Hello! Welcome to the site. It’s very exciting to have you here reading it.
Today this website officially launched. The eagle eyed out there may nothing that there are already a bunch of articles on the site including pop culture news that is no doubt outdated by the time of this launch day. This is true. I did a soft launch of the site a few weeks ago to start testing pages and adding content as I’m personally not a big fan of going to new sites which has covered in ‘under construction’ or ‘coming soon’ messages.
As such for the last few weeks I’ve been creating content which primarily has been for my own amusement alone, but it’s been a valuable part of the process of building a site like xstreamed.tv
This site as it is now is just the starting point for what I hope will be a success for Extreme Improv and be a fun and valuable addition to the Extreme Improv XStreamed universe and the greater improv community as well.
My hopes with the site is to create a hub where people can find all the shows Extreme Improv have in our video archive and also lead to the creation of lots of new content. This includes more shows, articles, podcasts and some other things which are being worked on, but were not ready for a day 1 launch.
A big aim with the site is to expand what Extreme Improv does. As a quick recap of the company I started it in 2010 as the Improdigies Theatre Company, and eventually rebranded it as Sparky Buddy Productions in 2013 as the company started producing both scripted projects and filmed projects. Neither of these made much sense to a name that improv and theatre when I was now saying scripted and film. Then in 2017 I created Extreme Improv and it took off as the recurring show and everyone got confused when I mentioned Sparky Buddy Productions as the company name.
So I had taken myself full circle. I eventually stopped saying Sparky Buddy and just told everyone it is Extreme Improv even though the company that produces Extreme Improv is Sparky Buddy. This then became confusing for people when Extreme Improv would do scripted and film stuff. Now I was going round and round in circles!
Then 2020 hit and it was a year that affected the entertainment industry through and through. Extreme Improv had dozens of booking for stage shows cancelled and that is when we discovered the benefits fo virtual theatre and live streaming.
As we are almost at the one year anniversary of the first Extreme Improv XStreamed show, it’s interesting to look back as originally the virtual show was advised as Extreme Improv Stream Lined, which in many way was a typically improv pun name but also accurate as a description. But the day before the show I realised that the word Extreme already had ‘stream’ in it sound wise, so figured that for our show it wouldn’t just be ‘Extreme Improv streamed’ but we would have the X factor so it should be called Xstreamed.
With things the way they went last year and into this year I had no idea that so much of what we used to do on stage would now be streamed and with more and more video podcasts and streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney Play and HBO Max it looks like streaming shows are here to stay.
And I’ve not really kept track of what everyone else in the improv world is doing but I think Extreme Improv has to be up there with the most prolific producers of virtual theatre, and especially improv out there. With all these shows and the fact that I’d tried to record as many in real life shows and travel vlogs and short films before this I saw an opportunity to take this content and create a streaming service of sorts.
But because I knew this would feature more than just improv I didn’t feel it would be right to just expand the already existing www.extremeimprov.co.uk with non improv related content. If I wanted a hub to feature videos, podcast and articles about movies, or video games or travel I’d have to come up with a name that fit all of it. And with a year of pushing Extreme Improv XStreamed it felt fitting that as so much of the content is streaming this would provide enough direct connection without having to be a rebrand. The rebranding days are over. This is an expansion and an evolution.
So what to expect from this expansion?
Firstly you’ll see all the articles that are already on the site. I’ve purposely made these articles a mix of subjects to give a flavour of what we’re going for here. Extreme Improv has always leaned heavily into pop culture and it’s what our audience enjoy, so if it’s what they like then give the people what they want. Improv is fantastic, but improv itself doesn’t tell you it’s content. The kind of content that Extreme Improv focusses on – movie references, celebrities, gaming, this is what you’ll find articles about on the site. And of course improv.
The video and podcasts are projects that were already being produced, but now it’s easier than ever to find the latest shows, or search shows by series or date. I designed the layout of the site so that it would have a familiar feel and look to mainstream streaming services like Netflix/Amazon Prime Video and such like, and this will only improve with time. A feature that I hope to implement in the future is that you’ll be able to search shows by actor or by company as we have had many guest shows and guests from other groups.
But just as Disney+ gave the promise of exclusives like WandaVision or The Mandalorian, with the launch of this new site comes the announcements of lots of new shows. It’s been fantastic to have Elke Reid and Assad Khan take the lead on their new show for Extreme Improv which streams every Tuesday at 5.30pm UK Time as a recent addition to the schedule, and this new show has taken the regular show count up to five a week across four days.
Some have speculated that this may come to an end when live theatre comes back and I personally think they’ll be a rubber band effect. To some degree it will lessen, but then it will start to grow again and at some point eventually settle to where it will. But I still think that within even more time it will continue to grow and probably will be bigger than live theatre over all within a few years. The events of the last year have perhaps just hastened it.
This isn’t to say that live theatre is dead or dying, but I think most who have performed with Extreme Improv over the last year will agree that the ultimate plus to the format is that we can play with performers from all over the world which we simply couldn’t before, and won’t be able to again unless we keep virtual theatre alive.
The other major benefit is that for a producer I can say that I have in the past promoted a single show that has cost me as much as every virtual show I have produced over the last year put together. As technology gets better we’ll have even more we can do, and there will be some who stand on the stage and miss the days of the snap filters and being able to grab a relevant prop from your desk to comedic effect.
But still, for many you simply will not be able to beat the live improv experience with an audience there to laugh and clap and give that instant feedback. I agree. That is why many of the new planned shows slightly move away from improv as we have been doing online over the last year. This is an opportunity to discover new formats that are more suited for online, or to put it another way, aren’t suited for stage.
Extreme Improv has always done video and audio based projects and it’s always been important to use each platform to the strengths of what that platform offers. This website launch is an opportunity for Extreme Improv to expand beyond just improv shows to new formats for content including the Xstreamed branded Wham Bam Poetry Slam and Slam Jam Wrestling show and the Jesters Jam. And yes I’m aware that there’s lots of jams and slams in those names!
These new formats will be familiar for Extreme Improv fans, but will be different in many ways and have their own uniwue flavour. They also get to be more focussed on specific content types such as wrestling or the very nerdy new show Geek Battle, which I think would be too niche to put on stage. The xstreamed.tv platform is the perfect place to develop these and many more we have in the pipeline.
So I hope this insight into the sight has got you as excited about the future of Extreme Improv and this new website www.xstreamed.tv as I am! This is the beginning of a big new chapter and look forward to going on it with all of you.
So until next time, stay safe and always stay xstreamed!
David Pustansky
