"If acting were music then improv would be jazz," says Oliver Driver, referring to both the Theatre Sports he's been involved with since he was at school and the new, locally made television show he is starring in.
Called Scared Scriptless, the concept is not a million miles from Whose Line
Is It Anyway? in which actors are provided with a scenario and character and make up a sketch as they go along.
Seven episodes of Scared Scriptless have been filmed so far, featuring Driver as well as Kevin Smith, Craig Parker and Cal Wilson. Unlike Whose Line, the actors are put into two teams and compete against each other.
Mark Ferguson, a pioneer of improv in New Zealand, is the MC - Driver confides that he's more Clive Anderson than Drew Carey ( the presenter of the American version of Whose Line).
"He brings to it a nice mix of cynicism and negativity mixed with fun," says Driver. "He likes to torture the actors and make it as difficult for us as possible, but that's better than just letting us get away with the easy shots."
Scared Scriptless will be aired later in the year.
