A pioneering comedy improv company specializing in long form narratives, as well as improvised games and sketches with international experience live, on radio, on TV and in corporate settings. Founded in 1989 by five talented actor/writers it pioneered the improvised play as a popular form of theatre and has served corporate clients for fifteen years. Together Spontaneous Combustion devised and pe
rformed improvised comedy plays True Confessions (biographical spoof), Outrageous Lies (literary spoof) Human Celluloid (movie spoof) Raise the Dead (improvised séance) as well as the semi-improvised play Sub-Post Office of Death. They have performed at The Globe Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, Tabard Theatre, Latchmere, Banana Cabaret and Orange Tree in London as well as the Assembly Rooms and Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh and countless comedy clubs, arts centres and student unions all over the UK. Its members have also performed at comedy improvisation festivals in Toronto, Edmonton and Montreal, Canada; Los Angeles and Seattle, USA; and Melbourne, Australia. As Individuals they were all founder members of the UK’s first ever Theatresports company (competitive impro), performing at The Royal National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Canal Café, Tristan Bates in London as well as Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh. Most of them were also in Hamlet Improvised (spoof Shakespeare), Lust Boulevard (spoof soap) and Court in the Act (spoof trial) at The Other Place, the Albany and The Rosemary Tree in London as well as the Palace Theatre, Watford and Chichester Festival Theatre. Niall Ashdown is the man behind cult blogger, Derek “Robbo” Robson, is an alumnus of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Channel 4), featured in improvised musical series Bootleg Broadway (Tyne Tees Television; Radio 4), and is a frequent guest with The Comedy Store Players and Improbable Theatre. He is the creator of two one man shows, Hungarian Bird Festival and The Man Who Would Be Sting both since adapted for Radio 4. Recent TV credits include Confessions, Swiss Toni, Outnumbered, Angel Cake, After You’ve Gone (BBC) and Open Wide (ITV). He played the lead in Accidental Death of an Anarchist at the Bolton Octagon and Sitting Bull in Annie Get Your Gun at The Young Vic. He is also a founder member of Impropera. Stella Duffy has published 13 novels, two of which were longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and two won Stonewall Writer of the Year. She has written 50 short stories, winning the CWA Short Story Award for Martha Grace. She has also written ten stage plays, including two solo shows. As a theatre director she has directed work at the Pleasance, Riverside, Soho Theatre, Oval House and Hen & Chickens. She wrote and presented How to Write a Mills and Boon (BBC4), is a former stand-up comedian, and was a team captain on Radio 4’s panel game, Whispers. She is currently adapting her novel State of Happiness for feature film for Fiesta/Zentropa. She is an Associate Artist with Improbable, touring the UK and off-Broadway with Lifegame, and Associate Director for Shaky Isles Theatre for whom she has directed six plays. Alison Goldie is an actor, theatre director, writer and teacher. After graduating from Hull University in 1982 with a degree in drama, she performed in many rooms above pubs on the nascent alternative comedy scene in a double-act, The Wild Girls, with Kath Burlinson. Following this, she performed solo stand-up comedy for a few years, simultaneously discovering impro, which she then performed in Theatresports, followed by many years as a core member of the acclaimed impro troupe, Spontaneous Combustion. Television opportunities occurred in the 90’s, and Alison played all the female characters in Newman and Baddiel in Pieces (BBC2), then became a travel reporter on The Travel Show (BBC2) for two seasons and on other shows such as Dream Ticket (ITV), Carlton Country (ITV) and Postcards (The Travel Channel). On radio, Alison was a regular contributor to Loose Ends (Radio 4) and has acted in many plays and sketch shows, including the infamous Mary Whitehouse Experience. In 1996, Alison and Kath reunited, forming The Weird Sisters theatre company which toured the world until 2002 with their own self-written shows, winning several major fringe theatre awards including The Grand Prize at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2000 and the Best Female Performer at the Orlando Fringe Festival 1999 for Alison. In the last 10 years, Alison has expanded her theatre directing and teaching of impro, drama, and confidence-building courses (such as Flirtshop). She has directed five plays for Vienna’s English Theatre including Look Back in Anger, devised and directed 10 musicals for Youth Music Theatre, and made many shows with disabled and community groups, particularly The Rainbow Group (Hoxton Hall). For two years she has directed the winning entries of the Trinity Guildhall International Playwriting Competition, Isilwanyana Esoykekayo (The Garrick Theatre) and The Quest of the Four Princesses (Unicorn Children’s Theatre). From 2007-2010, Alison performed her one-woman show about her colourful love-life, Lady in Bed around the UK (and Bruges). Alison’s latest script is Dancing With Decadence, a full-length play about the controversial Austrian artist, Egon Schiele, which received a rehearsed reading at Wilton’s Music Hall in September 2012, and is currently awaiting production. Luke Sorba was a regular in 2 series of kids’ sitcom, Monster TV and 4 series of entertainment show Confessions (both BBC1). He co-wrote and performed in the sitcoms, The World as We Know It and Losers (with Niall Ashdown) and the play Nothing Happened (Radio 4). He hosted the Radio 4 panel game You Asked for It and the live impro show Spontaneous Combustion (HTV) He wrote for BBC1 sitcom Mad About Alice and Channel 4 panel game The Staying-in Show and will be seen in Richard Hammond’s Secret Service (BBC1) and The Great Debate (Channel 4). He performed in the 2011 London Improvathon, hosts the annual Strictly Impro competition and is a regular act at Sutton Comedy Club. He does both in his radio 4 sitcom, My First Planet and with his sketch group, Pros from Dover who were in The Infinite Monkey Cage and 28 Acts in 28 Minutes (Radio 4.) He’s written and performed with an unsettlingly broad spectrum of people on TV and Radio, from Chris Morris to Basil Brush via Joan Rivers and Brian Conley. He’s written topical mirth for the 11 o’Clock Show, The Big Breakfast and The Now Show, he script edited BBC Scotland’s sketch show Velvet Soup and Radio 2’s Jason Byrne Show. He wrote the animation scripts for KNTV (“Channel 4 at its best” The Guardian.) He’s done impro all over the world, (currently with Grand Theft Impro) but also appearing in numerous failed TV and radio impro pilots and he accidentally saved the planet when he wrote the script for big Al Gore’s Live Earth show at Wembley Stadium. He directed Phil Nichol’s Edinburgh Comedy Award winner, The Naked Racist and he plays bass in punk covers band Beergut 100 with Kevin Eldon and Bill Bailey.
