TV Taping at The DC Improv

TV Taping at The DC Improv
PRESS RELEASE: FOOD NETWORKS "DINNER IMPOSSIBLE" FILMED AT THE DC IMPROV COMEDY CLUBDATE OF TAPING: Thursday, February 7th 2008
Last night The DC Improv Comedy Club and our own homegrown Improv Comedy Troupe were featured in an upcoming episode of The Food Network's popular show, "DINNER IMPOSSIBLE". Chef Robert Irvine cooked for 225 of our audience members. His mission was to complete a 4 course meal in just 6 hours. Starting this mission at 1:30 p.m. , chef Robert Irvine was told he had to use 15 random ingredients chosen by the 15 members of our comedy troupe. In addition, he was also allowed to go shopping and purchase 15 other ingredients for a total of 30 that had to be used in the meal. Some of the ingredients provided by the DC Improv Comedy School Cast included, Bratwurst, Bagoong, Ketchup, Kiwi, Pomegranate and Hot Pockets. Dinner needed to be completed and promptly served at 7:30 p.m. The mission was 100% a surprise to Chef Robert Irvine and also to our audience members. It was a fun night had by all; you never know who or what is going to happen at The DC Improv.The episode is slated to air sometime in April, 2008.
www.dcimprov.com

Am I a Mad Lib Maniac?

Good question. So last night January 10th, 2008 was the first DC Improvisational Open Mic Night of 2008 and I was thrilled to see tons of new faces and a packed house. We had standing room only (there must of been about 70 people in the room). I decided to open the show with a group mad lib. If you had a crappy childhood and don't know what mad libs are, I will briefly explain. Mad Libs consist of a fun story that is partially created by audience suggestions. So I asked the audience for several ideas (nouns, adverbs, adjectives, famous people) to plug into the story. Once all the blanks were filled I announced that I would read a story about my marriage ending a year ago and that this story was exactly how things went down. It worked like a charm and the audience was warmed up. Apparently I am currently dating Abraham Lincoln.

Now on to the Open Mic part. I had 6 Troupes enter to perform. They were: LOSER JOSH,
5-6-7-8, The Papers, The Quest, The Flying Kopecnees and a one man improvised story courtesy of Giovanni. Everyone did a great job and each troupe had 8 minutes to strut their stuff. The troupes showcased both long form and short form improv. In between the group performances we played short form games consisting of me pulling out single improvisers who signed up to play and they were placed randomly together on stage. I also launched a new thing for the Open Mic called Scenes Cut From a Movie where I had about 10 people on stage and a list of movies to call off. After I mentioned a movie the "actors" on stage would act out scenes that didn't make the final edited film. I think this was fun but then again the movies I picked were really for my own amusement. I am hoping the audience enjoyed this portion too.

Of course we ended the 2 hour show with a lightening round of "Lines From A Hat".

It was a great way to start off 2008 and I'm looking forward to more fun this year.

Mark your calendar for the next round of DC Improvisational Open Mic Night on
Wednesday February 20th, 2008
Sign-up is from 7-7:30 p.m.
Show starts around 8:00 p.m.

Thanks for the support!

Giggles and Improv...

2008 here we come!

Hey, Improv Comedy fans. I wanted to let you know that the next DC Improvisational Open Mic Night has been scheduled for Thursday January 10th, 2008 in The DC Improv Comedy Lounge. Let's kick start the New Year right and make some s*** up!

Hope Santa brings you everything you want and more.

See you in the Lounge...

Love Letters and Improv 11/29/07

So last night I hosted another DC Improvisational Open Mic Night in our comedy lounge. Even though I was feeling under the weather and my voice was half gone I managed to get through the 2 hour show. I have NO VOICE today though...but I revel in the fact that everyone had a blast last night so it's worth it in the end, right? To start the show I decided to read excerpts of old love letters I found from my 1st boyfriend (over 10 years ago). Apparently I thought druggies and weirdos were hot. These letters not only included odd comments intertwined with graphic sexual content, there were some hilarious hand drawn pictures to parade to the audience as well. Upon completion of my reading I had the whole group of approximately 45 people warm up by yelling out the name of their first boyfriend or girlfriend. Following that I had them yell out what they'd like to say to them now. Good times.

Then came the antics of random people doing random short form Improv interspersed with 2 troupes performing. The audience consisted of some regulars and also a lot of new faces which was nice...I may have scared them off from my love letters though. I hope they'll be back. Participating troupes were 5-6-7-8 and Sexual Chocolate. Both performed styles of long form improv and both did a great job.

Of course we ended the event with the lightening round of Scenes From A Hat. That seems to be my signature ending for the these events.

I'm proud to say that I started this venture Dec of 2006 so am coming up on my year anniversary of this forum. In honor of the year anniversary, I am taking December off but will be back with a vengeance in January 2008. Be on the the look out for an updated announcement of when the show will be scheduled.

In the meantime I hope Santa treats you well and Hanukkah Harry gets you everything you wanted.

Giggles and Improv...

October and Improv are meant to be

Last Thursday on October 18th, I hosted another DC Improvisational Open Mic Night and it was another huge success. With a packed house of 60 people and some new ideas in my head the show started off strong. Two troupes entered the showcase; 700 Clubbing and Loser Josh. Both performed for 10 minutes and showcased long form improv to the masses. My job was to run the short form portion of the show. I decided to play some of the usual games and also put in some new gems that I found on the mighty Internet. The show was running strong until I got called out to take care of a crisis in the main showroom. Every once in awhile I get a slap back into reality and that was a total bitch slap. Bart Voision ended up running the remainder of the show including the lightning round of scenes from a hat. Aside from the main room crisis, it was a fun night had by all.
Mark your calendars for Thursday November 29th, 2007 for the next round of DC IMPROVISATIONAL OPEN MIC NIGHT. Sign-up from 7:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Show is at 8:00 p.m. You can improv off that turkey dinner.

Football? Man funk that....

Yea, so I didn't think this through and planned the last Improvisational Open Mic night on opening night of Football Season (September 6th, 2007). At about 4:00 p.m. I realized what I had done and figured we would have a very light attendance, but to my surprise we had a great full crowd. Take that The NFL...you can't keep us improv-ers down! So we probably had about 40 people in the crowd including a whole crew of newbies. 3 groups participated; LOSER JOSH, SUCH AS and WIDESTANCE. All were given 10 minutes to perform and split between short form games. Allyson (me) hosted again and still am struggling with the descriptions of the games to the audience but I had some awesome Zingers (sometimes I do things for myself). All in all it was a successful night and I'm looking forward to the next one. Mark your calendars for Thursday October 18th, 2007 in The DC Improv Comedy Lounge. Sign-up is from 7-7:30 p.m. and the show will start promptly at 8:05 p.m.

See you then!

July 25th 2007, a day to remember...

I tried to post this last week but Blogger thought I was a spam blog and denied me access. Luckily, after a grueling test, I passed it with flying colors and can update this now. I'm pretty sure no one really even reads this but hey, I am the type of person who won't give up so gosh darn it I'm writing the blog. So in brief the last open mic was a HUGE success with standing room only. I opened with a busted microphone (that eventually I was able to fix) and a cheesy Mr. T joke to get people in the mood and focused for the event. There were 4 troupes that performed that night. LOSER JOSH, MR. PETERSON'S THUMBS, NEXT WEDNESDAY and 5-6-7-8. The show itself lasted about 1 hr 45 minutes with a mixture of short form random improving and the troupes. I ended once again with the lightening round of scenes from a hat. Good times were had by all. We even had some free cookies courtesy of one of the students who celebrated his 50th Birthday that evening. So far this venture has been a successful one. Be sure to check out the next event which will be on Thursday September 6th, 2007 in The DC Improv Comedy Lounge. Sign-up is 7:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. and the show is at 8:00 p.m. I'm taking August off but plan on returning with a vengeance in September. I don't even know what that meant. See you then!!