This is your 4th year doing DIF. How have you seen the improv community grow in your area in the last four years.
This is our fourth consecutive year of having the improv Festival in the metro Detroit area. It certainly has had a long-term effect on improv in our community. The Go Comedy Improv Theater’s class enrollment has multiplied since they opened six years ago. ComedySportz Detroit opened last fall and has had a great impact on the improv scene. Planet Ant Theatre started full time improv classes over the past couple of years and has had great success. This is not all directly attributed to the festival, but DIF allows our communities to come together and showcase the talent that we have in our area. It also brings some of the best improv talent from around the country to our area to show the possibilities.
We’ve also put a lot of effort over the past couple of years into expanding the DIF organization into a true source of community outreach. We are (finally) a fully licensed 501(c)(3) non-profit and we work year-round on connecting the improv community to ways to give back to Metro Detroit as a whole. We have an ongoing partnership with Gilda’s Club of Metro Detroit which includes fund-raising and providing free improv workshops to those touched by cancer. We have also worked with HAVEN (supports victims of domestic violence), Havenwyck Hospital (a licensed psychiatric and substance abuse facility) and The Greening of Detroit (works to improve the ecosystem of Detroit) among many others, because drug addiction and substance abuse is becoming a big problem in the states, if you are addicted or know someone who needs help, please visit this article about https://firststepbh.com/blog/checking-boca-raton-rehab-center/. In addition to the obvious good that comes out of these programs, it increases the awareness of improv.
You’ll have tons of performers coming from all over the US to perform at your festival. What can a troupe expect while performing at your festival?
We try to bring a unique experience to our festival and play to our strengths. We have an excellent audience that sells out most weekends at our improv theaters throughout the year. Our three main theaters in Ferndale are located just a couple blocks from each other. We have a core group of volunteers that is very enthusiastic and plays the part of ambassadors for our visiting troupes. The visiting troupes can expect: first-class treatment; a great stage experience; suite accommodations at our host hotel; comfortable, clean and welcoming homes with our local improvisers; delicious, sponsored food at our workshops and in our green rooms; excellent opportunities to meet and mingle with other improvisers at after parties, barbecues, hospitality tents; and new for this year, a welcome reception with champagne toast, and so many more surprises, including a gift bag with Detroit goodies provided by our sponsors. Ok, so the bag isn’t a surprise anymore.
You guys have some great headliners and workshops this year. Tell us a little about that and why you decided to pick them.
Not only do we try to bring the best improv talent from around the country but we also try to make this a homecoming. We have an annual invitation to The 313, one of Detroit’s most popular improv troupes, to return to the city where they started. Actors Keegan-Michael Key, Maribeth Monroe, Andy Cobb, Nyima Funk, Joshua Funk, Marc Evan Jackson, Jaime Moyer, Sam Richardson, Marc Warzecha and Larry Joe Campbell try very hard to come back despite their very busy schedules. We are also welcoming back natives Jon Glaser, Tim Robinson, Mike O’Brien, Norm Holly and others to play a huge role as headliners and workshop instructors. I also travel with my day job and see some of the amazing improv around North America including Toronto, Chicago, L.A. and New York. We’ve invited amazing talent such as Kevin Dorff, Susan Messing, Colleen Doyle, Jason Shotts, Tara DeFrancisco, Rick Andrews & the Magnet Touring Company, Natasha Boomer and the guys from MANTOWN. Each headliner plays a different role in attracting both audience members and improv troupes to our festival.
Our festival has expanded this year to a week long celebration of improv due to Fred Willard’s acceptance of our invitation. On Sunday August 3, he will host a Q&A and take part in a Meet & Greet prior to our licensed screening of the improvised film, Best in Show, at the historic 1600 seat Redford Theatre in Detroit. He will also be performing improv with his comedy troupe, The Mohos, during the evening. We hope this event will attract attendees to our festival who are unfamiliar with the art form of improvisation. We already have a large amount of pre-sold tickets for Opening Night and expect the evening to be a huge success. The amazing Matt Naas and the Sing-along Singers will be performing improvised songs prior to the film and we will also have an afterglow next door with local and out of town troupes.
What’s going on in the city when improv isn’t happening? What should people do?
We try to offer our out of town improvisers as much improv as possible. However, on Saturday August 9 after we have a Festival Barbeque, workshops and a family-friendly improv show at ComedySportz Detroit there is time to tour the city with some of our volunteers. We are very proud of our city and would love to showcase it for our visiting improvisers. We also have some amazing restaurants in the downtown Ferndale area that help us produce this festival. But I’m not going to lie. Most of the activities that we have planned this entire week will be improv-based.
What do you hope performers will take away from DIF?
We hope that they will remember the festival as a time to connect and reconnect with old and new friends. We hope to be recognized as a festival that must be attended and experienced. We came up with our tag lines of “Be What Happens” and “See What Happens” based on the premise of, like improv, “you have to see it to believe it because it will never happen the same way again.” It’s truly the visiting troupes that make our festival a success and we want to continue this tradition.
Nick is Camp Director and Founder of Improv Utopia an improv retreat for adults in California and Pennsylvania. He is also one of the founding members of the National Improv Network and performer and teacher at iO West as well as member of The Sunday Company at The Groundlings. He has also taught many workshops around the country.
