Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Round Two!

Gitty Up! The second ever Improvisational Comedy Open Mic Night took place at The DC Improv Comedy Club on January 14th, 2007 and once again it was a huge success. With a standing room only crowd of about 80 people in the room (15 plus people were turned away), we got our Improvisation on. Hosted once again by Allyson Jaffe (the queen of not knowing how to explain games well, but looks cute with a whistle) we had 8 troupes/groups enter and about 25 singles drop their names into the mix. I decided to run this one a little different and rather than pulling 5 troupes, I allowed all 8 to get their chance on stage. The first half hour featured single performers playing short form Improv Games...some faces were recognized from an article featured in The Washington Post Weekend section; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011100711.html?sub=AR Cool huh?

The second half of the show featured the following Improv Troupes strutting their stuff; including reigning champion from the fist open mic LOSER JOSH plus THUNDER HAMSTER, SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE, NEXT WEDNESDAY, DEATH TO DUCKS, LAST MINUTE SIGNUP, JACKIE NOVAK PLAYERS and 2 GUYS AND A GIRL.
After a tough voting process, the audience decided that LOSER JOSH will move on to the next open mic and have a guaranteed performance spot at The Comedy Spot on January 31st, 2007.

I realized after this night that I have created a monster so have decided to host The next Improvisational Open Mic Night in the main showroom of The DC Improv Comedy Club for a trial run so we don't have to turn anyone away again. So mark your calendars for SUNDAY FEBRUARY 25th, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. at The DC Improv. Whether you are a single improv artist or a group of friends interested in getting your improv grove on, this is an awesome outlet to showcase your talent. Oh yeah and did I mention that is was COMPLETELY FREE to the patrons?

Thanks to everyone who came out and showed support for this venture...it's only the beginning. Bare with me while I work out the kinks.

See you at the next one.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

About Last Night...

So Dec 20th, 2006 was the first ever Improvisational Comedy Open Mic Night held at The DC Improv Comedy Club in our brand new lounge. It was a HUGE SUCCESS!! Trained Improv Artists from The DC Improv Comedy School, ComedySportz, WIT plus several people who just happened to show up and wanted to give Improv Comedy a try were in attendance.

There were over 50 people there which is a max capacity for our new room. Since it is an impromptu show and the first of it's kind, I had no idea what to expect from it. A reporter from The Washington Post came out with a photographer to review the extravaganza.

5 Groups/Troupes signed up to take part in the group section. Participating groups were: NEXT WEDNESDAY, DEATH BY DUCKS, BRIGHT THINGS, LOSER JOSH and SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE. In addition to the Groups/Troupes at least 25 Single Improv-er's dropped their names in the bucket to play some short form Improv games. For the first night everyone who entered the bucket got a chance on stage. I (Allyson Jaffe) hosted the show last night, despite the fact that I have never taken a class in Improv Comedy before (I guess that's the irony of improv, you make it up as you go). Random names and random games were pulled and everyone had a blast. Check out the first blog to see the format of the event. The show lasted about 2 hours....

Crowned winner last night for the Groups/Troupes portion is Loser Josh consisting of the following performing members: Colleen, Paul, Elisa, Alexis, Peter, Clay and Stephanie. Loser Josh will go on to defend their honor at the next DC Improvisational Comedy Open Mic Night at The DC Improv on Sunday January 14th, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. Another one has already been scheduled at The Comedy Spot on Wednesday January 31st, 2007 at 8:00 p.m.

Be there...

The First Ever DC Improvisational Comedy Open Mic Night!!

WHAT IS IT?
The DC Improvisational Open Mic Night is open to all students of Improv; we encourage anyone with training in Improv to participate in this event. My ultimate goal is for all students who never get the chance to perform your skills in improv to now have the chance to do so, for FREE. The DC Improvisational Open Mic Night will be hosted twice a month; once at The DC Improv and once at The Comedy Spot.
The format of the show will be split into 2 parts:
  • Half of the show is for IMPROV TEAMS/GROUPS and Half of the show is for SINGLE IMPROV'ERS.
  • Everyone is welcome to perform however you will not know if you are performing as it is all done randomly that evening. From 7:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. there is a sign-up for the evening. There will be 3 hats on location (One for Single Improvers; One for Improv Teams, One with various Short Form Improv Games). You will either drop your group name or solo name or both into the hats if you are interested in performing.
  • The first portion will consist of the host pulling out of the hat one of the short form games, and then the appropriate number of students needed to play that game from the single players hat.
  • The host that evening will pick 5 Team names out of the hat to perform. Each team will do 8 minutes of either short or long form Improv (it is solely your group's decision). At the end of the team segment the audience will vote on the teams and one team will return to defend the title the next time we host The IMPROV COMEDY OPEN MIC NIGHT.