IMFEST Day 1

IMFEST: The 3rd Annual Montreal Improv Festival, after months of preparation finally got on its feet last night.

Playing to an enthusiastic crowd at The Comedyworks, IMFEST opened with the classic technical-difficulties-with-the-opening-music-and-intro bit (which, as always, brought the house down).

After that, the actual improv of IMFEST got under way with a set by The Comedyworks’ veteran house troupe, On The Spot Improv, consisting that night of Lea Rondot, Brian Wrench, Tommy Malone and myself. Given that I am a founding member and the Artistic Director of OTS, you may want to keep in mind that I could have a small amount of bias when I say that our set contained some of the greatest improvisational comedy that God has ever seen fit to place on this Earth. And it was funny when Tommy fell on his bum.

Next up was Dan Bierne and Brent Skaksford representing the considerable improv talents that can be found each week at Theatre Ste-Catherine (appearing under the moniker of TSC Improv at IMFEST). In their own unique, casual and energetic style, Dan and Brent proceeded to spontaneously create an entirely original space opera complete with warring alien races, no less than three star cruisers and an epic story that spanned the entire galaxy; all on a 4 x 6 foot stage!

TSC was followed by Without Annette featuring Nikki Silver, Sean Michaels and Bryan Walsh. They presented Without Annette’s trademark long form improv style Uno. Last night, Uno gave us a tale involving the lateral canoe, a guy who writes on-line reviews of his girlfriends and that revealed perhaps a little too much about the depths of Bryan Walsh’s knowledge of Star Wars collectibles.

The whole night closed with the players from the all the troupes sharing the stage for one big-assed improv jam. The highlight of the jam was an improvised tribute to all five Baldwin brothers.

Plus I learnt that you can never go wrong with an obscure reference to a great historical tragedy.

Tomorrow night IMFEST is back at The Comedyworks with Edmonton’s Rapid Fire Theatre, TSC Improv, Uncalled For and, of course, the host, me. More on that tomorrow.

Terence Bowman
Big Cheese/Head Honcho
IMFEST