A NOTTS Comedy artist is taking his act across the Atlantic to perform in a high-profile comedy marathon.
James 'Lloydie' Lloyd has successfully applied to take part in the Del Close comedy marathon in New York - and will also be teaching comedy workshops in Washington DC, this month.
The 39-year-old performs his improvisational comedy across the country and has a residency at Nottingham's Glee Club.
Lloydie, who lives in The Park said: "Del Close was the father of modern improvised comedy - he taught the likes of Tina Fey. It's quite a competitive thing to get on."
Lloydie will be performing in a group with some other people with a Britain versus America theme.
A team from each country will take turns to perform improvised scenes around a word given by the audience.
Lloydie, whose show will take place on Saturday, May 29, said: "It should be a really fun show - it's going to be a great experience.
"The other point about going over there is the chance to see so many really great performers.
"It really is the home of improvisational comedy - in New York they have four dedicated theatres for it but we don't have any in the entire country."
The 150-seat theatre Lloydie is to perform at is the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre - owned by hit comedian Amy Poehler - famed for the Parks and Recreation programme.
The comedy marathon celebrates the life and legacy of comedy legend Del Close with three days of fully improvised comedy on four stages in New York.
And Lloydie has honed his act with years of performing in the United Kingdom - particularly teaching workshops around the country and a regular slot at Nottingham's Glee Club.
He said: "The show we do at the Glee Club is fast paced and high energy and has a lot of similarities to games like those on 'Whose Line Is It Anyway'.
"My particular specialism is long form improvisation, where I take one word and use it as a springboard to turn that into 25 minutes of scenes."
For Lloydie, who works in media relations in Nottingham, the joy of performing is huge.
"You don't know what's going to happen next. You just react to it - I love not really knowing and the biggest plus and minus of improvisation is that you never get to do the scene again - if you had the worst show you don't have to do it again, but if you have created comedy gold you never get to do it again."
The future for Lloydie's comedy career looks bright, but he's just concentrating on enjoying the journey.
He said: "Nobody really makes a full time living out of improvisation – your part-time income is mainly through teaching and not performing. " It's very much an art form in its own right but opens other opportunities ."
