Merton is an American YouTube musician and personality who first gained press attention in March 2010 after making videos of himself interacting with people he met on Chatroulette and Omegle. In the videos, Merton sits at a piano and improvises songs about either his observations of the people he is meeting or story ideas suggested by them.
Merton's first video garnered more 5 star ratings than any other YouTube video in history, making it the highest rated YouTube video ever. [1]
Merton's actual identity is unknown. He lives in Colorado. [1] [2]
Initially, there was speculation that "Merton" was in fact Ben Folds. [3] While the two have similarities in appearance and music style, both have denied being the same person. Folds has in fact performed an homage to Merton at a concert where he similarly improvised songs while meeting people on Chatroulette. [1] On a later video of Merton's, Ben Folds and Merton appeared together, proving that they are not the same person. [4] [5]
His musical style has been compared to Randy Newman and Ben Folds. [1] [6]
Merton was later hired by T-Mobile to do some public events in the United Kingdom; on November 24, 2010, he played in Gatwick Airport's South Terminal greeting international arriving passengers with his improv piano playing. [7]
Merton previously hosted his own show on www.mertonshow.com. It was a live interactive webcam show where he continued his improvisation as he did on Chatroulette. Shows were every Wednesday at 10 PM Eastern time. Sometimes, there was an international show at 21:00 GMT (4 PM Eastern).
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script.
Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen – but it is also related to both the old French word "emprouer" and the English "improve", to improve. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of improvisation can apply to many different faculties across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines; see Applied improvisation.
Paul James Martin, known by the stage name Paul Merton, is an English comedian.
Benjamin Scott Folds is an American singer-songwriter from Greensboro, North Carolina. After playing in several small independent bands throughout the late 80s and into the early 90s, Folds came to prominence as the eponymous frontman and pianist of the alternative rock trio Ben Folds Five from 1993 to 2000, and again during their reunion from 2011 to 2013. He has recorded a number of solo albums – the most recent of which, What Matters Most, was released in June 2023. He has also collaborated with musicians such as Regina Spektor, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and yMusic, and undertaken experimental songwriting projects with actor William Shatner and authors such as Nick Hornby and Neil Gaiman. Since May 2017, he has been the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
The Groundlings is an American improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improv techniques were taught by Del Close and other members of the Second City, located in Chicago and later St. Louis. They used these techniques to produce sketches and improvised scenes. Its name is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act III, Scene II: "...to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise." In 1975 the troupe purchased and moved into its location on Melrose Avenue.
Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish-born Canadian actor, writer, producer and improvisational comedian, best known for his appearances on the British and American versions of the improvisational TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
Matthew Gregory Besser is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, writer, and one of the four founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, who had their own show on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2000. He hosts the improvisation-based podcast Improv4humans, previously on the Earwolf network, but now solely operated by himself and Brett Morris.
Ben Folds Live is a live album by Ben Folds, released on October 8, 2002. This album marked the first official release of the improvisation, "Rock This Bitch". The song, which changes with every performance, is now a staple of his live performances, with recorded versions also appears on his later albums Songs for Goldfish and on the Live in Perth DVD.
Steve Steen is a British television, radio and theatre actor and comedian, known for improvisational comedy works.
Thank God You're Here is an Australian television improvised comedy program created by Working Dog Productions, which premiered on 5 April 2006 on Network 10, where it aired for the first three and the fifth seasons; the fourth season aired on the Seven Network.
Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts is an American comedian, actor, beatboxer, and musician. His improvised musical sets are created using only his voice, a keyboard, and a looping machine. Watts refers to himself as a "disinformationist" who aims to disorient his audience in a comedic fashion. He was the regular house musician on the spoof IFC talk show Comedy Bang! Bang!. From 2015 to 2023, Watts led the house band for The Late Late Show with James Corden.
Steven Sharp Nelson is an American cellist. He is best known as "The Cello Guy" of the classical new-age musical group The Piano Guys, with whom he has released eight number-one albums and dozens of music videos. He also has three solo albums to his credit. He is considered a pioneer in "cello-percussion", which enhances traditional cello playing with pizzicato and percussive techniques.
Atomic Tom is an alternative rock band originally from Brooklyn, New York, now living in Los Angeles, California, consisting of Luke White, Eric Espiritu, Ethan Mentzer, and Tobias Smith. The band have released two albums, two EPs and a number of singles.
The Peoples Improv Theater (PIT), also known as the PIT, is a comedy theater and training center in New York City, founded by comedian Ali Farahnakian in 2002. Shows combine improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, stand-up, theater, and variety. Each show is hosted by a combination of "house teams" of comedians hired by PIT and by outside comedians.
Benjamin Joseph Schwartz is an American actor and comedian. He has guest starred as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation and Clyde Oberholt on the Showtime series House of Lies; voiced Randy Cunningham in Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, Dewey Duck in DuckTales, and Leonardo in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; and appeared many times in the CollegeHumor web series Jake and Amir.
Casey Owen Neistat is an American YouTube personality, filmmaker, vlogger and co-founder of the multimedia company Beme, which was later acquired by CNN. In 2018, he founded 368, a creative space for creators to collaborate with each other.
Peter James Hollens is an American singer-songwriter, producer and entrepreneur. He has been involved with a cappella music since 1999 when he and Leo da Silva founded the University of Oregon's a cappella group, On The Rocks, known as the first official collegiate a cappella group in Oregon. He regularly releases new music videos to his YouTube channel. With over 9+ million followers and over 3 million subscribers, his content has received over a billion total views since 2011.
Stephen Kardynal is an American comedian and YouTuber from Michigan.
Rachel Sarah Parris is an English comedian, musician, actress and presenter. She hosts the satirical news show Late Night Mash.
Some Good News is a 2020 American web series created and hosted by American actor and filmmaker John Krasinski on YouTube, which premiered on March 29, 2020. Krasinski self-funded and co-produced the show with his production company, Sunday Night Productions, and filmed each episode remotely from his home in Brooklyn during the COVID-19 pandemic. After eight episodes and a live-streamed prom, a report from the Hollywood Reporter announced that the show was sold to ViacomCBS on May 22, 2020. Krasinski later confirmed that he dropped plans for any adaptations to the show and that it would be kept in its original format. Krasinski brought the show back for a holiday special on YouTube in December 2020.