Archive for the ‘Chicago Improv Festival’ Category

Improv festival thoughts

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

A TimeOut Chicago blog entry from yesterday mentions a few people you may know. . .

Chicago Improv Festival: Ghost Town ‘09
Posted in Comedy by Jason Heidemann on April 20th, 2009 at 4:24 pm

In the same way that Ebenezer Scrooge can’t bear the sight of his younger self in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, I felt haunted by the ghost of improv past at this year’s Chicago Improv Festival. On Saturday night, for example, I was buying gum at the Walgreen’s on the corner of Belmont and Broadway, when, who should I see hobbling in front of me on crutches, but David Razowsky, stellar improviser and ensemble member for the very first improvised show I ever saw (Second City’s U-raq, I Break, also starring Amy Sedaris, Ken Campbell and Jackie Hoffman) way back in 1991. Was that really 18 years ago, I wondered? Seconds later, I’m turning the corner and who should pass me but former Chicago improviser Kevin Dorff—writer for Late Night With Conan O’Brien and recently starring in Adult Swim’s oddball mafia comedy Delocated.

But therein lies part of the joy of the Chicago Improv Festival. Over the course of seven days, the city’s current crop of talent collides with the legends, and the whole shebang is augmented by the out-of-town troupes who wash up on the shores of Lake Michigan and prove that improv isn’t exclusive to the city of big shoulders. In truth, I didn’t see as many shows as I would have liked. A packed work week meant that I was constantly ping-ponging between the fest and other obligations. I managed a half a dozen or so shows over the weekend.

The late-night main stage program on Friday night was Boom Chicago Alumni paired with Oui Be Negroes. I was disappointed with the Oui Be Negroes show. I was expecting a fast-paced half hour of pointed political satire that poked fun at racial tensions in America, but this was only ever hinted at and mostly the material was ho-hum. Boom Chicago, an Amsterdam-based troupe that I managed to catch while visiting the Netherlands back in 1995, trotted out Ike Barinholtz and Jordan Peele for this reunion show. Noteworthy Chicagoans like Dave Asher and Joe Canale, among others, were similarly in attendance. This game-prov-laden show was a joy. While it was admittedly high on zingers and low on substance, that was just fine considering its late-night time slot. In one memorable instance, Peele and Canale started a scene based on the audience one-liner, “I masturbated to you today.” Typically, sex-based suggestions are the worst, but Peele and Canale cleverly turned it into a raunchy exchange between President Obama and Keith Olbermann (you can probably figure out who was masturbating to whom).

On Saturday, I managed to see Pimprov coupled with L.A.-based Doubtful Guests as well as Canada’s Impromptu Splendor! Pimprov was in fine form and it nailed the political satire I was hoping for in Oui Be Negroes, although I do have to admit that these guys are such talented improvisers and comics that they can probably stand to drop the pimp gimmick. As a coworker of mine pointed out, wasn’t the whole pimp thing trendy, like, six years ago? Still, Marz Timms was in fine form and led the troupe through some totally funny bits. The Doubtful Guests were nimble, exhilarating and totally strange. Admittedly, brainy long-form like this probably shouldn’t be slated for a late-night slot, but these Victorian-era troublemakers possess a formidable know-how of the craft. Watching former Chicago improviser Todd Stashwick pantomime loading a 19th-century rifle and blowing his brains out was mesmerizing.

Impromptu Splendor! totally caught me off guard and turned out to be the real winner of the weekend. Unlike most American improv troupes that leap out onto the stage—energy level cranked well past Red Bull levels—in an attempt to whip the audience into a frenzy, this Toronto-based troupe politely walked out and explained that they are an experimental improv group that performs fully improvised one-act plays each week based on a different playwright. When they revealed that they’d chosen contemporary French-Canadian playwright Michel Trembly as their playwright du jour, I admit I initially felt ripped off. What?! Who the fuck is that? The whole joy in this form of improv is that we audience members get to watch how cleverly the troupe apes a known playwright’s style. What good is it if you pick someone obscure to most Americans? But they totally won me over. Equal parts funny and tragic, and aided with the help of improv legend Joe Flaherty, these guys proved themselves to be brave, brainy and incredibly agile. Plus, they instantly moved Trembly to the top of my reading list.

One regret is that I didn’t get to see enough young troupes (If you did, please leave your comments here; I’d love to hear them). My other lament is that crowds weren’t more robust. I don’t think any of the Lakeshore shows I saw were sold out, and my feeling was that audiences tended toward industry insiders. But as long as the CIF is a place where I can find the ghosts of Chicago’s comedy past, present and future all in one place, I know I’ll keep coming back.

Direct link: http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/blog/out-and-about/2009/04/chicago-improv-festival-ghost-town-09/

Posted in Chicago, Chicago Improv Festival, Improv, Pimprov | 1 Comment »

Praise for CIC from the Great White Way

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008


New York actor and friend of CIC Margot White recently made her Broadway debut in Aaron Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention. Below is a letter Ms. White wrote after taking a workshop with CIC Executive Producer Angie McMahon and Children’s Theater Director Dave Whalley. Sounds like she had a pretty wonderful experience!

To Whom It May Concern:

2008 started out as a great year for me in this profession. I was working in a Broadway show, had just booked my first two national commercials, and was going out consistently for TV/Film roles, but wasn’t booking. The problem was, I didn’t believe.
That’s where Dave and Angie stepped in.

I’ve had the good fortune to know Dave for more than 20 years now, and when I think of someone whose passion, understanding, and commitment to theatre and it’s many variations as art forms, Dave is the first name in my head. He’s as tried and true as they come; he not only knows the references, but he has the uncanny ability to step out of comfort zones and delve into raw material and make it shine. It’s an ability I covet.

In speaking with him about this dilemma about my recent (what I felt to be) pseudo successes, he suggested I come out for an improv workshop with him in Chicago. Me, who’s got some decent credentials, has training in all the classics, studied in London, knew how to analyze scripts inside and out; and now my best friend has just called me out on my weak spot. Improv. Again, Dave and Angie to the rescue.

The first thing I receive is an extremely well thought out questionnaire which will help them tailor this customized workshop to my specific needs. Questions like: When am I most comfortable on stage? When am I least? What flavor is my stopwatch? And my responses, in an effort to be “correct” (ever the straight A student), apparently gave great insight into some primary goals for the upcoming workshop. Goals like getting out of my head, being reminded it’s called a “play”, and that perfection is not what improv is about, so throw that out the window. Angie chimed in at this point with an amazing email letting me know that the workshop was going to be a judgment free, safe place to work and discover, and that even though it’s not perfect (because it never is), it can’t be wrong and no one will die. What a gift of freedom to give to an overachiever.

So my first night in Chicago, Dave brought me to a show with Chemically Imbalanced Comedy in their theatre (yes, leave it to innovative Dave to join up with a theatre company, find and rent an actual theatre space - amazing). The show was raw, unrehearsed, and captivating. I had a glimmer of understanding for what the workshop would bring.

The next day, I showed up at Feed the Beast, with whom CIC has cleverly worked out a back room rehearsal space in exchange for patronage, and quickly learned that these two people not only know what they’re doing, but are completely comfortable with bringing others into this amazing world. Their training was immediately evident, and their openness to my fear was thoroughly comforting. We dove in.

For a little over two hours. Dave, a good friend, and Angie, a total stranger, offered their time, their wisdom, and their encouragement to one who didn’t even realize how in need she was of these strengths. It sounds cheesy, I know, but thanks to their charity, I started to believe in myself – they brought a myriad of possibility to what exists in this crazy thing that we do - show business. Fears were, though not eliminated, certainly checked into balance enough to be productive and not inhibitive.

Dave and Angie get my highest regard in terms of true artists – those who love what they do, are brilliant and fearless in what they do, and find a deeper value in the innovation of possibility. That, to me, is what Chemically Imbalanced Comedy
represents. It’s a home for artists. It deserves as much recognition and support as they so selflessly offer those who ask – or, in my case, don’t even know they’re asking. I will always remain grateful for Dave, Angie, and companies like Chemically Imbalanced, who continue to defy the mold and make art truly palpable.

Truly,
Margot White



Posted in Chicago Improv Festival, Company Members, farnsworth invention, margot white, workshops | No Comments »

Cornwallis at the CIF Preview

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

A couple weekends ago, CIC house team Cornwallis performed in the Chicago Improv Festival preview weekend. It was a fun show, and a great warm-up for our CIF performance in just a few weeks!


Farrell and Elisabeth ride the improv motorcycle.


Jill sheds improv tears.


Lina gives Sean an improv massage.


Tom and Sean… improvise something.


As usual, by the end of the show, Farrell had hit the ground.

All photos (c) Angela Manginelli and CIF. Thanks to CIF for permission to share ‘em!



Posted in CIF, Chicago Improv Festival, Cornwallis, Pictures | No Comments »

The Ninja

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Part of the ongoing Origins of CIC series by Founder and Executive Producer Angela McMahon

One of this things that keeps a Theater running is offering classes. Frankie knew this all too well with his experience working at IO. So he asked me to think of a class that wasn’t currently being offered in Chicago that we could sell. We came up with “Dramatic Improv”. It would be taught by Don Hall (Founding Director of WNEP Theater) AND Mark Sutton (Artistic Director of Chicago Improv Festival). Three weeks with Don and three weeks with Mark. We decided to offer the first round for free and hope word of mouth would carry the class. We also offered the class a performance slot on Sundays at 8pm — Frank said that what folks really want is stage time.

At this point the restaurant was still piles of dirt, but we did manage to move the light switch to the booth area, even though the lights were still just up, down, or slow fade. No real “theater lights” yet, just normal track lights. An amazing number of 33 people signed up for the free class. After the first show (with only 1 person in the audience- my darling husband Tom) the class quickly went down to 15 for our second meeting. The second show had a two person audience (Tom again, and someone else’s wife). This went on for the first five shows. Despite small houses, the class really seemed to enjoy what we were doing. One show we just put on a CD that Don made and did silent scenes to the soundtrack none of us had heard before. We would sometimes start the show sitting all around the theater doing strange monologues all at the same time. It was very artsy and fun, but difficult with no audience to enjoy it with us.

At the time there was a Comedy group in town named “Low Sodium Entertainment” (later members of LSE would form pH productions). They were known for handing out flyers everyday for hours outside of the Stage Left. With little promotion experience behind me I figured this must be a good way to get the word of mouth out.

While I was down stairs handing out my flyers to the 3 or so people that walked down the street in Uptown at 7:15pm on a Sunday I was approached by what looked to be a homeless man. It was about a week before Christmas. He was crying and he said “I want someone to know I am going to go in the alley and kill myself.” I said to him “Would you like a dollar?” He replied “No, I have no family and no one in my life, I just want someone else to know I am going to die.” I calmly replied, “there is a shelter on the corner, I could walk you over.” He shook his head no and started into the alley next to the building. I then said “Would you like to see a free improv show?” He stopped and turned around. “Ok,” he said. I brought him upstairs. I told my husband Tom what was going on and to keep an eye on him. I went backstage and told the cast what I had done. It was our largest house to date (with a total of 8 people in the house-including Tom and the homeless man) and they were all nervous to have this man in the house. But I told them Tom would watch him and that it would be fine. I went back downstairs and continued to flyer passers-by.

A few minutes later, Tom shouted down to me “Ang do you want to get your Ninja off the stage?” I ran up stairs and the man had jumped on stage and started doing some Karate Kid moves slowly and repeating over and over “I’m a Ninja.” I jumped on stage and grabbed him and said in my sternest mommy voice “You have to sit and be good or you have to leave.” He quickly apologized, adding “I am really looking forward to the show.”

TBC next week!



Posted in Chicago Improv Festival, Don Hall, frankie j's, origins of CIC | No Comments »

CIF Preview This Weekend!

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

Chemically Imbalanced Comedy’s own Cornwallis is playing in the 2008 Chicago Improv Festival, and this weekend is your chance to catch a special sneak-preview at the Second City skybox theater. Cornwallis is on Saturday night at 9pm. If you want to make a weekend of it, friends-of-CIC Pimprov are playing Friday at 11pm. See the poster below for the other great acts who will be appearing, and remember, this is only the preview! Stay tuned for more on the upcoming 11th Annual Chicago Improv Festival.



Posted in Chicago Improv Festival, Cornwallis, Pimprov | No Comments »

Cornwallis goes Around the Coyote

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007

COLLABORATION!”
by Jill Fenstermaker

So goes the song that the Chicago-based sketch group Planet Terrance wrote for the Around the Coyote’s recent collaboration project. CIC’s group Cornwallis was fortunate enough to participate in the project as well. The venture (and its subsequent weekend-long workshop)sought to answer the question “What can happen on a stage when visual artists, musicians and performers collaborate?” We were paired with visual artist Caroline Picard, who had very little exposure to theater and was unfamiliar with improv. She talked about her art and learned about ours, and together we created a way to influence and inspire each other on stage.

Our collaboration culminated this weekend when we performed three shows at the Around the Coyote Fall Arts Festival. Caroline created many new paintings specifically for our performances. Her influence continued as she instructed which paintings should appear in each performance (we had no idea which ones would be included) and also gave us a suggestion to begin the show (again, we received this about 2 minutes before the show.) Director Jonathan Pitts was on hand to give us guidance.

This multidisciplinary performance experience was one of the most creatively fulfilling projects I’ve ever been a part of. It was like doing a show with props, except that the props could be anything! We used paintings as masks, as additional characters, and as part of the set. Blank canvases and screens were used to convey emotions and feelings. Lots of positive feed back was received about the shows and about our form, including one person who said “I never thought to improvise with paintings.”

Our enjoyment and the audience’s may lead us to explore an opportunity to do this form again, so please stay tuned. In the meantime we’ll continue to cherish the experience, remembering that if we’re ever in need of a creative kick, we simply have to sing the words (or word, rather) to Planet Terrance’s song: “COLLABORATION!”



Posted in Around the Coyote, CIF, Chicago Improv Festival, Cornwallis, Jonathan Pitts | No Comments »

Sitting Down with CIF

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

CIC: So Jonathan you have the 10th annual Chicago Improv Festival coming just around the corner. Can you give us some background on the festival.

Jonathan: 10 years ago I had the idea to put together the festival. I then reached out to Frances Callier and asked her if she wanted to co-create and co-produce the festival. She said yes and we started working together on hatching out a 3 year plan. After 9 months of planning, we did the first festival at the old Annoyance place.


CIC: Can you tell us what inspired you to create this festival and what the first year was like?

Jonathan: I was working on a children’s festival when I got hit by the realization that there had never been an improv festival in the history of Chicago. 40 plus years of improv history and no festivals. Weird, especially since Chicago has so many festivals. So, we jumped into it and made it happen. The first year we had 10 shows, 27 ensembles, at 1 venue and we drew 1,800 people.

CIC: Any funny stories you care to share about the past 10 years of CIF?

Jonathan; It’s funny but I can’t think of any funny stories connected to CIF. That’s because it takes so much work to make CIF happen, that all I’m doing is working to make it happen, preparing for it to happen, watching it happen, or putting everything away after the festival is over. The funny happens on-stage, not off.

CIC: This year Chemically Imbalanced Comedy is a co-presenter in the Festival. We will be co-presenting the Apprentice Stage on April 28 at 10pm at the Cornservatory. Tell us a bit about the Apprentice Team program.

Jonathan: We are very excited to debut the Apprentice Team programs with CIC at the Cornservatory. We wanted to do something different than just offer the same improv workshops that we’ve offered in the past, and we wanted to create something that utilized the resources that CIF has both as a festival and as a non-for-profit organization. The Apprentice Teams became our answer. We had 12 teams apply and we accepted 5 of them. These 5 teams are getting 10 hours of coaching from a CIF Artistic Associate, meetings with myself and CIF Artistic Director Mark Sutton, the chance to see some CIF shows, and the chance to perform at CIF with their coach watching and giving feedback. We also want to be able to be of service as an organzation to these 5 ensembles over the upcoming year. We feel the Apprentice Team program can really make a difference in art and business of these 5 teams.

CIC: Any other thoughts you want to share about the upcoming CIF 10?

Jonathan: 10 years is a long time to do anything. In my ten years, I am very grateful to all the many improvisers, literally from all over the world, that I’ve met along the way. I’m also very grateful for all the amazing and great improv I’ve seen at CIF.

Chicago Improv Festival Kicks off tonight at 7pm at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Garr Hall, 78 E. Randolph. CIC will co-present the Apprentice Stage on Saturday Night at 10pm. For more info on all CIF events log onto www.chicagoimprovfestival.org



Posted in CIF, Chicago Improv Festival, Interview, Links | No Comments »

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