IMFEST Minus One

Wow. We are just one day away from IMFEST: The 3rd Annual Montreal Improv Festival.

I can hardly believe it.

Work on this year’s festival began, appropriately enough, the day after last year’s fest closed. Throughout the sometimes frantic (i.e.: late August), sometimes lackadaisical (i.e.: January) pace of preparations, my only goal was to make this year’s IMFEST even bigger and better than last year’s. Over the course of the past year, troupes from Ottawa, Toronto, Halifax, Los Angeles, the U.K., Australia and even Dubai have all fallen through the cracks for one reason or another (but, hey, watch for ‘em next year).

Somewhere in there, though, I did manage to land Edmonton’s Rapid Fire Theatre, a major Canadian improv troupe and a veritable fixture at The Edmonton Fringe Festival. I have had the pleasure of working with many of their members in my improv travels over the years. Also from out-of-town, I secured the talents of Chicago’s Storybox Theatre: a unique long form improv troupe who borrow from many diverse theatrical styles. They originally approached me last year but IMFEST’s only venue at that time was The Comedyworks. Somehow, the thought of improvised Japanese Noh Theatre inspired plays in a comedy club just wasn’t quite gelling for me.


On the local front, lined-up this year are our own Montreal Fringe Festival fixtures Uncalled For, The Gazette’s favourite-named improv troupe, Without Annette, the guys who pretty much maintain this city’s improv scene year round, TSC Improv and Montreal’s eighteen-year improv veterans (my very own) On The Spot Improv.

And this year, of course, finds the IMFESTation in three, count ‘em, three, venues: The Comedyworks, Mainline Theatre and The Comedy Nest.

It’s been a year of frantic phone calls and emails; taking care of everything from posters and press releases to publicizing BYOB spaghetti dinners to going fabric shopping for only American guests.

Now, with any luck, all the hard work pays off.

Time, scheduling, and lack of typos permitting, I will be blogging each day for all five days of IMFEST: attempting to keep everyone in the loop on memorable scenes, behind-the-scenes antics and the current state of my mental health.

Hope everyone will have a blast at this year’s fest ‘cause as of tomorrow:

The IMFESTation is on!

Terence Bowman
Big Cheese/Head Honcho
IMFEST