improv

Improvising for 45 minutes with one suggestion and only two improv artists is a serious challenge, but Devin Mackenzie and Tom Hill make it work, for the most part. I prefer the quick changing action in a series of improv games. So if you are like me, this one act show might not live up to your expectations.

With two stories lines (or was that four?) and six characters, confusion of Shakespearean proportions abounds. Love triangles, poisoned mangos, and lunching on shrimp while sleeping against the backdrop of an opera kept both the audience and all six characters...

What a delightful concept! This show has an array of talented artists from dancers to musicians to actors and more. Each tent provides the participant with a unique experience of sharing with a group their life experiences. The artists then perform an improvised performance in their métier based on what the participants shared. I had the opportunity to meet with 4 performers in 3 separate tents: Yukari Komatsu, John Park and Miho Suzuki, and lastly Zachary Ibrahim.

As two other ladies and I were ushered into the first tent I noticed just how peaceful everyone was. It really...

Andrew Wade is an award winning playwright and graduate of the University of Victoria who claims to be The Most Honest Man in the World. His obsession with honesty has led him to create this unscripted show.

He has creatively crafted his own version of a lie detector which he explains to us in great detail and has his stage set with evidence from his life: notes, poetry, other assorted items from his past to enhance his storytelling. Wade utilizes cue cards to spark real memories and tells us stories...

My friend and I got the last two seats on Sunday night. We were barely seated when the whole room (the crowded, oxygen-deprived Carousel Theatre Studio A) started chanting: “CHURCH! CHURCH! CHURCH! CHURCH!”

Every night is different but I hadn't checked to find out I was about to attend an “improvised church service.” Not to be confused with Fringe regulars “Peter 'n' Chris” (Peter Carlone and Chris Wilson), this duo is new on the scene, at least in this configuration.

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If you’ve ever seen any truly bad improv or sketch comedy, then this is a show for you. 

Creator/performers Devin Mackenzie and Tom Hill clearly know their way around a comedy sketch and have seen more than their share of comedy disasters. Perhaps because of the expectations that come with a show being at the Improv Centre, from the moment you come in there is a boisterous, excited energy running through the audience, which is a great energy to be surrounded by. The show opens with Mackenzie and Hill sitting in the audience, impatiently waiting for the show to start....

Uncouth. A two-syllable word. Kind of catches in your mouth as you utter it, a sensation emphasized in the show’s title by an extra capital letter: UnCouth. There’s that hard ‘c’ in the back of your throat, followed by an elongated vowel sound slowly traversing the length of your mouth to the tip of your tongue, finally ending when your tongue touches your teeth in that closing ‘t-h.’ The sensation of pronouncing the title is mirrored in the phenomenon of seeing this show; it grasps your attention and sticks with you long after you’ve left the venue. Granted, I have...

I’ve had some very bad experiences with improv in the past so when I’m assigned to review a genre that I don’t particularly care for, I tend to grit my teeth and do my best to focus on the positive. To my relief I actually quite enjoyed the Lorax Improv show.

What Lorax Improv performed was a long-form improv, which I’m not sure I’ve seen before. I like a through-line, I don’t need much but my brain likes something to hold on to. So that really helped.

Mostly though, the actors were great. The Lorax...

Genre Definition = Funny · Intense

The Hip.Bang! Improv duo of Devin Mackenzie and Thomas Hill provide some decent entertainment. They both have clearly mastered – well, learned – the tricks of the trade that can keep their audience engaged.

Comedy, Improv, Physical Theatre, New Work - http://www.hipbang.ca/

I’m a fan of improv. I even took an improv class twice down at Granville Island. I wasn’t very good at it, which only made me even more jealous of those who could do it well. Coming up with ideas instantly and running with them in ways that aren’t merely amusing, but actually entertaining, is a tough skill to master.

Here’s the problem I have with ShLong Form: there’s no theme to the show. Four very likeable and talented improv artists come out on stage and engage the audience to prompt them with names, locations or other phrases that will...

improvisational stuff

If I could have babies, I would have Ryan Gladstone's babies. His babies would be funny, talented, and would attempt things that no mere mortal would ever dare try. Imagine if we populated an entire Fringe with his talented, crazy, babies - people would be entertained for weeks on end and never get bored of the shenannigans his babies would get into. Unless we clone him now, we do have the technology, I hear. Anyway, let's move on to talking about the show itself because my imagination is running away with me and thinking about how many babies Ryan should...

He is so talented and stuff

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