First Improv Festival Oklahoma bringing laughs to Oklahoma City
Members of Red Dirt Improv perform. The Oklahoma City comedy troupe is hosting the first ever Improv Festival Oklahoma. (Photo provided)
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
The comedy may be off the cuff, but organizers are hoping people looking for laughs make a plan this weekend to attend Oklahoma City’s first improv festival.
Improv Festival Oklahoma will bring celebrate improvisational theater with 12 comedy troupes, two nights of live performances and workshops for beginners and experienced comics. Performances start at 7 p.m. today and Saturday, with workshops both days, at City Arts Center at State Fair Park.
“We really wanted to have the opportunity to start developing more of an improv scene here in Oklahoma. There are several local troupes but there had never really been any interaction between them,” said festival co-coordinator Christopher Curtis. “We wanted the chance to come together and actually perform together and work together, learn from each other … and raise the profile of improv comedy.”
Oklahoma City’s Red Dirt Improv is hosting the event and will perform. Other state troupes participating include Everybody and Their Dog, Oklahoma City; Spontaniacs!, Tulsa; Ham Wallet, Stillwater; and Obviously Unrehearsed Improv!, University of Oklahoma/Norman, along with Oklahoma City duo Twinprov.
A member of Red Dirt Improv, Curtis believes the state’s improv comedy scene is an “undiscovered gem.”
“People don’t know that it’s out there. Each of the improv groups kind of has their own fan base, and we’ll sometimes go out and support each other’s shows. … But a lot of people just aren’t aware it exists,” he said.
Festival organizers also have invited comics from Atlanta, Denver and Austin, Texas, to perform. The headliners will be SCRAM!, the duo of nationally known improvisers Joe Bill and Jill Bernard, who also will teach advanced workshops for actors and comedians.
Founder of The Annoyance Theater in Chicago, Bill is “one of the pillars of the improv community” and has worked with virtually every performer on “MADtv” and “Saturday Night Live” in the last 20 years, Curtis said. Bernard, who hails from Minneapolis, has performed and taught at festivals around the country.
“We’ve managed to put together a pretty impressive lineup, and we’re going to be able to showcase a lot of local talent, as well as bring in a lot of people that normally you’d have to go to Chicago or someplace like that to see,” Curtis said. “And now we just hope that the local community will respond and come out and see us, support us and have a great time.”
The performances will be in 90-minute blocks starting at 7, 8:30 and 10 p.m. today and Saturday. Tickets are $15 for one show, $30 for a night of three shows or $40 for a Green Pass good for the entire weekend of six shows.
Comedy fans also can put their sense of humor to the test: Local improvisers will teach 90-minute beginner workshops at 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. today and Saturday. The workshops are open to the public and cost $10 each.
Buck Vrazel, a member of Red Dirt Improv and half of Twinprov, hopes that the festival will become an annual event.
“We want to make Oklahoma a destination for improv. You know, the big three are L.A., Chicago, New York, and then we’re gonna add No. 4, Oklahoma,” he said. “(It’s) a historic moment of Oklahoma culture.”
His brother and comedy partner Clint Vrazel added, “It’s funny, too, as well as historic.”
Going on
Improv Festival Oklahoma
Performances: 7, 8:30 and 10 p.m. today and Saturday.
Beginner workshops: 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. today and Saturday.
Where: City Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., State Fair Park.
Ticket prices: $15 for one show, $30 for a night (three shows) or $40 for a Green Pass good for the entire weekend (six shows). Sold at the door or online. Student discounts available.
Information and tickets: www.festival.reddirtimprov.com.
-BAM
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