Announcing Philadelphia Comedy Collective and Comedy Month

Philadelphia Improv Festival, Philly Sketchfest, and The Philadelphia Joke Initiative Join Forces To Form Philadelphia Comedy Collective

New Collaborative Set to Present Month of Comedy in November

Three of the top forces in the local comedy scene are teaming up this year, becoming The Philadelphia Comedy Collective, and presenting Comedy Month. Forming the new collaborative are the Philadelphia Improv Festival, Philly Sketchfest, and The Philadelphia Joke Initiative. Their first endeavor, Comedy Month, will run from November 1-21 at the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, 2111 Sansom Street. The producers will announce the performance schedule later this summer.

The first week of the festival will be the now week-long Philadelphia Improv Festival featuring local longform and shortform improv acts and troupes from all over the country. Now in its sixth year, the Philadelphia Improv Festival has hosted top-notch local acts along with teams from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (NYC), iO West (LA), DSI Comedy Theater (NC), Second City (Chicago), the Magnet Theater (NYC), Washington Improv Theater (DC), and the People’s Improv Theater (NYC). The Philadelphia Improv Festival is produced by Matt Nelson, Alli Soowal, and Jason Stockdale.

Following the improv festival, Philly Sketchfest will present its third annual event, a full week dedicated to sketch comedy. Philly Sketchfest is the brainchild of sketch troupe Animosity Pierre’s manager Ben Maher and Pierre members Matt Lally and Dave Terruso; Jessica Ciaramella and Cathleen Collins are associate producers. As active members of the Philadelphia sketch scene, these comedians have experienced the growth of comedy in the city firsthand. In 2009, the festival grew to include over a dozen local and national sketch groups.

The Philadelphia Joke Initiative (PJI) will handle the final week of performances. The comedy advocacy organization recently completed a successful run of its improvised musical, “Rodgers and Hammerstein are Dead.” The group was founded in 2009 and is dedicated to supporting comedy and comedians in the greater Philadelphia area. PJI recognizes comedy has inherent cultural value, and will foster Philadelphia’s cultural community by regularly producing comedy events, nurturing local talent, encouraging that talent to remain in Philadelphia, and raising the profile of Philadelphia-based comedy on the national market. PJI is run by Alexis Simpson and Kate Sabato.

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About The Philadelphia Comedy Collective

The Philadelphia Comedy Collective is a consortium of local producers, performers, and companies unified for the purpose of comedy advocacy, cultural vitality, and excellence in improvisation, sketch, stand up, theater, film, music, and other comedy media.

Philadelphia Improv Festival, Philly Sketchfest, and The Philadelphia Joke Initiative Join Forces To Form Philadelphia Comedy Collective

New Collaborative Set to Present Month of Comedy in NovemberPhiladelphia Improv Festival, Philly Sketchfest, and The Philadelphia Joke Initiative Join Forces To Form Philadelphia Comedy Collective

New Collaborative Set to Present Month of Comedy in November

PJIs Cecily and Gwendolyn run begins tonight

Over the past few months, the PHILADELPHIA JOKE INITIATIVE has presented a number of single night showcases, including the Mike Connor Travelogues and a fundraiser featuring music from the Hopper Brothers. Beginning tonight, this small production company launches its largest endeavor to date, and plans to do so with a little Victorian class.

CECILY & GWENDOLYN’S FANTASTICAL BALLOON RIDE opens tonight and runs through January 31st at the Latvian Society in Northern Liberties.

The show, featuring KELLY JENNINGS and KAREN GETZ in the eponymous roles of Cecily and Gwendolyn, is a fully improvised imagining of two slightly mad Victorian ladies who fancy themselves anthropologists. When all is said and done and chronometers have been synced, each evening explores the notion that these time traveling ladies find themselves 175 years through space and time via their hot air balloon in present day Philadelphia – where each night’s audience will serve as lab rats of sorts… from whom they’ll extract their conclusions about the “modern” society in which we live.

I was fortunate enough to attend a private performance this past weekend, and can honestly say that I’ve never been quite so excited to see how audiences will react to a show. Karen and Kelly (as pictured L to R above) have taken the idea of audience participation, and replaced it with complete audience immersion. The entire show is an evening that we’re all invited to take part in. Everything from the set to the seating, the costumes to the conversation, all welcome the audience member in, begging to be engaged, hoping to engross. Sitting there with only a handful of people, I’ve never felt so unconscious of my contribution. Getz and Jennings do a remarkable job of captivating with ease. Something that while I know from talking to them has taken years to develop, comes across as simple and organic.

As you can tell, I’m really excited about how it all drew me in and am excited to hear how audiences respond to this level of participatory immersion.

If you’re interested in reading  more about the show, more can be found in this recent writeup in the CityPaper. You can also get to know these ladies by watching their YouTube videos or by joining them on Facebook.

During its three week run (Thursdays through Sundays, excepting tonight’s opening) the show will play host to a myriad of comedy guests, including local talent the likes of Chip Chantry, Cubed, Rare Bird Show, BWP, Leo Callahan, the N Crowd, Real Housewives of Philadelphia and ComedySportz Improvised Shakespeare as well as Hello Laser from the Magnet Theater in NYC.

CECILY & GWENDOLYN’S FANTASTICAL BALLOON RIDE
THE LATVIAN SOCIETY | 531 N 7TH ST
JANUARY 13-31, 2010 | 7PM
PRESENTED BY PJI WITH SUPPORT FROM FREEFALL PRODUCTIONS

CityPaper interviews Dave Terruso

CityPaper’s Lauren Friedman recently chatted with DAVE TERRUSO, member of ANIMOSITY PIERRE and producer of PHILLY SKETCHFEST on sketch comedy in Philadelphia and the festival.

Improv stands tall in the Philly Fringe

After years of saturating the Theatre category of the Philly Fringe Festival, it looks as though the annual fest is taking notice. LiveArts/Fringe has released their virtual guide, and it’s exciting to see an entire category dedicated to Comedy & Improv.

In addition, the PHILLY IMPROV THEATER has gone big this year, not only with their ambitious lineup of events (we’ll follow with more on this later), but even going so far as to take out the entire inside front cover of the Guide:

It’s nice to see such a strong mix of recognition and prominence at a huge mainstream event that draws international attention.

Philly and Northeast improv highlighted in Arrive Magazine

Here’s a nice bit of publicity for ComedySportz, PHIT and improv in general that recently appeared in the May/June issue of ARRIVE MAGAZINE. The article examines improv comedy throughout the Northeast Corridor, and it’s stature as an artform not only unique from sketch comedy and television, but in many ways, much more precious and rare.

In addition to speaking with UCB’s Anthony King and WIT’s Mark Chalfant, author Heather Johnson also chats with local comedy rockstar Dave Jadico. Also make sure you don’t miss the great shot of Jason Stockdale’s Santa Claus that appeared in the CUBED XMas Show at PHIT.

Twittering the night away…

Well, we’ve joined the rank and file of Twitter. In addition to republishing the rss feed on PhillyImprov.com and being able to receive updates in Google Reader and other blog aggregators, you can now follow us on the social networking craze of the minute:

http://twitter.com/Philly1mprov

I plan to hold back all the superfluous chatter and stick to just linking blog updates and RT’ing news relative to comedy in the Philadelphia area.

If you’re the type that craves the randomness and banality of the twittering masses, you can still follow me directly. That’ll always be random.

Steal This Show: Philly is Phunny Again – by John Steele

Originally published on NBC10.com’s About Town section

Time was, our sports teams never won, cultural references were nowhere to be found and parts of the city looked like rotting corpses.

Philadelphia has long been the butt of a joke that everyone was laughing at but us. But with a revitalized film industry, a new mayor, an emboldened youth population and the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphians are ready for some laughs of our own.

And finding one has never been easier. FX’s It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is a national sensation. And with clubs like Helium and the Laff House drawing national acts and comedy troupes eschewing the normal career path of New York/L.A. wannabes for hometown hero status, Philly is phunny. And its comedians are ready to prove it.

No one knows the dues-paying, pavement-pounding struggle of hustling yuks to a city that often has a tough time laughing at itself better than Corey Cohen. As a member of The Sixth Borough, he and his mates explored Philly’s identity crisis, provincial nature and tough edge with raucous sketches and performances on stages across the city. Now Cohen is back, contributing the newest addition to the burgeoning Philly alt-comedy scene, Steal This Show.

Cohen’s bi-monthly comedy revue contains appearances by stand-up comedians, sketch comedians, musicians, and even a quiz show. And all for just $5. The everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach should suit potential attendees just fine, as they are likely to get more bang for their buck.

And what better place to poke fun at Philly’s gruff, housecoat-wearing homers than Connie’s Ric Rac, the first art house to hit the Italian Market. As everyone knows, the Italian Market is where Philly stereotypes reside; a neighborhood full of pride, soul and unintended irony. In short, the place is rife for parody.

Started as an electronics store and later used as a storage space, Connie’s Ric Rac has since become the doing of Connie’s son. More an artistic collective than a performance space, the Ric Rac hosts seminars for would-be comedians, musicians and artists. With Steal This Show, the Ric Rac brings nightlife to a neighborhood decidedly low on performance-based entertainment. And with a $5 price tag, BYOB rules and a shared refrigerator in place of a liquor license, it does so in true South Philly style.

If you are happy being the butt of the joke from Staten Island to San Francisco, then by all means, forget we had this talk. But if you are ready to see Philly draw some laughs of our very own, come out to the Ric Rac this Friday, Nov. 28. Help put Philly on the comedy map once more.

Rare Bird Show selected to play TIF

Philadelphia’s favorite feathered friends set to descend on Toronto and the world’s largest improv festival.

Created in 2002 as a way to showcase the improv talent across their city, this festival has grown to become the world’s largest festival of improvised theatre. The 2007 Toronto International Improv Festival is the sixth annual festival for improvised theatre in Toronto. The independent festival is produced by The Impatient Theatre Co.

This August, Rare Bird Show will be the first group from Philadelphia to tackle this juggernaut festival. No stranger to the festival circuit, the group has already been featured at comedy festivals in New York, DC, Baltimore, Dover and Chapel Hill, as well as headlining our own Philadelphia Improv Festival. Their appearance in Toronto will mark the group’s international debut.