Hon Chong at his Funnylicious improv theatre in Bratislava (source: Oscar Brophy)
Hon Chong, an actor and teacher originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has been living in Slovakia since 2007. He is the founder of Funnylicious Improv Theatre, an improv troupe based in the Slovak capital.
Last year, with the help of grants from a Visegrad group program and Pontis foundation, Funnylicious opened a physical theatre space on Bratislava’s Mickiewiczova street. The black-box space functions as a community theatre and is open to all forms of theatrical performance.
The group is celebrating their 10th anniversary, with a special event this Saturday.
Tell me about yourself and how you came to Bratislava.
My name is Hon, I'm from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but I've lived in a few different places. So I spent a long time in Minnesota in the US, where I studied and then I started working for some time, before I moved to Europe in my mid-20s. I guess I was going through my quarter life crisis at that time. I didn't intend to stay so long. It was mostly just to do something different, something new.
I studied film and theatre in university. After that I didn’t find the kind of work I wanted. I was in this environment where I wasn't sure if this would be possible or not. I had these doubts in my head. And my parents were not happy with my choice to do either film or acting.
It was hard for me to break into acting. At that time it was more like, “oh, you don't fit. Oh, you're not who we're looking for.” And I know who they were looking for. Someone not like me. But that was the early 2000s. Now producers are now looking for more diverse casts and they're changing in the US, and in the UK and around the world.
What year did you arrive here?
In 2007. I remember Bratislava was a very different city. There were no international events or foreigners, nothing much in English really. And also the expat community was much smaller at that time. I had a feeling that it was a city that looked at foreigners as transient. They would move on quickly. There wasn’t a longstanding community of expats compared to Vienna or Berlin. I think we were very invisible as foreigners at the time, but things are changing. Big time.
What's been the biggest change you think?
The city is a bit more inclusive towards foreigners. They have websites in different languages. And you start to see more and facilities catered towards foreigners. So things are changing. Before it didn't feel like Bratislava was a capital city, but now it does. I'm happy that there are steps towards making the city more inclusive, more open to foreigners.
There's no city that can flourish without foreigners coming in and adding to it bringing ideas. They need people who have certain skills and certain talents. When these people come, it makes it better.
For those who don’t know, what is improv?
Improv is an art form similar to theatre, a performing art. The difference is that in improv there's no script and no director. And that's why improv actors need to sharpen a certain set of skills for them to be able to perform in an environment that is scary, unpredictable, and where mistakes are just unavoidable. You can't avoid it. That's improv in a nutshell.
It's a fully developed art form. And I have to stress that because in this current environment where even professional theatre makers, many of them don't consider improv to be like a legitimate art form. They see it as just a bunch of games and exercises. I highly disagree. If you look at how big the world of Improv is, you can't just say it's nothing.
We are under the umbrella of improvised theatre. You have the comedy part. That's the most well-known. The short form games, like people can watch on TV, like the popular show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" But there’s more than just the comedy side of it.
We have so many genres, formats within improv, like some people do improvised Shakespeare. Some people do dramatic improv. People do improvised musicals, you know, people would sing and dance, and do improvised songs. It goes on and on and on. I saw a show from a Japanese group where they would not speak, they were just silent. It was great.
And was your introduction to that in Malaysia or in America?
The US. I wanted to be an actor. I just wanted to do all the training. Improv was part of my university studies. And I didn't know at that time improv was a full-on artform. I really loved it. That was really the best part of my studies.
A lot of famous American actors, especially the comedic ones, have done improv. People like Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers. There’s famous groups like the Groundlings, and Second City. Almost everyone who’s been on Saturday Night Live did improv.
Lets talk about your improv group, Funnylicious. Are you the only improv group in Slovakia?
I can't say that we are only improv group because there is the well-known group called 3T, which is 3 men doing improv in Slovak, in a format they created. And they've been performing improv for over 20 years. But we are really the only improv theatre where we open up to the public to have a chance to have classes to learn improv. So we're not just a closed group.
And so you started in 2014? What were the first reactions of people like?
We started a little bit earlier, at the end of 2013, but we didn't have the name Funnylicious until 2014. It was just like a group of people getting together to improv for fun. At that time we were just “Bratislava Improv”. At some point we were decided to do a show and then the group at that time voted for names. Funnylicious came out on top.
And I was like, “guys, I don't know. That's quite a promise. We kind of have to be... funny and entertaining.Are you sure about that?"
Our first show was in Cafe Scherz. We didn't know what to expect. It was quite funny because Cafe Scherz could hold maybe 70 people. I believe that night there were like 100 people. Even the owners were surprised.
And people kept coming. If people just stop showing up, then I think we'll just go away, but we’ve been around for 10 years. I'm really thankful that we managed to create some kind of a community.
Is improv different in Bratislava?
I noticed that in a lot of other cities you get people who go to shows who are also improvisers so they have a lot of groups just go to the shows to support each other's group so it's a very closed community.
I have mixed feelings about this because it's turning into people who are only performing for each other. And that's not very sustainable. That's partly why we did the V4 Improv Connect this year.
What is that?
So V4 Improv Connect is a Visegrad group funded program, of which we are the organiser. The idea is to get the public to know more about improv and to elevate its status.
We have these shows in theatres and to have it where people would go like if you go to a theatre to see the show and there’s the same production quality you would in any show.
Are you connecting with groups in the other Visegrad countries (Poland, Slovakia, Czechia and Hungary - Ed.)?
Yeah, so we have the group Itt es Most Tarsulat. They have a similar theatre in Budapest. And it's really nice to see what they're doing too, because they're so similar to us. To see how they run their shows. It's actually a really good connection. It's like an opportunity to learn from each other. And in Prague we have the Czech National Improv Theatre.
I think it is important to collaborate. That’s why during the Night of Theatres (Noc divadiel) instead of just doing one improv show I decided to go for the night full of different improv and theatre groups. I brought in a group called Moment Improv Theater, a newly formed Slovak language troupe.And then there's the local French and English scripted theatre group, Theatra.
Hon Chong at the Funnylicious improv theatre in Bratislava (source: Oscar Brophy)
How did the actual theatre come about?
This space started a year ago, and it was just like a long shot, really. One of our cast members said, let's try to have our own space, because it's been difficult to consistently get a space to perform. We went for a grant from Pontis who had an open call for projects.
And what is Pontis?
Pontis is a local foundation, and they help nonprofit organisations. They're like the middleman who gets some grants from the EU to help NGOs. So what we got was actually like an incubator type of program. So they taught us how to do marketing properly, how to do the management properly, and then we got money for this.
We almost couldn't find any suitable space to rent in the city. In the end I had to of course put in my own resources, but getting the grant pushed me to do it.
Are you getting any support from the Culture Ministry?
We’re not getting any grants from the government, and we don’t expect any.
Tell me about the event on Saturday.
This Saturday is our 10th anniversary show. It's a special show where we bring in artists from Vienna. Collaboration really builds the community up. I believe that a rising tide lifts all boats.
The more people see what improv can do, you know, the more I think people will be excited about this art form. Every time we do a show, we have about 40% in the audience where they have not seen improv in their life. They're always like, “wow, I didn't know about this”.
I want their first show to be a good one. That drives me to constantly elevate what we're doing. That's the only way forward, because after 10 years, I want us to have some kind of level. The name, “Funnylicious” is quite a promise. So we want people to come out and have a good time, so that they're entertained. We want people to leave this good feeling. To bring people together.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Yes, that we have a rolling casting call. We are always looking for new cast members. If you are any bit interested in trying improv, or honing your acting skills, or just dipping your toes into performing arts in a safe, supportive atmosphere, don’t hesitate to get in contact.
