After the show comes the laughter party
Embarrassing yourself into community and a career.
Words and photography by Junniper Waterhouse
Liam Erck grew up going to a working-class school in the Bellarine Peninsula. There, he discovered a love of theatre and found his calling as an actor. Unfortunately, he felt as though his school had failed to provide him the opportunities for the career development and growth he desperately wanted. Instead, a 12-year-old Liam found his place at the Bellarine Performing Arts Centre, affectionately called the Potato Shed. Here he found friends and community playing improv games and ‘dicking around.’ In the following 10 years Liam developed a modest career as a young actor, but in the wake of COVID-19 opportunities to perform dried up. Returning to his roots at the Potato Shed, Liam reconnected with his old community mate, PJ. Together they worked to build a space that would provide the personal and vocational opportunities they had always wanted. Liam and PJ called this space No Strings Attached.
No Strings Attached is a two-hour improv event run out of Grace Acting Studios in Geelong. There, people congregate once a week to do what Liam and PJ did back at the Potato Shed: play improv games. Many improv classes emphasise improv as a style of acting and operate first as places to learn. With No Strings Attached, Liam and PJ break from that trend by placing fun first. Where a workshop develops the skills for those who already want to learn, No Strings Attached gets people wanting to learn.
This starts by making people comfortable being uncomfortable. Every event begins the same way, ‘The Name Game’. Everyone stands in a circle, Person A steps forward and says their name, then Person B, and on until everyone gets a go. Then you do it again, but this time, you say the name of the next person in line. Finally, you do it all again but with a silly twist: ‘Say it like a cowboy’, ‘… like you’re the villain just about to kill the hero.’ It feels childish. It is childish. It’s like microdosing embarrassment. But No Strings Attached is a space to be mutually embarrassing.
The freedom to play and be creative bleeds into the lives of everyone involved. Kieren, a regular attendee, shared the impact that No Strings has had on his life. Kieran wasn’t a part of the comedy scene; he found No Strings Attached through Google and took a chance. He arrived on his first day petrified, stuck in the hallway, too anxious to join in. But when he finally crossed that threshold, he says, so much changed. He found a safe place to play with like-minded people. His confidence grew, not just in the group, but outside of it; bleeding into the rest of his life and raising the bar for his personal relationships.
No Strings Attached has quickly proven to be that space for opportunity that Liam and PJ craved when they were younger. From No Strings emerged The Laughter Party, Geelong’s best (and only) improv troupe, a troupe and production company comprised of regular members—like Kieran—and other local comedians. For those who want it, The Laughter Party is a welcome next step in the professional development for attendees of No Strings Attached.
The troupe puts on two regular shows: ‘Now that’s what I call improv’ and ‘Comedy cage match. Additionally, in the 2026 Geelong Comedy Festival, The Laughter Party are producing three shows, ‘The Laughter Party: Drunk-improv’—improv at its most unstable, ‘The gameshow where everyone loses’—a panel-based improv show, and ‘Whodunnit anyway?’—roleplay and character driven improv storytelling.
The opportunities that The Laughter Party create are twofold: to act and perform, but to also actually have the space to create something, and see that vision come to life on stage. ‘Now that’s what I call improv’, is the troupe’s fortnightly pay-what-you-want show, bringing the light-hearted fun of No Strings to an audience.
Understanding the value of No Strings and The Laughter Party requires understanding the strangeness of the amateur performance scene. It isn’t enough to be good. There are countless excellent actors and comedians out there. What you need is a way to get your name in people’s minds.
The hardest part about being a performer is getting your foot in the door. The value of No Strings attached is in how it serves as an all too rare on ramp to performing publicly. Whether it’s because you don’t know where to start, or because you’re scared, this is a place that says, hey, we’ll hold that door open for you.
I asked several members where they saw The Laughter Partyin 5 to 10 years. Liam Ball joked, ‘world domination … but seriously … as a house which is filled with new ideas and new projects.’ Liam Erck sees the group as a fixture of Geelong but wants to see them start touring. But what united these ideas was a love for what they were doing, and a sincere belief in seeing their dreams fulfilled. As Alysha Jane, a friend of Erck’s from the Potato Shed days, said, ‘I hope to see them kicking goals. The sky’s the limit.’ The Laughter Party may be Geelong’s best and only improv troupe, but, as Liam always says, ‘hopefully not forever.’