Why the Beatles could have been the best improv team of all-time
Between relentless practice, re-invention and coming up through the dingiest of makeshift venues, the Fab Four might point the way to improv comedy glory
The Beatles are the greatest band of all time. What a controversial opinion, don’t @ me. But the Fab Four might also point the way to improv perfection. They could have been the best (and worst) improv comedy team of all-time.
Coming-up in the 60s, the same time long-form comedy improv in its current recognisable form was developing (caps doffed to the forebearers in Greek theatre, Commedia Dell’Arte and Viola Spolin obviously), there’s a parallel universe where the Cavern Club hosts Harolds every Sunday and The Beatles are the house team everyone wants to be. The very name of the improv form Harold is supposedly inspired by George Harrison calling his haircut ‘Arthur’.
Okay, they were four white men in their 20s. Less than ideal, and depressingly common in improv. But, in stark contrast to the state of British culture in the 21st century, they were at least four working-class performers, with regional accents and an anti-establishment vein to their work (I’m not sure Taxman counts though). They became millionaires many times over, off the back of their talent rather than family wealth.
Importantly, they’re actually pretty funny. The lads charmed the pants off America in interviews - before splitting the room by claiming to be Bigger Than Jesus.
They were also tight with the comedians of the day (again, mostly men, sigh). But just imagine the guest improvisers they could have invited to bolster ticket sales in their blackbox theatre. John and Paul were minutes away from re-uniting on Saturday Night Live in 1976. George Harrison had a cameo in Monty Python’s Life Of Brian. He also co-funded it, which automatically makes him more successful than any improviser who ever lived.
The Beatles were also adept collaborators musically. They were Tony Sheridan’s backing band in Hamburg (as The Beat Brothers, having previously gone by The Silver Beatles - what’s your improv team’s latest name again?). They wrote for the Rolling Stones, allowed Eric Clapton to play lead guitar on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and brought in Billy Preston on keys to help resolve tensions in the Get Back sessions. Many an improv team has added a member or two to put everyone on their best table manners in rehearsals.
In their early days in Hamburg, The Beatles got their 10,000 hours. Playing every night for 5 hours or more to disinterested crowds is about as close a parallel to an improv team grinding away in half-empty pub rooms to build their skills and an audience as I can think of. They had performed live around 1,200 (1,200!) times before 1964. All the best improv teams and performers in the world will readily admit that they were terrible for a long time, before they mastered their instruments and were no longer terrible. The Beatles got to be terrible again and again very very quickly, until they mastered their instruments and were no longer terrible.
Later on they effectively had a coach. George Martin has the most legitimate claim to being the 5th Beatle (don’t @ me). As producer, he corralled a rowdy bunch of Scousers to make some of the best pop music in history. Your improv team should have a coach. An outside eye to help realise your show vision and keep you focused.
A good improv team can play a show a number of different ways. They’re also able to reinvent themselves and keep experimenting. The Beatles are arguably the most versatile band of all time. I Want To Hold Your Hand, Something and Helter Skelter were written by the same group of people. You have to imagine they’d revel in playing a massive range of characters, having no go-tos.
They also found a way to create work in the absence of live shows. When they stopped performing live in 1966, the band retreated to the studio and promptly began producing their most interesting and creative work. When theatres closed at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, improvisers created some pretty mediocre Zoom shows, mostly a pale imitation of the magic of their live offering, but enough to scratch the itch for a while. When The Beatles couldn’t perform live any more, they created Sgt Pepper.
To be fair, by the time they returned to live performance on the roof of Apple Studios in Savile Row, the band was falling apart at the seams. Many improv teams followed this same sad trajectory when lockdown released. More positively, some in London even performed on a roof, thanks to Aram Balakjian’s Roofprov gig, now the very successful non-roof-based Shiny Things.
Imagine an improv team with a sense of style. Despite countless image changes over the 60s, there is no record of The Beatles ever wearing plaid shirts and Converse trainers, though arguably this came close:
The Beach Boys on the other hand came straight out of the improv fashion catalogue. They surfed so others could sweep edit. Just another way Paul McCartney trumps Brian Wilson, don’t @ me.
In the end, creative differences did for The Beatles in much the same way improv teams often quietly crumble. John and Paul aside, they collaborated in different combos over the following decades: everyone loves an occasional reunion gig from a legendary house team.
The Beatles tore up the rule book, borrowed from a wide range of musical cultures, and had the skills to back it up. They also put out some real stinkers (Maxwell’s Silver Hammer anyone?), fell out constantly and stopped gigging for years at a time. Perhaps the only main difference from a top improv team was that they were very, very cool. They could just have been the best and worst improv team of all time, but I guess being the blueprint for modern pop music is a decent alternative.
The maddest show I’ve ever pitched - Get Your Back: The Improvised Beatles Variety Show, hosted by ‘The Beatles’ is coming to The Free Association in London on Saturday 3rd June. Get your Ticket To Ride here!