Improv Review ...Because Improv is Art, Dammit

I have to admit that I’m a bit perplexed at the decision to prominently feature a standard ComedySportz show on the mainstage of the Chicago Improv Festival. Don’t get me wrong, I like ComedySportz, and have reviewed it favorably in the past. I think the show is a positive force for promoting improv comedy, especially to people who have had little exposure to the art. And maybe that’s reason enough to put them in the Festival. But with all the innovative and creative work being produced in Chicago, and even by the folks at ComedySportz (see our review of their Whose Chorus Line Is It Anyway?), it just seemed incongruous to put this group on the same stage with the Annoyance and Second City.

The Chicago “act-letes” didn’t have their best night, either. Many of the players seemed nervous, and while for the most part they channeled their nervousness into their performance, it made for some basic improv mistakes, like dropping mimed objects, and blocking each other’s offers. In a scene where the cast was provided with stage directions strewn about the floor, scene work was abandoned early in order to follow the dictates of the game, which is somewhat expected, but about halfway through, the players even stopped trying to justify their actions, which is the focus of the game.

In a style change scene, one player established themselves as a cop, which quickly got dropped as the style changed. A round of 185 (Tell a joke: 185 [blanks] walk into a bar, bartender says “I can’t serve 185 [blanks],” 185 [blanks] say “____________”), which can often be a fun exercise in puns, was uninspired, with more than one player not up to the task of creating a joke. In contrast, some games were well played: a game of “The Doo-Run-Run” was done with lots of energy and creative, quick rhymes.

A lot of the charm of a ComedySportz show lies in its relationship with the audience, getting them to cheer and chant and do the wave. Some shows take up to 15 minutes just to “train” the audience. With an abbreviated set, they weren’t able to establish that rapport with the Athenaeum’s crowd, and that seemed to hurt the show as well.

So don’t write me nasty letters – I like ComedySportz, I’m not an improv snob about it. But I think everyone, the Festival, the audience, and ComedySportz itself, would have been better served by putting one of their other offerings on the stage that night.

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