Recap: Philly Improv Festival Night 1
Beauty School Dropouts / Photo by Kevin Thom
Despite the incredibly lousy weather on Wednesday night, the 8th Annual Philadelphia Improv Festival got off to a pretty commendable start. In fact, the second block of the night exceeded my expectations both in terms of the turnout and the performances. (I’m sure the 7 p.m. show was also great—I just wasn’t there to see it.)
I really don’t know why I had any expectations given that three out of the four groups were totally new to me, but I’m almost glad I subconsciously underestimated them.
The only familiar act, Gross Butler kicked off the show serving their usual array of disturbing characters and grim scenarios. This includes a bit about a father prostituting his daughter, which oddly enough, made me burst in to laughter.
Next up, the Troika team Chaperone featuring Frank Farrell and Meredith Weir under the guidance of improv vet, Steve Kleinedler. I don’t know where hell Frank Farrell came from, but I really hope to see more of him. Playing a gullible teenager with uncontrollable nerves and bowels, he proved relentlessly funny. He and Meredith were also quite endearing together.
The same can be said of the ladies of New York’s Beauty School Dropouts who I can only assume have been performing together for quite some time in addition to being real-life besties. These girls fed off one another without a second of hesitation, turning one of the weirdest mother-daughter relationships I’ve ever seen into comedic gold.
Finally, I didn’t realize the Philly Improv Theater started supplying its house teams with large amounts
of amphetamines, but clearly Davenger is the product of some sort of comedic drug experimentation. Seriously, they were unreal. Generally I prefer smaller troupes, my logic being that the more people on the stage, the messier the scenes tend to get. Not the case with this crew. In fact, all nine members managed to out-perform each other. Yeah, I didn’t know that was possible either.
If I had to muster up any criticism it would be that this was one case where the best should not have been saved for last. The troupe was so fast and so sharp that my increasingly sleepy self could barely process it all.
The best of the Philly Improv Festival has yet to come with three more nights of shows. I’ll be hitting tonight’s line-up and shall report back tomorrow. My Philly Comedy Month coverage will then continue on Monday as the Philly Sketchfest gets underway.
FESTIVAL INFO: Each of the nightly performances (which are are split into either two or three hour-long blocks) will be held in the Prince Music Theater’s Independence Foundation Blackbox (1412 Chestnut St.). Tickets for an individual show block are $10 while a nightly pass costs $15-$20. As an additional bonus, a portion of tickets sales from this year’s festival as well as all proceeds from the annual Comedy Month raffle will benefit Career Wardrobe.
The Must-See Philly Improv Festival Shows, According to Local Comics
Tonight, the Philadelphia Improv Festival kicks off its eighth year, with more than 40 different acts performing over the next five days.
This includes a mix of the finest improvisational talents in town in addition to several noteworthy troupes from some of the nation’s top comedy meccas such as the Upright Citizens Brigade and New York’s Magnet Theater. (Note: the same goes for many of our local improvisers.)
Unable to cherry pick my own personal faves from the line-up (really, there’s too many to count), I decided to poll some local comics to find out which shows/troupes they’re most excited to see.
Greg Maughan (Philly Improv Theater Founder and Executive Director): “On Friday, Mayor Karen and The Imposters and on Saturday, Hey Rube and Junior Varsity are must sees.”
Jason Grimley (member of improv duo Grimacchio and PHIT house team King Friday): “I am very excited to see BILLY HAWK from Los Angeles. I know those guys from IO West and they never disappoint.”
Chip Chantry (stand-up comedian): “I’m looking forward to RARE BIRD SHOW. The three of them are masters at what they do, and I’m so glad they’re getting the band back together.”
Paul Triggiani (member Secret Pants; host of PHIT’s TV Party): “Thursday’s show represents three cities, both non-native acts sound novel and intriguing, and King Friday and Iron Lung are great local groups. Iron Lung is also collectively very attractive. So I’d recommend this block.”
Brendan Kennedy (stand-up comedian; member of Camp Woods): ”Hot Dish at 7:30pm Wednesday night. I saw every night of their Fringe show “BackStory” and they were brilliant!”
Corin Wells (member of PHIT house team Hot Dish): “Amie and Kristen/Kristen and Amie Show because every time they get on stage together, not only do they perform amazing improv but they have so much fun together. The audience feels like they’re are having fun right along with them.”
Alison Zeidman (Editor in Chief at Witout.net): “ZaoGao. They perform the best organic improv in the city.”
Aaron Hertzog (stand-up comedian; member of Hey Rube and Hate Speech Committee; host of PHIT’s Hey Everybody!): “Davenger. Because they are dope.”
Kristen Schier (PHIT instructor; member of Amie and Kristen/Kristen and Amie Show): “I am totally biased but I want everyone to check out ZaoGao. I love me some BILLYHAWK boys too! This year’s fest will be a blast.”
FESTIVAL INFO: Each of the nightly performances (which are are split into either two or three hour-long blocks) will be held in the Prince Music Theater’s Independence Foundation Blackbox (1412 Chestnut St.). Tickets for an individual show block are $10 while a nightly pass costs $15-$20. As an additional bonus, a portion of tickets sales from this year’s festival as well as all proceeds from the annual Comedy Month raffle will benefit Career Wardrobe.
**PHOTOS: Tom Lovelund, Musher-Lovelund Photography for Philly Improv Theater
Comedy Month in Philly Now Underway!
For those of you who don’t know, November happens to be Comedy Month here in Philly. What the hell does Comedy Month entail exactly? Well, in short, 30 straight nights of awesome shows featuring the funniest folks in town as well as a carefully selected group of out-of-town acts.
The month long comedy extravaganza is organized by the Philadelphia Comedy Collective (a group of a few local comedy performers and producers) and is technically comprised of the Philadelphia Improv Festival (Nov. 7-11), followed by Philly Sketchfest (Nov. 12-17) and capped off with a miscellaneous sprinkling of indie stand-up, storytelling and variety shows better known as the City Spotlight (Nov. 6-30).
Being the hardcore local comedy enthusiast that I am, I’ll be covering as many of the nightly shows as humanly possible for PWStyle, hopefully convincing you to go out and actually see one, or two, or twenty.
With that said, check back tomorrow for a roundup of the must-see Philly Improv Festival shows and be sure to follow the Philly Comedy Collective on Twitter @phlcomedy to keep abreast of all the comedy happenings.