the buzz

By Adrian Chamberlain

On Stage

What: Victoria International Improv Festival
When: Thursday through Saturday
Where: St. Ann’s Academy auditorium
Tickets: $10 single show,
$25 for entire evening (ph. 386-6121)
On the Web: impromaniacs.ca/viif
(includes full schedule)

Victoria’s Steve May got hooked on improvisational comedy theatre after just one bite.

A decade ago, he was called onstage from the audience to act like an extra-terrestrial for a Vancouver TheatreSports League show. It was for a Star Trek send-up. He was given four phrases to repeat and immediately forgot two.

“I was at first scared. And then I thought, this is really cool,” said May, 35. “I put improv theatre on my list as one of the things I wanted to do at some point in my life.”

Now a three-year veteran member of Victoria’s Impromaniacs troupe, he’s helping organize the second annual Victoria International Improv Festival. The company’s three-day event — a box-office success in 2003 — includes off-the-cuff comedy at St. Ann’s Academy auditorium, with troupes travelling from as far as Germany and Washington state.

The line-up includes: Die Gorillas (Berlin), Unexpected Productions (Seattle), Rapid Fire Theatre (Edmonton), Vancouver Theatre- Sports, Caught in the Headlights (Nanaimo), General Fools (Regina) and Instant Theatre Company (Vancouver). There’s also four local outfits: the Impromaniacs, Spilt Milk, Throw Us a Line and W.I.T.T.

Yuri Kinugawa, a performer from Japan’s Yellow Man Group, will participate in nightly jam sessions. Mays describes these as an “improv free-for-all” in which performers from different companies collaborate at the end of each evening. Kinugawa’s credits include winning a best-actress award at the 1998 Stockholm International Film Festival, and best foreign performer at the 1998 New Zealand Film Awards.

This year’s Improv Festival is expanded from the inaugural event, which hosted eight troupes from Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle. Operating on a $12,000 budget, the 2003 festival attracted 80-per- cent houses totalling 600 spectators. This year’s model boasts more shows and more international performers, boosting the budget to about $15,000.

“We’d obviously hit a nerve in 2003,” said May. “The performers, the guest artists, really had a great time with it. And then we heard from the audience. They said, ‘Can’t wait for next year’s festival’.”

On Saturday, May’s Impromaniacs will perform Found Objects, in which performers explore their relationships to everyday items. The twist is that the actors, holding an object they’ve brought, must play themselves.

“Which is, I don’t know, the freakiest character an actor can play. I’m still trying to figure out who I am,” said May, who works by day as a Ministry of Health public-affairs officer.

If this year’s festival proves popular, the Impromaniacs will mount another in 2005.

“It’s an adrenaline rush,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

*****

Monday Magazine – Sept. 15
Laughs, Out Loud

By -John Threlfall

If it was funny once, then twice should be hilarious-at least, them’s the hopes of Victoria International Improv Festival organizers, who are kicking off round two of their annual laugh riot this week.

“The first thing everybody said when we finished the festival last year was, ‘When you do it again next year . . .’ ,” laughs the VIIF’s Steve May. “So it was like, I guess we’ll have to start planning another one.” Not that it was a tough decision to make. “Word of mouth about the festival has been going pretty much across the country and around the world,” explains May. “We ended up having to turn down some applications.”

Not too bad for only the second year of what seems like quite the ambitious project. And with funnymen (and women) coming from as far afield as Germany and Japan, it sounds like fans of off-the-cuff comedy will have their laughs cut out for them. “We had tremendous response last year,” says May, “that’s why quite a few of the troupes are coming again this year with new stuff.” As well as Berlin’s Die Gorillas and Yuri Kinugawa of Japan’s Yellow Man Group, watch for the return of Vancouver’s Theatre Sports, !nstant Theatre and “C” is For Comedy (the new project by Rock-Paper-Scissors founder David C. Jones), plus Edmonton’s Rapid Fire, Regina’s General Fools, Seattle’s Unexpected Productions and such Island talent as Spilt Milk, Caught in the Headlights, WITT, Throw us a Line and host company the Impromaniacs, all doing what May grandly describes as everything from “short little one-off scenes to entire theological concepts wrapped up in some sort of gossamer-style acting.” (But if you’d like to do more than just sit there and chuckle, there’s also a one-day, limited-space public improv workshop you can take part in on Saturday.)

When asked how the fest did financially the first year, May gives a philosophical laugh. “We broke even, which as festivals go, is incredible. As long as we can keep our heads above water and not max out our credit cards-as well as put on a really good show that entertains people-we feel that we’ve accomplished something.” And given the international scope of some of the participating troupes, does he think improv will be able to bridge the Babel gap? “Improv almost transcends language,” he muses. “I think most people can get across emotions and needs and wants without the comprehension of language. Funny is funny.”

“The great thing about improv,” concludes May, “is that you never know quite what you’re going to get when you get there, because the actors don’t quite know what they’re going to be doing yet either.”

*****

Victoria News, September 15
Actors face off at international improv festival

By Jeanine Soodeen
Victoria News

The wild and wacky antics of improvisational theatre are attracting international attention in Victoria.

The Victoria International Improv Festival starts tomorrow at St. Ann’s Academy and continues until Sept. 18.

“It’s our second year and it’s a lot bigger than it was last year,” said Steve May, member of the Impromaniacs and media liaison for the festival.

Improv troupes from as far away as Berlin and Japan will travel to Victoria for the three-day improvisational event that has turned into one of the largest of its kind in the Northwest, May added.

Greater Victoria troupes Impromaniacs, Spilt Milk, WITT and Throw Us A Line are just four of the 14 groups that will perform at the festival.

Improvisers from around the world will entertain for three days. They include Die Gorillas from Berlin, Yuri Kinugawa of Japan, Unexpected Productions from Seattle, General Fools from Regina, Rapid Fire Theatre from Edmonton, “C” Is For Comedy, !nstant Theatre and Vancouver Theatre Sports.

Members from ages 17 to 40-plus enjoy participating in improv groups for the fun and the challenge.

“We all work at our day jobs,” May said. “Then, we all get together and do improv because we love it. It can be very physical. It’s a workout for your brain as well as your body. You really have to think on your feet.”

May attributes the television show Whose Line Is It Anyway? for striking the interest of a lot of people and turning them toward improv. In addition, many high schools have clubs, some of which strive to compete in the Canadian Improv Games.

“Improv is a really great thing for students to learn because it builds teamwork,” May said.

Examples of how individuals bring together all the elements involved to successfully carry out improv theatre will be displayed at the nine shows at the festival.

Each evening of performances ends with an improv jam when members from each troupe that have performed that night will be put together on stage.

Some of the interesting improv challenges scheduled include C is For Comedy’s “improv in the dark”.

“All you’ll be able to do is hear what they are doing. Improv is all about imagination so the audience can use their imagination as well,” May said.
Impromaniacs will perform a piece they call “Found Objects,” in which they explore relationships to everyday objects.

Dave Morris, of Storytellers Improv Co. and !nstant Theatre will lead an introductory improv workshop, Sept. 18 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the St. Ann’s Academy auditorium. The cost is $25 per person payable in advance or at the door. A maximum of 16 spaces are available.

Tickets are at A & B Sound, Royal & McPherson box office or at the door. The website http://www.viif.ca or the phone line, 388-3658, have more information about the festival.

All performances will be held at St. Ann’s Academy, 835 Humboldt St. All shows are all ages except the 9:30 p.m. shows, which are rated 14A.

*****

The Martlet, Volume 57, Issue 5
Thursday, September 9, 2004

Improv workshop teaches how to face the void

by Sean Patrick Sullivan

Fans of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” rejoice!

The Victoria International Improv Festival will be kicking off three nights of improvised comedy theatre starting Thursday, September 16.

This year’s festival will see mostly Canadian acts, with others from Seattle, Berlin, and even Japan thrown into the mix.

Steve May, a performer with Victoria’s Impromaniacs, explains that some of the troupes will be doing short form improv, like that seen on the popular television show. Others will be doing long form, a series of scenes connected through a topic, suggestion or theme.

Long form improv tends to have storylines that run through the piece, and can be up to 45 minutes long.

Unique to this festival is a public workshop on improvised comedy—with space limited to 16 participants—that aims to teach a few basic rules on how to face the void.

The void?

“When you’re doing improv you’re constantly trying to figure out ‘What the hell am I going to do next?’” May explains. “This workshop will teach how to create some characters, as well as things like learning to interact with others.” After all, the most important thing that a comedian can do while doing improv is to make their fellow performers look good.

“It’s essential to get to know who you’re working with, to feel the vibe from other people,” says May. “You’ve got to constantly be asking ‘How can I help this along? How can I make this more interesting?”

The trick to being funny, according to May, is opening your mind.

“Most people can do improv if they allow themselves to do it,” he explains. “I think that’s one of the reasons why it’s so popular. People generally look at it and go ‘I can do that!’ In our troupe, there are a few people with theatre experience, but most of us have other jobs and do other things. It’s kind of like exercise, you keep at it and get better and better. It becomes second nature.”

Local acts include Spilt Milk, Caught in the Headlights, WITT, Throw us a Line, and Impromaniacs.

May describes improv community as helpful and open to sharing ideas, which will be useful for the final day’s jam session. Comedians from different troupes (some, even, from different countries) will come together for a free for all session.

“It’s great, because you throw together a bunch of styles, and kind of get people working together, testing each other out,” says May. “You never know where improv is going to begin, and to take yourself out of the comfort zone of working with those you knew before, it really adds an edge.”

Ultimately, he says, improv is the world’s biggest safety net.

“If you stumble, someone’s going to cover for you. No one’s there to grab the spotlight, everyone’s there for the greater good.”