2007
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PIMPROV
You’ve seen the flashy suits and jewelry so bright that a blind man can see it shining. Now ask yourself “who is more entertaining than a pimp?”
Pimprov revolves around four pimps who decide to take improv classes. The group's lack of political correctness and outrageous costumes are only part of the reason they're growing in popularity. The other reason is, they're really funny.
Now Magazine Toronto calls them “Ho’larious”
The Chicago Tribune says “Politically correct, no. Funny, yes”
LA Times says “More than traditional improv.”
Grand Finale aka Marz Timms, Poochie aka Keith Smitherman, Ho’lease aka Mark Bratton, and Mack Strong aka Lloyd Collins Jr. will have you saying “Keep it Pimpin!”
– Read more at www.pimprov.com
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GOD'S POTTERY
God's Pottery is a Christian acoustic duo formed to spread the Word while addressing the issues facing today's Youth and the Spiritual Community at large. Members Jeremiah Smallchild and Gideon Lamb use their unique blend of music, people-skills and Biblical know-how to inspire all who are willing to listen with open hearts.
– Read more at www.godspottery.com
– Watch video for "When the Ring Goes On" here
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BASSPROV
Bassprov is a hilarious, improvised play that has charmed audiences from coast to coast. Its simple style and down home characters capture the straightforward lifestyle of the American heartland. The show sets up the audience with good old boy characters and then blows them away with intelligent debate and often poignant insight into life in modern times.
– Read more at www.myspace.com/bassprov -
DON'T SPIT THE WATER!
Read City Paper article here
Don't Spit the Water is Chicago's crazy live game show, and is now in its third smash year! Contestants are pulled from our audience every show, and compete to win the coveted mystery prize! You could be our next big winner.Our game is played much like the old game show, Make Me Laugh, where contestants would battle to keep a stony countenance in the face of some standard stand-up comedy. Yawn. In our show, the contestants have their cheeks filled with water, and go up against some of Chicago's strangest, most hilarious comedians.
– Read more at www.dontspitthewater.com
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SKINNY WHITE COMICS
Read City Paper article here
There are three Skinny White Comics. Well, obviously not three in the world, but three at the College of Charleston’s American Theatre. It would do you well to go see them, especially if HBO doesn’t have any Funny Man specials playing that night, and you feel in the mood for a mic and a laugh.The ease with which these three young comics — Amy Schumer, Isaac Witty, and David Lee Nelson — approach their craft is practiced and respectable. It is easy to see them doing the same bits and getting the same laughs at comedy clubs across the country (and, in Witty’s case, on Letterman too). There is a perfect repartee with the audience. Their material is mostly straight-up observational humor. You know: the differences between men and women, the little absurdities of married life, family, religion, the occasional political rebuke.
– Read more at www.charlestoncitypaper.com
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WASHINGTON IMPROV THEATRE
JACKIE
Holidays tend to bring family and friends together. In this freeform show, Jackie starts with an audience suggestion, and develops its own unique community through a series of connected scenes.Anyone feeling homesick around these times is welcome to join our family.
Read more at www.washingtonimprovtheater.com/troupes/jackie.htm
CAVEAT IMPROV
Yes, it's improv. Yes it's comedy. But the folks in Caveat pride themselves on breaking from the traditional framework of improvisational comedy.They just set the whole shebang up differently from the word go. Join them in their exploration of everyday life and beyond, and you'll come away with a unique experience. If improvisation is the exception to everyday living, Caveat is the exception to everyday Improv.
– Read more at www.myspace.com/caveatimprov
BEST FRIENDS
As a kid it was half of your little league team. As a teen it was half a six pack. As an adult it was half of your wedding party. As an old man it will be half of your memories.
BFF: What makes best friends last forever? This show explores the things that bring people together and the stresses that pull them apart. -
THE LATE NIGHT PLAYERS
The Late Night Players are Aaron, Seth, Andrew, and Zach. They met while undergraduates at Brandeis University, located in the suburbs of Boston, Mass. After graduation, the four friends decided to pursue their dream of writing and performing sketch comedy. They currently tour around the United States performing at clubs, theaters, colleges, corporate events, and comedy festivals.
Their act includes skits, music, slide shows, and a dance-off you will have to see to believe, and the group takes pride in the fact that they customize every single show they perform. The Late Night Players have been featured on Myspace.com and AOL Comedy, written jokes for William Shatner and Aerosmith, and were once surrounded by sharks while in an inflatable kayak off the Atlantic coast.
– Read more at www.latenightplayers.com
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STAND UP SHOWCASE
MARVIN LEE
Marvin Lee is a high energy, down to earth smart alec, with a hidden dark side. Being raised in the deep South with a multicultural family, Marvin quickly learned how stupid, narrow-minded and intolerant people could be. Unfortunately, those people were usually his family members. But a least they were "equal-opportunity-narrow-minded-intolerant people", where race wasn't a factor. It was only in the real world where Marvin saw these feelings in others being rooted in skin color. In school, Marvin noticed that his white friends would ask him about the things that black kids did, and the black kids would ask him about things the white kids did. Marvin found himself becoming an ambassador between the races. A noble calling if Marvin's twisted mind didn't enjoy making up the craziest answers to their questions.
This wasn't mean spirited, Marvin was just amazed how people liviing in the same area could be so clueless to each other. This unique view of the worls allows Marvin to take several familiar subjects andtwist them to his style of thinking, creatiing an atmosphere of good natured comedy while allowing his listeners to learn something about eachother and hopefully themselves.–Read more at www.gggreg.com/pages/MarvinLee.htm
CHRIS DOUCETTE
This world is full of surprises, and the stand-up comedy of Chris Doucette is no exception. Weighing in at 110 pounds and measuring under 5'7", Chris is living proof that big things really do come in small packages. He commands the stage with his sharp wit and creativity - Chris is endlessly original. Says one fan, "Chris is witty, creative, and endlessly original!" He jokes about daily observations, politics, current events, and sex – all without being vulgar. He has a knack for re-interpreting life through a series of perfectly logical mental steps, and the end result is side-splitting good fun. Says another fan, "It's side-splitting good fun!"–Read more at www.chrisdoucettecomedy.com
JUSTIN SCHLEGEL
“So damned funny, he makes me want to light someone I love on fire” – Audience member, Baltimore ImprovWhether or not you’re into setting loved ones ablaze after a good chuckle, Justin Schlegel has a comedy style so wild and outrageous, you can’t help but to see why someone would want to. One of the brightest stars in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. scene, Justin can be found working many of the major clubs regularly throughout the year. His friendly demeanor with just a touch of paranoid schizophrenia is a huge hit with all audiences, ESPECIALLY paranoid schizophrenics (they have few heroes…). His style has been compared to Jim Carrey, Dane Cook, and Sam Kineson, but with a flavor that is all his own (it’s rum-raisin flavor, he eats it right out of the carton on stage, it’s disgusting). If and when you book Justin Schlegel for your venue you can be guaranteed one of two things:
You’ll be in for a night of fantastic comedy like you’ve never seen before
He WILL drop kick the first infant that cries during his set (he’s not allowed back in Milwaukee…)
Read more at www.justinschlegel.com
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DAD'S GARAGE THEATRE
Founded in 1995, Dad's Garage Theatre has grown from a small volunteer led organization to a thriving mid-size theatre led by professional artistic and administrative staff. They now entertain more than 30,000 people a year at their two-theatre facility in Inman Park and at public events across the state. Dad's gives a new definition to the phrase "original work" with their world premiere production of Cannibal: The Musical (based on the movie by South Park creator Trey Parker), the debut of O Happy Day (the lost play by Monty Python great Graham Chapman), and the recent premiere of Carrie White the Musical (an unauthorized parody adapted by the Dad's Garage Ensemble).
In addition to their outrageous original productions, Dad’s Garage produces 52 weeks a year. They perform traditional and original formats including the Improvised Soap Opera Scandal!, TheatreSports® (the only officially sanctioned team in the Southeast), their very own Improv Psychology Seminar led by Dr. Bob Frapples, and the brand new Chicago-style long form show, Long Johns.
Their work has been recognized and supported by the Atlanta Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Trust, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Theatre Communications Group, Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund and The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. Now a fixture in the Atlanta arts scene, Dad's Garage has won Best Theatre and Best Improv Troupe in Creative Loafing for the past four years, as well as similar awards in almost every major publication in the city.
–Read more at www.dadsgarage.com
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WHOLE WORLD THEATRE
Whole World Improv evolved from workshops and classes taught by David Webster in late 1993 and early 1994 in Atlanta, Georgia. From the many students he taught, Webster hand-picked a dozen to form the core of what would become the hottest improv group in town.
The troupe made its mark by performing improv that put more emphasis on acting, character and atmosphere than on cheap laughs and thrills. The troupe was able to take on more difficult challenges and experiment with new concepts, many of which had never been done in the world of improv before. Out of this arose a troupe of talented actors that could make a situation not only humorous but human as well.
–Read more at www.wholeworldtheatre.com
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IMPROV CABARET
The Orlando Sentinel said Improv Cabaret's Mark Baratelli has "an impressively showy singing voice and a nicely warped imagination" and his "humor runs in odd and quite wonderful directions."Improv Cabaret is an improvised cabaret show with music and professional piano accompaniment in which Mark Baratelli, an excellent singer and master storyteller, manufactures plotline, monologues and lyrics just a millisecond before they tumble out of his mouth; and he does so without pause, and to hysterical ends. Improv Cabaret has to be seen to be believed, and many people come back to see a second or third show, as you can be assured that no two shows are alike.
Improv Cabaret performed to sold out houses and won "Patron's Pick" at the 2006 Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival and had a five-week run at the Parliament House Cabaret Room and will be performed at the 2007 Miami Improv festival January 11, the 2007 Charleston Comedy Festival and the 2007 Orlando Fringe May 19-27.
–Read more at www.improvcabaret.com
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KENNY Z AND FRIENDS
Former Charleston morning radio personality and stand-up comedian Kenny Z returns to Charleston to share his classic material and his new stories on how his life has changed since being fired from local radio. The Charleston City Paper has described Kenny Z as a "quick-witted, smart-alecky natural on the microphone with a sharp sense of timing and observation". Kenny Z himself has described his act as "could be better if I was nude".
Joining Z is his good friend and hilarious comedian Greg Johnson, who hosts his own weekly comedy show in New York City. This show is guaranteed to be an unfiltered, fresh and hilarious night of stand-up comedy by two of the industry's most promising young talents. Along with surpise special guests.
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THE DAN-D-LYONS
The Dan-D-Lyons are a dynamic and exciting musidy group who blend the broad popularity of music with the creativity of comedy. Tim Danderson and Michael Lyons have taken six months off from their jobs at the bowling alley in Wichita Kansas to make it big in the most exciting music scene in North America. If they do not achieve success the will have to move back to Wichita.
–Read more at www.myspace.com/dandlyons
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THE DISTRACTED GLOBE THEATRE
Read City Paper article here
They are a group of actors from around the Greenville area, focusing on improv and classical comedy.They believe laughter is an invitation to connection. They believe that we can extend this invitation by presenting entertaining, affordable, and worthwhile productions of classic comedies and comedy-improv. They believe it is time to renew the vital connection between a theatre and its community.
Through innovative and often irreverent means, they will strive to illuminate the relevance and worth of traditional theatrical forms in hopes that they will enrich the perspectives of artists and audience.
–Read more at www.myspace.com/distractedglobe
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MORAL FIXATION
Moral Fixation is a 3 man long form improv show birthed from the fertile loins of Lee Lewis (Fishing with Dynamite, Who Wants to be a Superhero, Fuddy Meers, The Harry and Sam Dialogues) , Caleb Usry (History of Charleston for Morons, The Sofa Kings, Fishing With Dynamite, Men are for Goose Creek, Women are from Savannah) and Greg Tavares (The Have Nots, History of Charleston For Morons, Polish Joke, The Harry and Sam Dialogues). Come watch as they take one audience member suggestion and through personal revelation and virtuoso scenework weave an intricate tapestry of artistic deliciousness. With over a quarter decade of improv and acting experience between them, it's improv at the speed of brilliance! The perfect show for those who like their comedy a little on the meaty side...
During it's standing engagement at Theatre 99, Moral Fixation explores the difficult questions that vex each of us in the dark of night, wringing from them comedy that's fearless, shameless, and often tasteless.
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MEN ARE FROM GOOSE CREEK, WOMEN ARE FROM SAVANNAH
This show exposes the good, the bad and the ugly sides of relationships. Written and performed by Jessica Chase (Mary Kay Has a Posse, 4 Play), Jason Cooper (The Bottom Line, Weird Science), Brandy Sullivan (The Have Nots!, Mary Kay Has a Posse) and Caleb Usry (The Complete History of Charleston for Morons, Moral Fixation), the show covers the meeting of 2 couples and take offs from there. See their dates! Witness their dysfunctions! Watch them struggle with their awkward mating rituals! Some couples make it. Some couples don’t. Regardless, it’s fun as hell to watch the journey!
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THE SOFA KINGS
The Sofa Kings perform shows based on ONE audience suggestion. The Sofa Kings take that suggestion, smack it up, flip it, and rub it down - exploring themes, characters, and how they relate in an improv style loosely-based on the Chicago "Harold" format. ANYTHING can happen… and
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BIG DICKTIONARY
Big Dicktionary is a two-person, long-form improvisational comedy team composed of Timmy Finch and John Brennan. Timmy is a member of The Have Nots! and Charleston's Best Local Comic five years running. John is well known as the creepy Jones' Ford guy. Timmy is close to being washed up as a performer just as John's career is taking off. Other than that, the two have just enough in common to share the stage and break many of the "rules" to entertain. Neither one is safe from the other as they keep the show tight and fast even as they call out each others' foibles. Oh yeah, they use a very big dictionary in the show.
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THE FIGHTING GNOMES
The Fighting Gnomes are a High School Improv Theatre Troupe sponsored by the Charleston County School of the Arts Theatre Department. Now over six years old they maintain a yearly troupe of around 8 to 15 players with a four to eight team rooster per each engagement. The Gnomes have graduated over 25 improvisers along with a lineage of more than 100 performances. They also have performed for all ages and are highly adaptable to any type of event or performance situation. Their style resembles the TV Show Whose Line is it Anyway? along with an extra focus on the well-developed scene and story. With the inspiration of their identity being revealed in a ceramic garden gnome rescued from a dumpster when CCSOA began, their mission is two-fold: First, as ambassadors for CCSOA and secondly, as messengers for the energy and enthusiasm of human imagination at play to be found in the genre of Improv Comedy Theatre. Their motto - Theatre: Making the invisible… visible.
– Read more at http://soa.ccsdschools.com/home.aspx
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FESTIVAL FINALE
Read City Paper article here
Get your tickets now for the hottest event in the Festival! Hosted by The Have Nots! Comedy Improv Company, this show is a pu pu platter sampling featuring a variety of festival artists. You don’t want to miss it!!!!!!