IMFEST: Day 4

Wow. There’s a lot to report on Day 4 of IMFEST: The 3rd Annual Montreal Improv Festival.

So let’s get to it.

The day began with a pre-show spaghetti dinner hosted by Bryan Walsh of Without Annette and his wife, Miri. Hosting such an event is above and beyond the call of duty of any festival participant; not only did it display great hospitality but also great patience as the evening involved at least 90 minutes of the off-the-cuff comedy riffing-bits that inevitability take place at any gathering of two or more improvisers.

After a desert that impressed upon the members of Chicago’s Storybox Theatre the superiority of Canadian chocolate, we were off to Mainline Theatre for show number one of the night.

One warm-up story about the Yellow Penguinosaurus later, TSC improv took the stage for their Mainline Theatre debut. Brent Skakford, Dan Bierne and Etan Muskat improvised an amazingly quirky and wonderfully offbeat documentary that is certain to make me distrust all dental hygienists for the rest of my life. In the course of their set, I also learnt that in most prisons there is something called the Peace Squad: a highly feared and hated gang of prisoners dedicated to the promotion of pacifism by any means necessary.

Next up was the IMFEST debut of Chicago’s aforementioned Storybox Theatre. Jonathan Pitts, Jeremy Schaefer, Marla Caleles, Katt Barker and Jonathan Wagner presented the “Chicago Way” to Montreal audiences (previous to last night I always thought that phrase meant something about Sean Connery bringing a gun to a knife fight). In a really cool neato theatrical style involving sticks and mutli-coloured fabric, the Windy City gang presented the raunchiest non-porno version of the story of Hansel and Gretel I have ever seen. And, hey, haven’t we all seen more porno takes on Hansel and Gretel than we would care to admit? Highlights included a wicked step mother who has chiseled her “teeth, breasts and ass” into pointy spikes and Hansel getting trapped in something called a “cave labia” (don’t ask).

Cleaning the show up considerably, the dynamic Uncalled For duo of Anders Yates and Dan Jeannotte presented a touching and hilarious tribute to their stage manager on the occasion of her birthday. I would quote some of their amazingly brilliant and hilarious lines but, in the rush to get out of Mainline for the all star show at The Comedy Nest, I forgot my notes. Sorry about that, guys.

Yep, just 22 minutes after the closing the Mainline show on St.Laurent Street, I was on stage for the Best of the Fest All Star Show at The Comedy Nest in the Pepsi Forum on Ste.Catherine St. W. Those of you familiar with Montreal geography will realize what an incredible feat that was. We would never have pulled it off without Jonathan Pitts’ Bullitt, Mad Max or Grand Theft Auto (depending on your generational point of reference)-like driving skills.

Members of Edmonton’s Rapid Fire Theatre, the Chicagoans (is that a word?) along with members of On The Spot Improv and Without Annette performed a knock-out imrpov jam to IMFEST’s biggest crowd yet.

As a side note, I just wanna point out that it is a milestone in the history of the Montreal comedy scene that the competing clubs of The Comedyworks and The Comedy Nest actually co-hosted a festival that is not called “Just For Laughs”.

As is often the case in comedy clubs, we had an extremely inebriated patron in the front row who was a tad bit unclear on the concept of the fourth wall. Even a near capacity crowd all yelling “SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!” at the same time did nothing to improve the situation. I must say, though, that I have never seen an audience and performers so united towards a common goal.

The spirit of improv, I suppose.

And that spirit will continue to haunt Mainline Theatre tonight as IMFEST unbelievably comes to a close with two shows featuring Rapid Fire Theatre, Storybox Theatre, On The Spot Improv, Without Annette and the it-wouldn’t-be-a-Saturday-night-late-show-at-Mainline-Theatre-without-‘em presence of Uncalled For.

More on IMFEST’s fifth and final night and the closing night party tomorrow.

Terence Bowman
Big Cheese/Head Honcho
IMFEST

IMFEST: Day 3

Okay. I’m not gonna do the “I can’t believe it’s already insert day here” thing in this blog again. So let me just say that I find it completely credible that IMFEST: The 3rd Annual Montreal Improv Festival is now into its closing weekend.

Last night marked show #3 of IMFEST. First off, I gotta say that as we head into the home stretch that I am incredibly busy and don’t really have a lot of time to dedicate to today’s blog.

So, keeping that in mind, there was an improv fest show last night at Mainline Theatre and it was good and people laughed a lot.

K? Thanks. Bye!

All right. All right. Maybe I can go into a little bit more detail than that.

Last night at a gathering of The Association of People Who Don’t Care About Political Debates, Edmonton’s Rapid Fire Theatre opened the show at Mainline Theatre (after a bit of loafing around by yours truly). They performed what is now, as far as I’m confirmed, their trademark short form style. Kirsten Rassmussen did a wonderfully unique take on the suggestion of “Angry Hippy” and Joe Vanderhelm played an entirely convincing Chihuahua.

Bryan Walsh and Marc Rowland represented Without Annette next. They pulled off the risky feat of a two person improvised mini-play with aplomb. I particularly enjoyed Brian’s true story about his ingenious anti-bully strategy while attending rough high school in Point-Aux-Trembles. I’d explain it in detail but I don’t want to give away any secret techniques ‘cause there might be bullies out there reading this.

Finally, Montreal’s “Titans of Improv” (The Gazette), On The Spot Improv took the stage. Last night’s line-up of Brian Wrench, Robert Higden, Lea Rondot and Tommy Malone kept things moving at a brisk pace. The troupe displayed great spontaneous flexibility when an audience volunteer in audience participation scene turned out to be the “strong silent type”.

The night was closed out with a scene that involved the players having to speak 101 words per line (just to remind everyone that we are in Quebec) and the improv classic freeze.

My day as IMFEST organizer ended with a call from Jonathan Pitts of Storybox Theatre telling me that at 12:30 AM, he and his Windy City gang were still over an hour outside of the city (after over 14 hours of driving!). Hey, I’ve always said that Chicago improvisers are very dedicated to their craft.

You’ll be able to see just how dedicated they are as Storybox makes their Montreal debut tonight at Mainline Theatre. Also in the show, TSC Improv and Uncalled For. Plus the Best of the Fest All Star show at The Comedy Nest afterwards (not the Comedyworks-everyone always confuses the two).

More on all of that demain (that means “tomorrow” for the Chicago guys).

Terence Bowman
Head Honcho/Big Cheese
IMFEST

PS: photos return tomorrow!

IMFEST: Day 2

Day 2 of IMFEST: The 3rd Annual Montreal Improv Festival. My how time flies when you’re busy off your ass!

Yesterday’s IMFEST activities began for me when I picked up Joe Vanderhelm of Edmonton’s Rapid Fire Theatre at the airport. It was an interesting experience, standing there at the arrivals gate holding up my IMFEST poster next to all the limo drivers with their much less creative signs bearing the names of (presumably) important business and corporate types . But I guess it did give me the opportunity to advertise to that coveted improv-fans-who-hang-out-at-airports demographic.

Last night, an even larger crowd at The Comedyworks awaited us for show #2 of IMFEST. I decided to open once again with a variation on the classic technical difficulties bit. I must say that The Comedyworks finicky CD player fulfilled its role in the piece admirably.

After a brief improvised story by yours truly concerning male nipple tassels, TSC Improv once again took the IMFEST stage. Dan Bierne and Brent Skagford last night were joined by Etan Muskat as they proceeded to create an improvised Western. In just 20 minutes, TSC were able to save everyone in the audience $12 on the admission price for “Appaloosa”. Their version featured Brent Skagford ad-libbing an Ennio Morricone-esque spaghetti western score that, in my opinion, ought to be available on iTunes and more gory slow-motion shoot-outs than Sam Peckinpah’s wildest wet dream.

The aforementioned Joe Vanderhelm along with Kirsten Rasmussen then took the stage as Rapid Fire Theatre. They were joined by a third player: an extremely versatile white bed sheet. Playing with a unique short form style that was refreshingly new to me, Joe and Kirsten proceeded to take us on a tour of Kayne West’s brain, create an all-new After School Special about “hooligans” and give us a variation on the Snow White story so twisted that we may well have an army of Disney lawyers on our ass before this fest is done.

Finally, it was up to local improv legends Uncalled For to bring it all home. Last night featured the strip-down-back-to-basics line-up of Anders Yates and Dan Jeannotte. These guys delivered so many great lines that I could dedicate the next three days of blogs to just that. But that wouldn’t really be fair to the other troupes, would it? Some of the highlights included “You’ve done so well, I’m giving you the keys to everything”, “When life gets tough, the weak complain”, and my personal fave, a love letter that opened with the line “To Whom It May Concern…”

IMFEST moves into Mainline Theatre tonight with Rapid Fire Theatre, On The Spot Improv and Without Annette. More on that tomorrow….

Plus a big shout-out to the Storybox Theatre crew as they make their 15 hour drive from Chicago!

Terence Bowman
Big Cheese/Head Honcho
IMFEST