(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The moment he jumps on the stage, be sure he is going to pick on you. Would you give him clues? Try that. Ian Coppinger is a master of improvisation. He would engage you and you would just spill the beans, giving him the ingredients for his anecdotes.
The Irish standup comedian is a master of storytelling and most of these exaggerated scenarios just spin out of his observations right then and there. In the process, the audience just goes rolling on the floor with laughter, literally.
The master comedian was in town recently to perform for two nights at The Laughter Factory";s regular gigs at Grand Hyatt. The audience just loved him, again. After all, he has been doing comedy for more than two decades.
'I started doing comedy very early on in my life. I was only 16 when I did my first show. I was a big fan of comedy on TV. The moment I did my first show and got the first laugh, I decided this is what I ever wanted to do,” Coppinger tells Community in a free-wheeling conversation after the show.
A large multicultural audience in Doha provided him with lot of ammunition for impromptu jokes. 'I do not know from where that (improvisation) comes from. I do a lot of improvisation. One of the things I did when I was 24 was a full improv show in Dublin. It suddenly became very natural to me. So now what I like to do is to just standup and go and talk to the people in the audience,” says Coppinger.
The comedian says he does not want to be 'cruel to anybody.” He hates to 'intimidate” people. 'If people are going with it I will go with them and then have a laugh hopefully. I like it that way,” says the veteran comic.
He loves small packed rooms where he says it is easy for him to interact with people more closely. If the room is very big, you are not making any connection with the people. However, he has done shows with thousands of people in attendance but he says there was no way he could do what he did in Doha; pick up on people in the front row and have a jab at them.
One of Ireland";s busiest comedians, Ian is a regular on the world comedy circuit having played to packed houses in Edinburgh, Melbourne, Montreal, Galway, Glasgow, Dublin, Adelaide and Wellington comedy festivals.
A noted improviser, Ian is a co-founder of The Dublin Comedy Improv (1992), where he still performs every Monday night in Dublin";s International Bar, which is the second longest-running comedy club in Ireland. The Dublin Comedy Improv has recorded two hit radio shows for RTE radio. 'I do not prepare jokes. Everything depends on the night and I do what I think the audience is going to like,” reveals Coppinger. Some stories he found in Doha, like that of a 'weather-man in desert”, are going to go places with him. That is how he keeps his anecdotes moving.
Coppinger is also one of a handful of acts who have been invited back year after year to perform at the Kilkenny Cat Laughs Comedy Festival since 1995 and he has performed throughout Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.
A regular on all the major stages in Ireland and the UK, Ian has also appeared as a support act for Ardal O";Hanlon on his UK tour and Pat Shortt on his Irish tour, including 7 sell-out weeks in Dublin";s Vicar Street.
He says he loved the Doha audience who were very interactive and friendly. Every place is different, says Coppinger. However, as a standup comedian you enjoy some more than the others, like he did recently in Mumbai, India.
Coppinger";s TV credits include Stew (RTE, writer), Couched (RTE, writer and performer), The Stand Up Show (BBC-writer and performer, Ian wrote additional material for Ardal O";Hanlon), The Empire Laughs Back (BBC), Liffey Laugh (RTE) and others.
Ian";s has also acted in The End, a short film, and Separation Anxiety, a feature film. His other acting credits include 12 Angry Men, the play at Edinburgh Festival 2003, Austrailia and New Zealand 2004. It also starred Bill Bailey, Steve Frost and Owen O";Neill and became the biggest selling play ever staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo";s Nest also at Edinburgh festival 2004 and London";s West End 2004, 2005 and 2006, featuring Ian also starring Christian Slater, Mackenzie Crook (The Office) and Alex Kingston (Er) became one of the biggest selling plays in recent West End history.
UP CLOSE AND COMICAL: Ian Coppinger is a noted improviser. The comedian who performed in Doha recently says he always wanted to be a comic and loves to make people laugh.