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