Steen Raskopoulous talks improv, characterisation, and his show You Know The Drill

When you speak to Steen Raskopoulos, there is a calm demeanour about him – a very different way that he performs (or ‘play’) on stage. The accomplished improvisor is expanding his world to sketch and other forms of participation in the shows which he’s presented at former Melbourne International Comedy Festivals. Last year, he honed his craft so well that he was nominated for a Barry Award which led him onto opportunities in the UK.

Steen was kind enough to give us some time to talk all things improv and how he presents his work on stage with audience participation for us at the AU Review.

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You have an improvised style as a base set for your performances in the past, and improv is something that you incorporate a lot in your performances nowadays. Do you do long form, short form or another particular style of improv that you like to do?

I grew up with short form from learning Theatresports. I won the national Theatresports championships when I was 20 and now I do more long form. I do a two-man improv show called The Bear Pack which is a much more longer show. If you’ve ever seen The Princess Bride, it’s very much similar in form and structure to that movie, but in an improv style.

What about improvisation excites you?

Just the ability to play and to make things up. I really enjoy playing with my improvisational partner Carlo Ritchie and we are two people who get each other. There are unspoken rules that we know exactly what is taking place and we know exactly what to do on stage together. The ability to surprise and be spontaneous with an audience is very exciting.

When you mention the word ‘play’ it makes me think about how other types of performers like to prepare shows and make sure things are intricate to make sure their shows go right on the night. You seem like someone who doesn’t rely on that too much and instead likes to explore things on stage. Is exploring what works best for you?

My shows are predominantly sketch. There’s about 20 per cent that I keep loose so that I can improvise and keep different things fun. I think with my show, it’s exciting in that I don’t know what audience members are going to do on the night and how certain sketches will go. Every time the journey from a sketch beginning to the end will be A to B. The only thing is that I never know how I go from A to B, which is exciting.

From an audience perspective, that’s cool that you’d see it one night and then see the show another night and things would be different. I’m not a regular stand up saying the same jokes over and over again. Each night I have to come prepared and switched on in order to combat any curveball I get thrown.

How do you fuse the two comedy forms of sketch and improv? How much have you learnt from putting those together and how you present that on stage?

It’s a very eclectic mix. It’s all driven from the core of a character. Obviously we can jump up and play around two, three, four, five characters in a scene. To have that kind of sketch were they are small bits and pieces of a world. Every show that I’ve done lives within the same world. There’d be a little line from one sketch that’ll be linked to another one in another sketch or it may have nothing to do with it, but you do figure out eventually that they all live in the same world.

If you’ve seen all four of my solo shows, that’s pretty much all I’ve done. There is same place and world. For audience members who may have seen the first show, there are references to characters in that first show evident in this show. For them, it’s a nice little Easter egg that they get a little bit of kick out of. If someone is coming for the first time, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll miss any joke, its got nothing to do with it. I just like a little narrative. With any story it all encompasses any kind of view in any kind of world.

It’s fascinating that you incorporate these characters over shows. How important is the development of character to you?

I think if I can’t pull off a character then everything doesn’t become believable. Not as believable as I would’ve wanted anyway. I think that’s when people aren’t as inclined to take a risk to jump up on stage to have a bit of fun with me. If I can make them believe that I am someone else in order to entice them to play with me. I’m not some six-foot-four Australian-Greek guy trying to get them to do something. I think it’s a bit easier that way for them and for me – off stage I’m quite shy and timid. For me it’s an extra incentive that if I get to play someone that I am not then that gives me the confidence to pull off the stuff that I do.

The believability needs to be there. It can be subtle things, like the stuff you do with your voice, physical attributes, or an emotional attribute that’s expressed in a large way. I think the more combinations that you can pull off, the more believable that you can be.

There’s that one character that I referenced earlier that I’ve played in all four shows now which is a young nine-year-old boy. Everyone resonates with him and feels very sorry for him, and despite this tall guy portraying him, my emotions are such that I get to that point of closeness with the character.

In The Bear Pack – being an improvised show – that closeness is not there. You are creating character on stage while the show is happening. Is that an excitable way to get a well-rounded performance on stage?

I think the only thing you own in your scenes is the character that you bring out at the top of your show. After that, in improv, all of that can chop and change. If you can believe in what you set out from the start, and you are honest with that, and you have a clear emotional point of view. Then you can work hard for that 15-30 seconds to make sure that not only you understand what it is, but also your scene partner.

From that point you then get to ‘play.’ Once you get to know who you are and what you’re point of view is in relation to your performers then it all is easy. For me that first 15-30 seconds is the hardest part of the improvised performance. After that you can go on a ride for an hour.

You performed in the UK doing a little bit TV work. How much does your on stage work influence the work you do on television.

A lot. Ash Atalla came to me when I was performing in London — he produced The Office and The IT Crowd — and now I am making a show called Top Coppers for the BBC, which is a 70s cop spoof in a Naked Gun type of style.

They dug a couple of the characters that I’ve thrown out on stage and in the whole process. I went for an audition, which went well. I also did a chemistry test with John Kearns A month later when I flew back into London, I got the job. It’s exciting – we filmed six episodes.

Watching other people work with their character stuff was great too, so I got to see Rich Fulcher and Simon Farnab who have done things for The Mighty Boosh as well. They were just amazing to watch considering that I’ve idolised them for so long. Seeing how they put their characters into work onto television was super exciting to learn from them.

You’ve mentioned that You Know The Drill has previous characters from four shows in it. What would you say is different in this show?

All shows in terms of genre and style are all similar, but I think I take a few more risks in this show in the character stuff. With the last show, it was more relying heavily on the audience purely because I hadn’t had time to write the show ‘cause I was in London filming.

For this show, I had a bit more time and I wanted to get back to having more fun with less reliance on the audience. If I did choose to use the audience it was more for a payoff for them rather than a small little gag here and there.

What message do you think the audience should take away after they see your show at this year’s MICF?

The best compliment that I always get is that people come up and say: “I hate audience participation and I dread getting picked on, but your show was so fun and by the end of it I wanted to get up and I wanted you to choose me!”

If we take that, it’s just having the ability to lose inhabitation for an hour and just to go on a ride and do something that you probably wouldn’t normally. I think that’s what is fun in terms of how spontaneous the show and all those sketches can be. If you are willing to get lost in the moment and be unpredictable, I think there so much fun to be had. You could learn something new as well.

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Steen Raskopoulous performs You Know The Drill as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival until April 17 at The Swiss Club . Get tickets here.

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