy member's that I crush on the most are the ones who do the things I don't do:

Kat Chish 'cause she gives emotional offers and has characters with feelings.

Wyatt Nixon-Llloyd 'cause he makes me laugh and he has a dynamic physicality

John Corry 'cause he always raises the stakes and doesn't let them drop.

Kathleen Douglas 'cause she's got such great stagecraft.

Adam Kangas 'cause he made Improv Conspiracy happen.

How has your improv training helped your non-improv life?

I do a lot of "writing challenges" which involves writing something in a set period of time, impro has trained me to write from the characters point of view - if I need something to happen in a scene that I'm writing, I just "improv" as that character and the script comes as fast as my fingers will type. I'm writing this while on a break from my submission to the "A Stranger With My Face" horror script challenge. 

And last year I had to prepare a one-man theatre piece at very short notice, it was easy to do because I had half written already, and I had three rehearsals. Improv skills made those three rehearsals all I needed to prepare character, physicality  and the rest of the script. The piece was the highlight of the show in reviews and by the other cast members.