Hey, Don’t You Two Belong On The Back Cover? | Improvaganza impresarios Kevin Gillese and Amy Shostak get into an American Apparel mood.
DETAILS
With Rapid Fire Theatre artistic director Kevin Gillese recovering from having his wisdom teeth pulled, it falls on Amy Shostak to improvise an interview about the upcoming Rapid Fire-affiliated Improvaganza festival.
Okay, okay, bad joke—and it’s just as awful here as it was when I tried it out on Theatresports and Chimprov veteran Shostak. Truth is, though, writing about improv is a troublesome task, and explaining the basis behind a festival dedicated to the form is equally thankless.
But despite the floundering efforts of arts journalists, Improvaganza (now in its eighth year) has thrived. That shouldn’t be surprising, though, in a town famed for the quality of its improvisers—many of them the spiritual sons and daughters of former Rapid Fire leader and teacher Jacob Banigan. For instance, Shostak intersperses her improv work (often in tandem with Belinda Cornish) with straight acting and directing jobs, while Gillese has toured North America and other parts of the world as part of the improv duo Scratch—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
But as Shostak is quick to point out, Improvaganza is a little less about the familiar local faces (“I’ll be performing a lot less this year”) and more about the talent that they’re bringing in specifically for the festival—performers drawn here by Edmonton’s reputation for top-quality improv comedy and an audience that appreciates it.
“It’s amazing that we get the audiences we do here in town,” she marvels. “I’ve been to many other cities where the crowds are pretty scarce.”
Shostak notes that the festival will be branching out this year into sketch and even standup comedy, picking up somewhat where the erstwhile Edmonton Comedy Festival left off, but with a slight difference.
“It’s more of an alternate comedy festival in a way,” she explains. “There’s a void that we think we can fill. It’s sort of where improv tends to fall anyways—and kind of a way to bring in people who aren’t familiar with improv but understand standup comedy.”
In practice, the line between improvisers and straight-up comedians at Improvaganza is blurry: this year’s lineup includes Peter Oldring and Pat Kelley, creators and stars of the Comedy Network’s Good Morning World; and Illinois duo The Pajama Men, worldwide Fringe performers and now Second City mainstays in Chicago. Edmonton native Josh Dean (who got his start at the Fringe and with local company Teatro La Quindicina before succumbing to the bright lights of L.A. and a role in the controversial new movie Young People Fucking) will be making an appearance on June 28 with the Birthday Girls.
But much of the festival still depends on the think-fast-on-your-feet nature of improv, with various teams from other cities lining up for head-to-head battles: The Pajama Man versus fellow Americans Dad’s Garage this Friday at 11 p.m., and Iron Cobra versus Sunday Service on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Sunday night will see a taping of CBC Radio’s The Irrelevant Show (starring local comedy stars Mark Meer, Jana O’Connor, and Donovan Workun) in a live broadcast to benefit the Youth Emergency Shelter.
“It’s still the basis of what we do,” Shostak says, “and the people we’re bringing in are great at it.”
