Riot Improv mixes true storytelling and improv, with surprising results
In the final moments of February’s Riot Improv “Stories to Scenes” show, a hit man was hired to murder a would-be concertgoer for tickets to the alt rock band Marcy Playground. Mike Devine, the performer/unfortunate concertgoer, said this is sometimes a touchy thing to do in improv, one of those things improvisers tend to avoid.
“You don’t want to do violence unless it’s cartoon, over the top,” he jokingly explained. “Like, killing me for Marcy Playground.”
Riot Improv has presented “Stories to Scenes” for a decade, but the improv is fresh in every show. The performances take place every third Saturday at Roslindale’s Rozzie Square Theater, with the next installment on Saturday. The 80minute show isn’t what you might think of when you hear “improv,” with audience members being called upon to supply prompts like “foods” or “vacation spots.”
Riot Improv Managing Director Joe Gels explained that the show is “audience-centric,” but not dependent on audience participation.
“If you really love good quality storytelling, it’s a great show,” Gels said. “If you love comedy and improv comedy, it’s a great show. And if your deepest fear is being pulled up on stage at an improv show, that will not happen to you here.”
Instead of waiting on audience suggestions, “Stories to Scenes” is a twist on an established improv form called the Armando that uses original storytelling as the inspiration for the improv. In a typical evening, three Bostonians tell the true tale of something that happened to them in 10 minutes or less, while Riot Improv performers wait just off stage, listening.
At February’s show, Catherine Weber told a humorous story about prank calls that ended with a dark twist. Misha Trubs told a story about mistaking Condoleezza Rice for Michelle Obama (she had just run over him with a golf cart.) Julie Baker — who also recruits new storytellers and produces the show — told a story about scalping tickets to Counting Crows and her intense fear that frontman Adam Duritz was having sex with someone other than her. When each storyteller’s applause ends and they leave the stage, improvisers enter for a performance loosely inspired by the series of events.
The prank calls from Weber’s tale began as a carrier pigeon delivering an Anthropologie sweater. Another scene featured a humiliated freshman, his ex-girlfriend, and his mother, who had bought him a value pack of underwear from Costco.
“I think they’re brilliant,” Baker said of the improv performers, “the way they can take a little detail and just run with it.”
For the audience, watching the improvisers do their craft is part of the fun. The Roslindale theater is cozy — there are no bad seats in the house — allowing what feels like intimate access to the storytellers and the improv performers from every seat.
“You never know what [improvisers are] going to hook onto,” Weber said. “It’s completely a surprise to us all, and that’s what’s so much fun about it.”