RIP Drew Leavy, improvisor

I woke up this morning at my family home in country Australia to the news that Drew Leavy, improvisor, had died in London.  He had been battling brain cancer for over eighteen months.

I first met Drew after a Grand Theft Impro show.  GTI have long been the best improv troupe in London and Drew, alongside Phil Whelans, Dylan Emery and later Cariad Lloyd, deliver consistently high quality, innovative shows in an otherwise hit and miss field.  As he was from Canada we bonded in that familiar 'colonials-in-Britain' way.  The last time I saw Drew was about a year ago, also at a GTI show, when I was privileged to perform along side him in what I think was his penultimate show.  He was as anarchic, generous, funny and erudite that night as ever.

As with any great improviser, when you made eye contact with Drew across the stage what you saw in there was a sort of 'deliberate unknowingness'; neither he nor you knew what was about to happen, only that it was going to be fun.