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My Experiences on the Road: My 2013 Improv Travel Diary

Posted by Nick Armstrong on November 5, 2013

This weekend marked the official end of my 2013 improv travels. I wanted to share with you my experiences over the last year of meeting some amazing improvisors and show you why I love this community so much! I hope you enjoy!

The Experience: Milky Way Improv Festival:

This year marked the first improv festival ever in my hometown in the Sacramento/Roseville region in northern California. I was extremely proud to finally come home and know that not only was there a great improv community forming but a really amazing improv fest in one of the most beautiful venues. It was a classic theater in old town Roseville with an audience of 200 plus!

Why You Should Visit:

Sacramento has got a lot of history to check out, plus the Milky Way Improv Festival is a nice place to perform and a supportive audience and improv community. Also, if you are ever passing through or find yourself in Sacramento Blacktop Comedy Theater always has its doors open for out of towners.

Improv Utopia

Improv Utopia

The Experience: Improv Utopia

My next adventure was at Camp Improv Utopia. This is a camp I am the Founder and Camp Director of. Being a Boy Scout growing up and an improvisor as an adult I wanted to combine both my loves of childhood and adulthood because I figured…Yeah improvisors are like adults and kids all at the same time that would be cool! Flash-forward to 4 years later and I’ve had the amazing opportunity to meet improvisors from all over the country connecting me to them and learning about their improv, their festivals, their cities and their theaters. Also, what my campers showed me was how great the improv community really is. I might have provided the venue for this but the campers and the national improv scene have created the camaraderie there.

Why You Should Visit:

Camp is an amazing experience that brings the national improv community together for a camping retreat. Filled with workshops, camp activities and more it’s a great place to have fun and share your love of improv with a great community.

The Experiences: Spectacles Improv Engine: (Fullerton, CA)

Spectacles Improv Engine visit!

Spectacles Improv Engine visit!

My third stop was at Spectacles Improv Engine in Fullerton, CA. This is a great and growing community in southern California that has a great community of improvisors. Lead by the amazing and wonderful Josh Nicols, they have not only created some great teams and improvisors but have brought an improv festival to Orange County with such acts as The Reckoning attending. The thing I love about the scene down here is their willingness to learn and grow. Bringing great acts and workshops to their community and not being afraid to bring other local improv theaters into their community to try to expand the presence of improv behind the Orange Curtain.

Why You Should Visit:

The Orange County Improv Festival is hosted by Spectacles Improv Engine and they work hard to get great acts and workshops together for their out of town and local acts. They are also just extremely nice and fun to hang around with!

The Experience: DuoFest

DuoFest is such a cool festival. Intimate and amazing this year was headlined by Scot Adsit and Jet Eveleth and they put on a hell of a show. But the thing I got most out of this festival was how passionate their organizers were especially one of the board members Rick Andrews.

Why You Should Visit:

If you have a two person show this is the mecca for it! That’s all they do no exceptions. Also, it’s Philly! Historical and beautiful. Go visit Independence Hall and say hello to the weird tour guide there! I loved it so much here I found our East camp in Pennsylvania this same weekend!

The Experience: The Detroit Improv Festival

Razowsky and Clifford at the Detroit Fest!

Razowsky and Clifford at the Detroit Fest!

To the EAST! In August, I was off to Detroit, MI to attend my second year at The Detroit Improv Festival. When I say I love this festival, that’s an understatement. The gang here have really taken an improv fest and turned it into a rock concert! This year they had pretty much every major improv headliner there is…TJ and Dave, Craig Cackowski and Rich Talarico of (Dasariski), Razowsky and Clifford, Messing with a Friend with Susan Messing and Tj Jagadowski. I mean Detroit was the improv mecca for a week in August! Thank god a nuclear bomb didn’t go off  in Michigan or improv would have taken a huge hit! This was truly a great event bringing acts from all around. And not only do they have great acts but they have great full audiences too! And they treat their improvisors very well here. I was so full from all the free food it was crazy!

Why You Should Visit:

Hands down one of the best improv festivals in the country right now. A chance to mix and mingle with improvisors and headliners from all over the US and Canada and a ton of great opportunities to see great shows and do workshops from the best.

The Experience: Ventura Improv Festival

Performing with Kind Strangers in Ventura

Performing with Kind Strangers in Ventura

Labor Day Weekend! I went to the small beach community of Ventura, CA and stopped off at The Ventura Improv Festival. Run by the Ventura Improv Company, the festival is mostly local acts with a few acts from out of town. The theater and community is really great here and very welcoming. A mix of short-form and long-form, the audiences were packed in every night giving us improvisors a great and enthusiastic crowd. The one thing I really get from this festival is their tightness as a company. They almost seem like family there. And they should be…the company has been around since 1989 bringing improv to the Ventura region.

Why You Should Visit:

Located in a beautiful beach city, they are always willing to put up traveling improv groups or have you in one of their shows. It’s a great community that makes you feel at home!

The Experience: The Kansas City Improv Festival

The Mullaney Chain: Kansas City!

The Mullaney Chain: Kansas City!

Off to the Midwest! In September, I found myself deep in the midwest at the Kansas City Improv Festival in Kansas City, Missouri. This was a really fun fest for me. It was a dream come true to play with Kevin Mullaney, Jill Bernard, Trish Berrong and Ed Doris in Mullaney Chain. I also got to play with After School Special, which is a local troupe who invited me to play with them and we had such a fun and magical show in front of a packed house.

Why You Should Visit:

The improvisors in Kansas City are really great and welcoming and they have a few improv theaters there. A great chance to meet improv vets and see some great acts. Also, Kansas City is a great place to hang out for the weekend. And if you do pass through go see After School Special. They’re pretty rad!

The Experience: The Red Rocks Improv Festival

The Narrows - Zion National Park

The Narrows – Zion National Park

Man, I can’t say enough about this festival. I’ve been their since it’s inception four years ago and I keep going back. This is for sure the smallest fest with the biggest heart. Run by Off the Cuff Improvisation out of Cedar City, Utah it’s a weekend of not only shows and workshops but group bonding! One of the highlights of this fest was trudging through water in Zion National Park with a group of improvisors from all over. We even jumped off a rock into icy cold water!

Why You Should Visit:

The location and people! Off the Cuff Improvisation is a great company that takes care of you. Finding you places to stay, bringing in huge crowds in such a small community and even renting a huge van to commute you around to different nature hikes. This city is surrounded by beauty not only by nature but by the friendships you make here.

The Experience: Coldtowne Theater (Austin, TX)

Austin, Tx is just a fun town! I was invited out to teach and perform out here and was amazed at the family feeling I got from them! My friend Amy Carpenter, who I first met in Phoenix on one of my favorite teams Mail Order Bride, let me stay at her house for the weekend. The backyard was filled with chickens and I even had a welcome sign in my guest bedroom. Amy was also converting one of her rooms into a small theater! The Artistic Director of Coldtowne Cody Dearing has done a wonderful job in creating a great environment there and they are always welcoming in bringing in guests and troupes. Hit them up if you’re in town!

Why You Should Visit:

Austin, TX is an amazing town with tons of great food and food trucks. Coldtowne Theater puts on some great shows and their theater is a fun place to perform, you can feel the passion of the artform all over.

The Experience: The Denver Improv Festival

Who doesn’t like fall in Denver? What a beautiful city. And not only that they have such a wonderful community. The Denver Improv Festival, run by the non-profit organization Group Mind Foundation runs heck of a fest! On the first night the Voodoo Comedy Playhouse offered performing improvisors free beverages! You know they were all over that! It’s a beer town of course they would! Again this is a festival that brings in great acts and workshops too. It’s also a well established improv community that has around four major improv theaters.

Why You Should Visit:

Denver is beautiful in October, which is when the festival usually happens. The Group Mind Foundation and the participating theaters make you feel welcome and offer performers some great perks.

The Experience: GhostFest (Phoenix, AZ)

This improv marathon is one of the only ones that I know of out West. It’s a two day marathon with a ton of shows and performers. GhostFest is a fundraiser for the popular Phoenix Improv Festival. The great thing I love about this marathon is people experiment! Shows are not alway about being funny, which a ton of them are, but they are not afraid to be serious and take some risks.

Why You Should Visit:

A great opportunity to meet a ton of improvisors and do a lot of shows. You can even hop into shows. If you’re around you might just be asked to join. It’s a fest that is fun, funny and spiritual all at the same time.

The Experience: Finest City Improv (San Diego, CA)

Finest City Drink Menu

Finest City Drink Menu

My last stop was Finest City Improv who will officially open their theater in December, but has a soft opening happening now. Run by their Captain Amy Liweski, an improv warrior in my book, is really trying to grow the improv scene in San Diego. Opening this theater is one way she is doing it, the other way she will be doing it is by producing the San Diego Improv Festival that will be Valentine’s Weekend in February of next year. I love watching the thirst and passion to create a community down here. They’re not alone we even got to hang out with some of the Sidestage Improv folks too who have their own shows, but also cross pollinate between the two and will be helping put on the festival as well.

Why You Should Visit:

San Diego it seems always has great weather. And the Finest City gang always have an open door policy to any improvisor from San Diego or from out of town. The cool thing about the theater there is it’s attached to a hotel, so you can get a room, food and drink anywhere at anytime even in the theater! I got tater-tots and Lava Cake one night! YUM!

Wrap up:

It’s been a great and fun journey and I really want to say that if you get a chance to go to a festival or go to a theater if you’re visiting a town or city do it! You will always feel at home when you visit improvisors, theirs always a room or couch waiting for you, an eager improvisor to show you their city or have you perform with them. I can’t believe how far we’ve come as a community in only really the last 5 years. It’s been pretty amazing! No matter how big or small the fest or theater is, one thing is always true in all my travels. Improvisors are the most kind and amazing people on this planet!

 

 

Nick Armstrong

Nick is Camp Director and Founder of Improv Utopia an improv retreat for grown ups in California and Pennsylvania. He is also one of the founding members of the National Improv Network. We are always looking for better ways to serve the community. Drop us a line and let us know what you want! To e-mail nick e-mail nick@nationalimprovnetwork.com. For more information visit: http://www.nickarmstrong.com or http://www.improvutopia.com

 

 

 

 

 

NIN: Where We Are and Where We Are Going!

Posted by Nick Armstrong on October 29, 2013

A message from Co-Founders Nick Armstrong and Bill Binder –

in-the-beginning-title-slide-message-series-950x712-1In the Beginning…

After our official launch at Camp Improv Utopia in California at the end of May it’s been a whirlwind and we can’t thank you enough for your support. When we came up with the idea of NIN a few years back we wanted a place where we could bring improvisors together under one roof and help them grow as performers and as a community. We also set out to help improv theaters and festivals grow and help Improvisors find what they wanted to find: theaters, festivals and improv content. We still to this day believe in this philosophy and will always hold NIN to this standard as long as it exists.

Where We Are…

Flash-forward to today, we have 722 members, 63 festivals listed, 353 Troupes and 60 theatres listed. Now, we will be the first to admit it hasn’t been easy. Like any new site there are some bumps and holes. The site was running extremely slow due to the former server we were on and that was frustrating. Nobody was as frustrated as we were. We fixed it and now it’s running smoothly. We want a site that is user friendly and we apologize for that little hiccup. So far NIN has helped improvisors and festival organizers, with our Instant Submission service, be able to submit to a handful of participating festivals. Some of them include: The Detroit Improv Festival, The Denver Improv Festival, Eau Claire Improv Festival, Houston Improv Festival, Twin Cities Improv Festival, Milky Way Improv Festival, Big Little Comedy Festival, Orange County Improv Festival, The Phoenix Improv Festival, The Alaska State Improv Festival, The Red Rocks Improv Festival. Most all of the festivals listed have experienced more submissions than ever and better quality of troupes. Why a better quality? Because the members on our site are amazing and put up great and complete troupe profiles. So congrats you guys for being a festivals dream!

deloreanWhere We are Going…

We aren’t just a submission service. NIN is so much more! Here are a list of things we are working on for you:

  1. Chat Feature: See someone you like online? Curious about where they’re from? What improv they do? Well we want you guys to chat!
  2. Master Teacher and Instructor pages. That’s right if you’re a Master Teacher or improv instructor you will be able to list your workshops and submit them to festivals as well! Or if you’re a festival organizer, you’ll be able to contact instructors, and read over their workshops. If you’re a teacher you will be able to upload your workshops and resume as a PDF and you’ll be able to list it on your personal profile site as well. *Our Master Teachers will be selected by a committee of Master Teachers. We will release those names when we launch the feature.
  3. Troupe Profiles will be able to upload their songs so that festivals can just download them for easy use when they are accepted and perform at that festival.
  4. Communication to our Members: We will have an area on each of our pages that will have the latest news or features introduced so you know what’s happening on a day to day basis. If we want you to know about it you’ll find it there!
  5. Communities: 722 users can be daunting. But we’ll be adding public and private communities for improvisors to share ideas in smaller forums. Oklahoma improvisors, musical improv, marketing ideas. There will be many communities to find like-minded performers.

lochness27n-1-webNIN Myths and Clarifications:

With all new things there are often times miscommunications. We have been guilty of miscommunications so we want to clarify a few things. NIN is a free site. Anyone is allowed to list their theater, festival, personal and troupe profile for free. However, if a festival uses our instant submission service there is a small fee per submission. The fee goes toward keeping the site maintained and paid for so we can continue to bring you this resource. If a festival decides not to use our submission service they can still list their site and direct their festival link to their own registration page for free. Every festival, theater and performer has different needs and we want to help all no matter what they’re need is.

Finally…Thank You!

We want to thank everyone who as joined the site, read some blogs, submitted to festivals and shared our site to their communities! We could not have done this alone. We honestly believe that we are all better together and we truly thank you for making NIN possible.

Nick Armstrong and Bill Binder

Co-Founders – National Improv Network (NIN)

A Mile High Achievement! A Review of The Denver Improv Festival

Posted by Nick Armstrong on October 22, 2013

1086732_1383861295183501_1580790716_nDenver is named The Mile High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile or 5,280 feet (1,609.3 m) above sea level. And living a mile above sea level is a growing improv scene and bringing them together is The Denver Improv Festival run by the non-profit organization Group Mind Foundation. The Festival took place over one weekend in three venues The Voodoo Comedy Playhouse, Impulse Theater with workshops held at The Bovine Metropolis. The Festival Headliners were Convoy out of UCBLA, Switch Committee hailing from Chicago and MegaPowers from Los Angeles. The festival was pretty much sold out the entire time with audiences of 150 or more. It was a great and welcoming audience too! Each night ended with a party too for the public and improvisors. The one night found improvisors belting out Karaoke tunes at the Voodoo which was amazing.

One of the biggest differences I saw this year was DIF getting more sponsors. This was a goal of theirs and they made good. You never know how until you ask. And it seemed this year they were hugely successful getting donations monetarily and product-wise. Improv is a growing art in any community and festivals often times bring attention to the art form. It’s great to see that the Denver business community came together to help DIF happen this year. Also as a side note in the “Only in Denver” category a dispensary was also a sponsor. Ah Denver!

20-1up-arcade-bar-denverBeyond the parties DIF offered improvisors many great perks: Great hotel deals in an expensive hotel city, free beers and drink specials for performers and a pretty hefty gift bag filled with munchies. They really made improvisors feel welcomed. And one of the outside highlights of the festival is my annual trip to 1Up Barcade. It’s an arcade bar that houses games like Ninja Turtles four player edition, Track and Field and The Simpsons. A great place to bond with your fellow improvisors.

 

So if you enjoy community, a fun city with a great barcade and a welcoming group of improvisors I highly recommend you check out the ever growing Denver Improv Festival. Good time, great city!

Nick Armstrong

Nick is the Camp Director and Founder of Improv Utopia an improv retreat for grown ups held in California and Pennsylvania every year. He is also one of the founding members of the National Improv Network. We are always looking for better ways to serve the community. Drop us a line and let us know what you want!

 

 

Spotlight On: The 13th Annual Phoenix Improv Festival

Posted by Nick Armstrong on October 17, 2013

I met Bill Binder in an iO West Class over 10 years ago. He would drive from Arizona to LA to take his class each week and then drive back home the same night. He finished classes at iO and went back to Phoenix to help created the Phoenix Improv Festival and The Torch Theater.

My first ever improv festival was PIF in 2004. Among the improvisors there were such improv vets as Craig Cackowski and Jack McBrayer. I had no idea what an improv festival was or what it was even all about. But I have to say I was the luckiest improvisor alive to experience PIF. It really was a game changer for me as an improvisor and improv in general. It paved the way for a lot of things including NIN. Celebrating their 13th year as a festival I interviewed Executive Producer of PIF and Co-Founder of NIN Bill Binder about the upcoming festival:

You’re celebrating 13 years of the Phoenix Improv Festival. How does that feel and what are your goals this year?

Reflective. We have such a huge wonderful community, but some of us have been here since PIF 1. It’s interesting to see how the community and we, as people, have grown and changed in the past decade. We’ve learned so much and we’re always excited to have new people and ideas help it grow even more.

Logistically we have many internal goals that are related to growth. The last two years we played it a little safer than we had in the past because there were so many things going on in Phoenix. Dearing Studio and The Torch opened, NCT and Theater 168 both expanded. Weddings, babies. So much. But this year we can put a lot of our focus back on the festival growing again. We want to push our comfort levels a little. We’re right on the cusp of becoming a much bigger cultural event here.

Our other big goal is becoming another hub for communications between improvisors. Our first festival was designed solely to get the theatres in our town together to learn from each other. We’re really at a point where we can be doing that on a national level. If we’re all in one place, why not use that time to share ideas as theatre owners and festival organizers outside of just having shows?

What can improvisors expect at your festival outside of performances? Workshops? Conferences?

We’ll have a few workshops for sure this year. We haven’t nailed down exactly who yet. We will be bringing back the unconference this year after it’s success last year. Every festival has great discussions during after parties, but we’ve moved them into the daytime as well. Saturday afternoon will be set aside for organized discussions in the hotel on coaching, marketing, improv theory, you name it. Last year, the breakout panel was a discussion on gender issues in improv across the country. We’re really excited to be host to these conversations so that we can all grow.

We’ll also be having a photo shoot and probably a few other things to announce. Oh, and the after parties will be pretty great this year.

Talk about your venue? Where does PIF take place?

We love playing in The Herberger Theater Center. I honestly believe it’s the most beautiful venue in our state. We all love our respective theatres in town, but it’s nice once a year to dress up nicer and present our art to an audience that might not think to see improv otherwise.

What’s there to do in Phoenix?

It depends what you’re looking to do. Our venue is about 1/4 of a mile from Chase Field where the AZ Diamondbacks play. We’re also just south of The Phoenix Art Museum, Opera House and The Deck Park. There are plenty of good places to eat around Phoenix too. Visitors almost always love Lo-Lo’s Chicken and Waffles and some folks want to go visit Pizzeria Bianco ever since Oprah named it The Best Pizza in America. (If you want to avoid the four hour wait, ask a local for the secret to get in fast). We are also in old-west territory, so we have plenty of mountains and deserts nearby for hiking and views. Of course, past festivals have shown that plenty of people just love hanging out at the pool or playing basketball at the hotel. (Did I mention we put all of our performers and instructors up in a hotel a block from the venue?)

What makes PIF different then any other festival?

Wow. That’s a great question. I think the big difference I see between PIF and other festivals which I love is that most festivals are really connected with the passionate people at a particular theatre in town. Phoenix takes more of a Green Bay Packers approach. I don’t think the people of Phoenix associate the festival with any particular group or theatre. It’s part of the cultural landscape of the city. People get excited talking about it eight months before it happens because they know it will be a celebration for everybody. As much as we use the festival to promote improv all over the city year round, people know the festival as part of this city’s traditions and they come out to see great art. We take that responsibility to heart to show them great art and that means treating our visitors like the artists they are. I know – as a traveling performer – that sometimes you feel a bit like a vagabond, but here you’re an artist. And I think that respect leads to great shows and great times. We still use one venue because if we invite you to come play, we want to see you. and we want other troupes to see you too. I was honored by the quote from Dave Hill in our local paper last year.

There are a couple of festivals that have been around for a while that have become a little more corporate, a little long in the tooth. And that’s why the PIF is so unique. It’s grown, but it feels like both a grass-roots and a big-time experience.

Submissions for The Phoenix Improv Festival are now open and you can instantly submit on NIN today! Submit HERE.

Nick Armstrong

Nick is also the Camp Director and Founder of Improv Utopia an improv retreat for grown ups. He is also one of the founding members of the National Improv Network. We are always looking for better ways to serve the community. Drop us a line and let us know what you want!

We’re Moving!

Posted by Bill Binder on October 10, 2013

That’s right. We’re moving to a new server. We’ve heard you, and believe us it’s been frustrating on our end to how the page sometimes slows to a crawl. That’s no fun. We tried to optimize our code and reduce bandwidth with our current providers, but the more people we brought in to analyze ways to speed up the site, the more we heard the same advice. Move to another server.

We didn’t want to just move from one situation to another, so we shopped around for a while and asked people we trust on the best solutions for our needs. Special thanks to Americo Pagliuca who was a great help in helping us find the right server for our new home. We’ve been running a test mirror of the site there for the last few days to work out any little kinks of moving and it’s ready to go.

So how will this all go down? Over the weekend (in the middle of the night), we will freeze the site so no new information can come in while we’re moving. The site will be offline for a few hours while we move the database, and run some tests on the new host while the nameserver moves over. Early next week, we expect a few minor hiccups and we’ll be around to hear them if anything seems off, but we’re hopeful the site will be running much faster.

And here’s the really good news. Now that all our energies aren’t being put towards fighting the server, we can get back to implementing some cool new surprises and tools in the coming weeks. Watch this space for announcements.

We’re very grateful to those of you who stuck with us during what history will remember as “The Slow Times”.

-Bill

Improvaganza Ohana

Posted by Bill Binder on October 3, 2013
Kumu Kahua Theatre

Kumu Kahua Theatre

Improvaganza had their 8th annual festival and it was a mix of traditions that have become part of that festival and completely new surprises. The Honolulu improv scene is constantly growing and changing and it reflects in a spectacular festival.

Many people assume the reason to visit an improv festival in Honolulu is spending a weekend in Hawai’i. And it’s not a bad perk. But the festival is one of the high water marks across the country for making the festival itself as rewarding and fun an experience for visitors as possible.

As a visiting performer, the variety of shows was one of the highlights of the festival. Most festivals generally tend to invite groups that are similar to the style of the town their visiting. But Hawai’i invites shows from drastically different schools. Funbucket from Seattle and Indigo Shift from Austin are stylistically about as far apart on the spectrum as you can be, but both were celebrated and both were shown to audiences that get to learn that improv isn’t just one thing. Geographically as well, Honolulu has the blessing and curse of being equally far for everyone. This year’s international entry came in the form of Paris Tales from – not surprisingly – Paris.

The Arts at Mark's

The Arts at Mark’s

The diversity doesn’t limit itself even to improvised theatre. Improvised musical performances from Leeni and the musical jam band and improvised movement and dance from Spatial Sculptors were part of the weekend as well. There was even improvised karaoke.

Another great gesture for performers is the walking situation of the festival as a whole. Visiting performers don’t always have transportation while in town. A cab ride was needed for many to get from their hotels to the festival, but once there, everything was a quick walk. Many good places to eat were nearby and both venues were within four minutes of each other. The Arts at Mark’s Garage and the historic Kumu Kahua theatre were both beautiful spaces well suited for improv and easy to travel between. This was great not only for getting to call times, but seeing other groups as well without being stuck at one venue all day long. This is something more festivals should strive for.

On a personal note, this was my fifth year going to Improvaganza. I am honored to have been invited back so many times to such a wonderful festival. My group Galapagos was inducted into the Five Timers Club and the pleasure to perform the closing show of the festival. It was a very special thing to me.

The Hawaiian culture is beautiful. Most visitors to the islands only see it in it’s commercialized, charicaturized form. But the real people who live their treat that culture with honesty and love. It’s a culture not dissimilar to that we all share as improvisors; support and trust. Mahalo Improvaganza.

—
Currently Bill is an instructor at The Torch Theatre and producer for the Phoenix Improv Festival. He tours teaching and performing across North America.

Spotlight On: Eau Claire Improv Festival

Posted by Bill Binder on September 26, 2013

ECIFThe Upper-Midwest doesn’t havea a great improv scene; it has several. Chicago, Minneapolis, Madison & Detroit are each growing communities with their own style. Smack in the middle of that, Eau Claire, Wisconsin has been looking to grow into a nationally recognized community of its own, and it seems to be off to a great start with the help of people like Amber Dernbach and Elliot Heinz. What tarted as a single high school team back around the time of Jurassic Park and Crystal Pepsi, has now grown to a vibrant improv town. Eau Claire now has an improv festival all it’s own. We’re excited to have a new festival as part of the network and I was able to reach out with some questions for Amber – the festival’s lead coordinator so travelling improvisors could learn a little bit about their festival and maybe try to add it to their next round of visits.

Eau Claire is pretty new to the national improv scene. What’s the improv like there? You’re in a pretty unique place to be quite near Chicago and Madison which are strong longform and shortform cities, respectively. How do those play out in Eau Claire?

The improv scene here has been fostered at our Eau Claire Memorial High School, where alumni have then gone out with the goal of improvising in the nation. Since the beginning of the high school program in 1993, Eau Claire has rapidly learned to love and support the local improv scene. The adult teams in the area share a unique blend of short and long form improv, where you can see both in one performance. The Memorial improv program begins its season with short form, but always works towards the final goal of a long form performance at the end of the school year. A university has also finally emerged in the last few years, focusing only on short form. High school alumni often come back to Eau Claire after years of experience in places like Chicago or Minneapolis with incredible long form performances. The Eau Claire audience is beginning to get the hang of long form improv as more teams emerge and continue to push the scene as far as it can go.

Rick Andrews

Rick Andrews

What can a visiting performer expect if they visit. In addition to a show, will there be any special workshops or other events? Will there be a chance for improvisers to meet each other outside of showtimes?

We will have workshops available from Rick Andrews (NYC, Magnet Theater), individuals from Minneapolis, Chicago, and Eau Claire. Most of the festival is close enough together where it will be impossible not to meet everyone. This year we are offering a “home base” of sorts at a local improv household. Here teams are free to crash on the floor or a cot. The basement of this house has a small theater and will be available for teams to practice, warm-up, or jam with one another. We will have other housing options if teams wish not to be a part of the “home base” household.

When the festival isn’t going on, what other things are there to do in Eau Claire? What’s the best place to grab food near the festival? Are there any historic sites or interesting places to visit nearby?

Accessible, affordable, park-like Eau Claire can be a winter wonderland in December. We have several parks that folks can walk through, antique shops for gazing, several eateries for grazing. The Leine’s Lodge is just a short drive away in Chippewa Falls, WI where adults can tour the brewery and have a few drinks as well. Grab a cup of coffee at Racy’s, breakfast at the Nucleus on Water St. or the Grand Ave Café on Grand St., lunch at the Acoustic Café, dinner at Tokyo Japanese Restaurant or Shanghai Cuisine. Eau Claire is full of cozy shops and café’s, all within 10 minutes of one another.

Lazy Monk

Lazy Monk

Other great things:

  • Rivers
  • Bike trails
  • Egg Roll Plus
  • Pad Thai (restaurant)
  • Lazy Monk Brewery
  • Banbury Place, independent artist studios in former tire plant.
  • Joynt, scooters
  • Galloway Grill
  • V1 Local Store
  • Public Library
  • Antique shop
  • UWEC Jazz
  • Vibrant downtown music scene
  • Strong local ethnic communities, primarily Hmong and Mexican.

This is your second year. What inspired you to put on a festival last year? What did you learn from that and hope to make even better this year? You’re surrounded by many improv cities, what are your hopes for making Eau Claire something special?

I decided to organize ECIF because there is an increasing improv scene in Eau Claire. What started as a near cult-level high school improv scene has spilled into a local adult scene. So many Memorial High Improv graduates have continued to be working improvisers around the region. Its important to celebrate this history and continue to develop local talent by offering accessibility to visiting national artists. What I learned from that first festival is that people in Eau Claire want more improv! Six hundred people attended a show or took a workshop last year. That level of support for a first year festival, run out of my kitchen between the hours of midnight and 2 a.m., spurred me to continue a second year. Eau Claire is special. We nurture our local artists and stay connected to those who started here.

I hope that we are able to offer shows to a wider audience this year and make improv a conversation topic for citizens everywhere. We want people to crave more improv in the community! We already have a thriving music scene, so we believe that improv can succeed just as well.

Anything else you’d like people to know about the festival?

Eau Claire is such a neat town and a place that you may not expect to find in Wisconsin. We experience every season here, Which allows us all to adapt to situations without hesitation. The scene here is young, but our community is very supportive with nightly crowds anywhere from 200-600 in the audience during the festival. Friends are made here and connections stay strong.

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The festival is taking submissions right now. Feel free to submit or drop Elliot any questions on his profile or in the comments below.

Spotlight On: OC Improv Festival

Posted by Bill Binder on September 19, 2013

2012 saw a huge freshman class of improv festivals in North America. Although not the largest, one of the more well known festivals from last year is the OC Improv Festival thanks in large part to the folks at Spectacles Improv Engine who spent the year traveling and getting engaged online with the larger improv community; looking to work together with other festivals and grow together.

I first met Josh Nicols at camp last year and was instantly impressed with his huge outgoing nature and willingness to talk about his deep love of improv. His enthusiasm is common among everyone I’ve met from OCIF and unquestionably responsible for its success. I had the opportunity to talk with Josh about the upcoming festival and what potential submitting troupes can expect.

OC is a quickly growing improv scene, but one that many folks don’t know about yet. What is the scene like? What kind of shows are really defining what OC Improv is all about?

Our community is mostly a collection of very popular short form teams with a handful of successful long form teams coming together in the last couple years.

It’s a pivotal time in our growth as we search for an identity as a community. Last year’s festival was a huge step in introducing us to the depth and variety of improv. Both players and audiences alike were blown away by the quality of improv we brought in. It’s a great time to come to Orange County and make a long term impression on a group of players and fans who are madly in love with improv.

What kind of events – outside of performances – can visitors expect at the OC Festival? Will there be any workshops or other events during the weekend?

We will be having a party every night at the theatre. Last year we had amazing workshops, which greatly impacted the quality of our scenes. We have the same goals this year. We plan on bringing in high quality training with focused and effective workshops at affordable prices. Also so Friday day excursions are in the works.

Dinner with the boys

Dinner with the boys

Where can people go during the festival’s off hours? What things are there to do and see in Fullerton?

There is plenty to do around the north Orange County area. Disneyland is just minutes away, we’re close to beaches and we’re well within walking distance of a thriving nightlife of bars and restaurants well stocked with party animals. If Disneyland isn’t your thing, we have Knott’s Berry Farm, Medieval Times and Pirate’s Dinner Adventure all just two towns over in Buena Park. Orange County is packed with good times. We are both an improv festival and a vacation destination.

Many of the organizers of the OCIF are very active in visiting other festivals and ImprovUtopia. You’ve spoken to many festival organizers and also visiting performers. What have you learned? What are you bringing back to the festival to make it a great experience? What have you seen in other festivals that you think can be improved?

The biggest lesson I’ve learned from other festivals is the confidence in knowing we can have a great festival. That it’s not impossible to get great teams and workshops. Nick Armstrong was a great mentor in making sure we didn’t make a ton of rookie mistakes. We’ve also seen that it is attainable to take a non-traditional improv market and, with hard work and time, give it a national reputation. It’s clear to us as well, that it’s not built in a day. It’s a commitment to getting better each year, building a quality reputation, and maintaining the relationships a festival affords you.

Anything else you’d like to share about the festival?

Our first year as a fest was a huge success, it really set the bar high for future OC festivals. Visiting teams consistently remarked how surprised they were that this was our first year because everything ran so smoothly and the quality of teams we brought in was so good. Our focus remains the same this year, celebrating the art of improv by bringing in great shows to full houses, all while elevating our own community through inspiration and education.

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Submissions for The OC Festival are open now, but they’re closing soon. You can submit your troupe right now on the submission page. If you’d like more information on The Festival, you can visit the website or drop a message to Josh directly here on the site.

The Orange County Improv Festival started in 2013. It is a product of the growing and diverse improv community of Orange County, California. The festival is committed to the celebration and elevation of improv behind the orange curtain.

Spotlight On: Alaska State Improv Festival

Posted by Bill Binder on September 10, 2013

ASIFOne of my great regrets from last year’s festival circuit was that I was unable to make the trip up to The Alaska State Improv Festival. The prospect of visiting a beautiful new place was enticing enough, but I’d spent enough festivals talking with Eric Caldwell from the Alaska scene to know that it was a city where people cared about improv in a big way.

I had the chance to talk with Eric about ASIF as it enters its second year and talk about what performers can expect.

Alaska is a pretty big trip for many performers and the airfare is going to be higher than many other festivals. Lots of groups will do fundraisers to fund their trip. Outside of airfare, what kind of budget do you think performers will need to prepare for?

Airfare is a consideration, but we time our submissions to coincide with Alaska Airlines‘ annual sale. There are also some really good perks with the Alaska Airlines card that can get people to Juneau for less than they think. The festival is during “shoulder season” so hotels are relatively cheap. Festival staff and volunteers did a great job last year taking the performers around for personal tours and we’ve even provided for some of the meals, so there aren’t really many other expenses beyond discretionary spending.

Juneau is a very beautiful city. When not performing what things can people do and see near the festival? Aside from some extra layers, are there any other things that people should pack for a day out in the city?

Juneau’s generally not all that cold in late April, more like Seattle on a cool day than “Nanook of the North.” The area near the venue has some great cafes and restaurants, museums, and art galleries. Outside of the main downtown area, some of the sites that were popular with our guests included the Alaskan Brewing Company, the Mendenhall Glacier, the Treadwell Mine ruins, and a Catholic shrine where we saw whales, sea lions, and eagles from a scenic lookout.

What’s the improv scene in Juneau like? What kind of shows define the Alaskan improv style.

The improv scene in Juneau has developed its own attitude. As people come in and out, we look at where their strengths and interests lie and aren’t afraid to create shows that cater to those areas. Mike and I tour with a show that is Dada-influenced. One of our shows features a couple of local slam poets doing improvised poetry and scenes. At one point, we had a couple of playwrights in the group and started performing improvised one-acts based on locally-written works. It’s led to more people taking chances in both their shortform and longform work, and to people combining their personal interests into their improv formats.

SusanMessing_web[1]Outside of performances, what other treats will be in store for visitors? Do you have any activities planned for visitors? Will there be any workshops or panels? After parties?

Alaskan Brewing Company was one of our sponsors last year, and our after parties were a highlight. Susan Messing will be coming in from iO – Chicago to lead a couple workshops. Amber Nash, of Archer fame, is coming up from Dad’s Garage in Atlanta. So, yeah, we’ll put the quality of our workshops against any festival in the country. In addition to that, we took our guests to not only the tourist spots but to some of our local favorites. We wanted people to feel like they’d experienced Alaska, and the performers let us know that we’d succeeded.

I know you have traveled to many festivals and been involved with many other festival organizers over the years. What are some other festivals that have inspired the shape of ASIF? What are some things that you feel are lacking in the festival community and ASIF is trying to make better?

The Seattle Festival of Improvisational Theater has had a huge influence on what we do. They’ve done a great job of offering great shows and workshops, providing a real sense of community, and keeping it all within a realistic budget. I’ve focused on what I see as “best practices” and look at how we can use our local resources to produce the kind of festival I would like to attend as a guest.

One thing that traveling performers look forward to at festivals is seeing other shows and having time afterwards to share with each other. How much opportunity will visitors have to just hang out with each other and learn from each other?

That’s a primary focus. Performers were provided with festival passes and encouraged to attend each others’ shows, mostly stayed in the same lodgings, toured around the community together, had joint radio interviews, and after parties with free food. Our venue, McPhetres Hall has a commercial kitchen available, and we’ll be continuing our tradition of stocking the kitchen for group breakfasts. The main regret the performers expressed last year was that there weren’t opportunities to perform with the performers from other communities. We’ve fixed that this year by adding a fourth day and the opportunity for mash-up shows.

McPhetres Hall

McPhetres Hall

What’ the venue like?

The venue’s gorgeous. The original McPhetres Hall was a multi-purpose room inside a church. The church was destroyed by arson in 2006, and the church made a point to rebuild McPhetres Hall as a theater-first venue with flexible seating. The facility re-opened in 2011, built with local cedar, a solid light grid, and a nice stage. You could see the performers light up when they walked into the building.

You’re still early in planning your 2014 festival. What’s the one thing that you’re most focused on? What are your hopes for this year’s festival?

We focused on our master artists first. Susan Messing and Amber Nash. Check! Now we’re working on getting the word out to the performers. We had a solid roster last year, and we’re hoping to build on that. Andy Eninger gave us a great compliment, saying that he was amazed that a first year festival was so well organized. If we can maintain what we established in year one while presenting more high quality ensembles and continuing to expand our audience, we’ll be on the right path.

Anything else you’d like to mention?

The 2013 festival featured performers from all around the country. If you’re considering coming to AS IF, you probably either know someone who performed at the festival or know someone who knows one of the performers. They’ll be glad to tell you about their experiences at AS IF.

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Submissions for The Alaska State Improv Festival are open now, but they’re closing soon. You can submit your troupe right now on the submission page. If you’d like more information on The Festival, you can visit the festival website or drop a message to Eric directly here on the site.

Improv Etiquette 101:H2NO!

Posted by Nick Armstrong on September 5, 2013

no water botleIn this series of Blogs I will take you through why I believe Improv Etiquette is important and what it should be. I’ll try not to sound too much like an old man on a porch yelling at kids. I’m a reasonable guy, but do have some pet peeves that performers do. I think it’s important to take our art form seriously so hopefully this helps guide you. You can agree with me or not that’s okay these are just some guidelines that are pretty agreed upon by major improv theatres and veteran improvisers alike.

H2NO!
I was recently at an improv festival and I couldn’t believe how many performers brought water onstage.  They would do a scene and when the edit happened take a  swig of water, which then made an awful plastic crinkle noise, put it down onstage and started the next scene. Are you kidding? Now I’m staring at the water bottle! I can understand why stand-ups do it, it’s them up there shilling jokes. Improv is a theatrical experience and improvisors are the magicians. People come to watch improv to see something unique and funny and when you take a huge swig of water they remember you aren’t that magician you’re just another person shilling jokes. You can have water on the sidelines or backstage that’s cool, but don’t leave it onstage or drink it there you’re cheating yourself and the audience of theatrical experience.

Nick Armstorng

Nick is the Camp Director and Founder of Improv Utopia. He is also one of the founding members of the National Improv Network. We are always looking for better ways to serve the community hit us up!

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