Sarah Everitt shares her daily struggle with improvisation addiction that has led to her 5th term of improv classes. She encourages you to become addicted too!

An old wooden door adorned with a fresco of graffiti on a dark, narrow street in the Born doesn’t look like the obvious place for an addiction to begin. Or at least not the kind you’d expect. It was my first class from Barcelona Improv Group (BIG). I’d signed up the week before in a fit of late night bravado. So I took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

Just as Lucy emerged from an old, wooden wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia, I stepped through that door into a world where anything is possible. Whatever is real for you becomes real for your scene partner, and before you know it, you’re on a mission to peel a banana on the moon with a priest, venture on a disastrous first date with a stormtrooper, or attend a spa where the only treatments are given by kittens licking your feet. The fantastic Barcelona Improv Group teachers create a safe space where you can let loose, form connections with others, and just play like a kid. Is it addictive? Hell yeah!

Gemma, James, Nina & Alan slideshow

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Barcelona Comedy Festival

UPDATE: Due to the government’s recent tax rises Giggling Guiri comedy events that go on throughout the year have come to an end. The only place to see multi-language comedy in Barcelona will be the Barcelona Comedy Festival. This year’s event is still taking place. And hopefully will continue to do so in the future. Even more reason to check this years festival out!

Comedy in Spain, organisers of the popular Giggling Guiri comedy nights in Barcelona, are yet again attempting to defy the ‘crisis’ with this year’s Barcelona International Comedy Festival (Festival Internacional de Comedia de Barcelona).

The comedy festival runs between the 27th September and 21st October. That’s 4 weeks of comedic entertainment right here in Barcelona.

The World’s Only Multilingual Comedy Festival

Since 2007 Comedy in Spain have hosted live comedy shows in 8 different languages – Catalan, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, German, French and English. This year’s shows are mainly in English but there is also a show in Dutch and one in Swedish.

So who is at this Barcelona Comedy Festival?

Deadpan American comedy legend, Rich Hall

The two headline acts have to be Ireland’s Sean Hughes and Rich Hall from the US. Sean has the first Saturday of the festival, September 29th. Rich Hall closes proceedings in Barcelona on October 20th. These are two huge acts and I know that Comedy in Spain have been trying to pin down Rich Hall for years. You can see these two great acts for only 15€ each! Or even better value is 25€ for both nights. You wouldn’t be able to see these guys in London for twice the price. Read the rest of this article…

Tom Stade

UPDATE: Venue Change
Now at La Fira, c/ Provenca, 171

I first wrote about the Giggling Guiri back in March. I’d just been to see Howard Marks and had seen Steve Hughes previous to that. Well shortly it’s their last show of the season and if you haven’t been to one of their Barcelona comedy events then I urge you to do so.

Tom Stade is in town for their season-ending show and by all accounts he is worth seeing. And apparently the girls like him though I can’t see it myself.

“TOM STADE: nominated for Best Headliner in the Chortle Awards 2011, people in the UK have finally woken up to this pearl of Canadian comedy who has come and settled amongst them. A comic who likes to do things a little different has won over the British hearts with his brilliant and unique takes on their culture. We catch him on what was supposed to be the end of a total sellout 40 date UK tour which has now been extended into the Autumn with another 30 dates added to meet public demand. The kind of touring reserved only for the very hottest acts in comedy. Sizzling!!”

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Guiri: a term used to describe a foreigner in Spain.
Giggling Guiri: English language comedy nights in Barcelona.

The first Giggling Guiri event I went to was back in October to see the Australian comic, Steve Hughes. He was hilarious. Fucking hilarious as Steve himself might have put it. I’d never heard so much swearing in one evening. Not even from myself on a particularly bad day for Jazztel’s internet connection. Is it ok to swear so much? People will have different views. But I thought he was bloody funny. Read the rest of this article…