Bird & Tax Collector
Who knew that a visit to Northern Ireland could change two lives irrevocably?
Once upon a time, (August of 2019 if you’re looking to be pedantic) the city of Belfast welcomed a few international improvisers to take to the stage for the 2019 Belfast Improv Festival. There was laughter. There were tears. There were workshops of nonsense and shows that worked and made all sense of past wounds. There were old friends meeting on new grounds, and new friends meeting in old pubs.
It was beautiful. Rose-tinted and sepia-toned. It was Grand. It was also utterly at odds with the world we would all retreat from just a few short months later
But back to 2019 and Belfast.
Tom was teaching characters and Musical Improv, and acting as co-Musical Director for every show. Jayda had blarneyed her way into an invitation to perform, as well as the festival director’s couch (a right stranger at the time) and into every workshop her credit card could support.
At one memorable afterparty they found themselves drinking gin and red wine, and the bonding moved quickly from a shared love of improv, to debating the finer points of acting theory, philosophy, music–and at some point the barman asked them to leave. As they did, Jayda asked Tom whether it would be possible for them to do Musical Improv remotely. To which he promptly responded “nyah.”
“Challenge accepted Tom. Challenge accepted.”
Both left Belfast deflated, and returned to their very normal, very separate lives–albeit vowing to all and sundry that they would be back, same time, for the 2020 version.
When Europe went into Lockdown in March of 2020, Jayda received a message. Would she still be interested in trying virtual musical improv? It still couldn’t be done of course–not well–but hey, it would be something to do, something nice to look forward to, as toilet paper and flour became currency and the population of Earth collectively spiraled in their pjs at a 6-foot distance.
<TL;DR/> It worked. Really, really, well.
Their collaboration continues to grow, complete with superhero-like alter-egos, as the cross-national, multi-medium duo "Bird & Tax Collector." It has spawned a band, the virtual show Therapy, the improvised Dirty Jazz Stylings of “Speakeasy,” and the improvised musical show "Talk Radio."
Their first single “Roar” is out January 2023, their first studio album is in the works and they’re currently touring Europe and festivals with “Talk Radio.”
The moral to this story?
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Visit NI.
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Make seemingly pointless bets with strangers with 0 intention of following through.
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Write bad poetry that someone thinks is good.
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Noodle on your piano.
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Take long walks whilst defining a path towards world domination.
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Force your friends to sit through Zoom conferences of your virtual Improv productions.
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Start winging musical production just for the hell of it.
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Apply to everything, and get rejected over and over until something sticks.
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Invest in latex.
No, seriously.
Have you ever tried latex?
Jayda Fogel
"Bird"
Once upon a time there was a girl with too many notebooks she filled with poetry, bad puns, and imaginary melodies. Today Jayda is the chanteuse and lyrical half of Bird & Tax Collector, but definitely still owns way too many notebooks.
She's also an improviser, improv teacher, champion debater, and performer hailing from the snowy mountain vistas of Canada—by way of Calgary's Loose Moose Theater, Montreal, Duesseldorf, and now Amsterdam. She is the host of “Talk Radio” and “SpeakEasy,” plays Tris in FigmentRP's “Questor's of Yalpelor,” Bird in the improvised long-form “Bird & Troll Tell a Story,” debuted at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe as half of “SadoMusical,” and improvises Playback Theatre with the all-female Kismet. She loves bringing strange characters, strong relationships and inopportune emotions to life.
Fun Fact: in many European languages,
Fogel is the misspelled word for “Bird”
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When Tom was 6, his dad bought a piano. Too lazy to take lessons, he instead decided to figure it out for himself. Going from playing in loud cover bands and writing and producing music for local Belgian artists, Tom is the recording, composition, and instrumentation half of Bird & Tax Collector.
He's also an improviser and improv musician who has been training and coaching improvisers abroad and in his home country of Belgium since 1999. He’s the maestro on the keys for “Talk Radio” and “SpeakEasy,” and is a Musical Director for ImproBubble and The Schuman Show. He’s the founder and artistic director of RIOT – the Royal Improphonic Orchestra & Theatre, specializing in musical long-form improv theatre. Between 1999 and 2005 he was artistic director for The Lunatics, one of Belgium’s oldest short-form collectives, performing with them as an improv actor from 1997-2006. He likes to teach and theorize about Narrative long-form and musical improv, both long & short, writes a blog about Improv on tomsimprovpages.wordpress.com.
Fun Fact: Tollenaere is Flemish
for Tax Collector
