Comics squaring off for Improv Fallout
They’ll come out swinging at Mahtay Cafe Saturday, and by the end there will be one joker standing.
Improv Niagara’s first-ever Improv Fallout will pit eight local comics against each other at the St. Catharines restaurant, letting the audience decide who’s the quickest wit. They’ll be divided into two teams to start, doing competitive sketches until there’s two people left vying for bragging rights, and a guaranteed spot in next year’s show.
Organized by Improv Niagara founders Brie Watson and Dina Senior, the show marks the comedy ensemble’s first anniversary doing shows and workshops throughout the region.
“It’s a lot of fun,” says Watson. “The most important thing is that it’s a different and, I think, a better way to get the audience involved. The audience is always going to be involved in one way or another, because that’s how improv works, but this way it’s almost like a sporting event.”
Participants, some from Niagara improv troupe Scared Scriptless, include Paul Fedj, Erica Sherwood, Max Whitworth, Tino Notarianni and Mickie Krish.
Watson, an improv instructor at the Second City Training Centre in Toronto, says successful improv isn’t always about who has the quickest jokes.
“People assume that they have to be funny, but that’s not at all the case,” she says. “The point is just to react naturally, to react as you would a human being.
“People will find the humanity in the content … usually what comes up is stuff that people have experienced in their real lives, and that’s what people associate with. Much more than something that somebody has thought about in advance or pre-planned. What they like is the spontaneity.”
Watson finds the best improv arises from a performer’s genuine reaction to something.
“A surprising piece of honesty, where suddenly the audience is like ‘Oh my God, I feel that way as well, but I don’t think I would ever say it out loud.’”