Comic Vs Audience reports that local sketch group THE SIXTH BOROUGH received both audience and jury awards at Chicago’s SNUBFEST this past weekend. As a result, they’ve won performance slots at both the Milwaukee Comedy Festival and the Montreal Sketch Festival.

Congrats gang!

ALEXIS SIMPSON, Artistic Director of the PHILLY IMPROV THEATER, will teach a special two-part workshop on Saturday, July 18th. Although the workshops can be taken independently, prospective students are encouraged to take them together in order to benefit from the full experience.

In the first of the workshops, Alexis will take a soft, Jekyll-like approach in identifying the individual strengths and weaknesses of students:

You love improvisation, but you’re not sure you are getting the most out of every scene? What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? What is my director/coach/teacher/best friend not telling me? Alexis Simpson, loving spirit, will offer firm but gentle feedback that is specifically targeted for you and you alone. True strength comes from knowing your weaknesses.

In the second workshop, the kid gloves come off, and Alexis focuses on her two immediate missions, to fix what’s wrong, and to make you cry:

Your improv is awful. Everyone is bored. Stop it; stop it right now. It isn’t your fault that all your other teachers and all your other directors are too nice to tell you that your worst fears are true: YOU AREN’T FUNNY. Worse, YOU AREN’T EVEN INTERESTING. Alexis Simpson will fix that. You will come to this workshop on time. You will do bad scenes. Alexis Simpson, total jerk, will bark mean things that are only mean because they are true. You may cry, which you deserve. So come do your shitty improv so that Alexis can fix it. CAN YOU HANDLE IT?

It sounds like a pretty intense day PHIT has put together, and I hope lots of folks plan to take advantage of it.

Workshop: Jekyll
Saturday, July 18th, 11AM-2PM
$35, $50 after 7/11

Workshop: Hyde
Saturday, July 18th, 3PM-6PM
$35, $50 after 7/11

Both workshops to be held at the Shubin Theater, 407 Bainbridge St. Register online.

On Wednesday, July 8th, the PHILLY IMPROV THEATER welcomes a brand new show to it’s monthly lineup, THE BULLY PULPIT. I recently had an opportunity to chat with creator and host LUKE GIORDANO:

Thanks again for taking the time to talk with me… First of all, can you tell us a little about the idea behind your new show, the Bully Pulpit?

Well, basically, the idea comes from a few places. It’s largely inspired by Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn that ran on Comedy Central for a few years, which is a show I feel like is really mostly appreciated by stand-up comedians. It was that and also that just hanging around with comedians in a diner at 2AM is so funny — I wanted something where that kind of atmosphere of making jokes and smashing each other could be recreated onstage. And I’d been talking for a couple months about how I’d like to see a show like that, a host and four comedian panelists talking about current events or whatever they wanted. So I figured I’d have to start it myself.

As the host, do you plan to guide the format with regards to the topics covered, or will it be more conversational in nature?

It’ll be a bit of both. I’ll have a list of topics that we’ll go through, but after I introduce the topic, it’s pretty up in the air with what’s going to happen. I’ll try to bring it back in or move on to the next topic if we get too far off course, but as long as the discussion is funny and good and interesting, I feel like we can see where it takes us, even if it goes off on a huge tangent. There’ll be more structured segments, too, like we’ll put up a bad movie trailer or YouTube videos and tear them apart, that kind of stuff. The format can lend itself to anything.

Do you see this as something where the comics will know the topics ahead of time, or where they’re reacting w/ commentary off the cuff?

This is something I’ve thought about a lot, actually. I think we’re gonna sort of straddle the line a little bit. I’ll e-mail the topics to the comedians a few days before the show so they can familiarize themselves with them. If they want to go ahead and write jokes based on the topics, that’s fine. If they don’t want to even look at the e-mail, that’s cool too. They can be exactly as prepared or unprepared as they want to be. Because if we’re talking about a topic for ten minutes or so or if we’re going off on tangents, it’s going to eventually move to more in-the-moment humor. I think the show will gravitate towards that naturally, even if any given topic starts out with some written material from the panelists.

So you’ve got some great local comics for your first panel… Kent Haines, Doogie Horner, Sidney Gantt & Pat Barker. Do you see your show as becoming a new standard for primarily showcasing local comics, or are you looking to invite people from out of the area as well?

I can definitely see getting some New York guys on the show after it picks up some steam after a few months. Right now, I think I’m just gonna concentrate on booking local stand-ups that I know and know each other. At some point, I want to start trying out local sketch and improv people and getting them on the show. I also want to try to book people against each other after the show has been established. Like booking two guys I know don’t like each other and pit them against one another. But do it in a way that doesn’t get in the way of the show. Or guys that are friends that it’s fun to watch smash each other — I want Brendan Kennedy, Benny Michaels, and Mike Rainey on a show together at some point for that reason. But I know Dave Walk has gotten requests from New York guys to be on the Comic vs. Audience Show, so if any of them wants to be on this one, they’re welcome.

Your show is scheduled on the Wednesday night of Shubin Week. This has historically been a difficult night to bring in the crowds, even with the amazing programming put together in the past. What do you think it will be about your show that hopefully causes people to take notice and get in the seats?

This is another thing I’ve been thinking about. Hopefully, through word of mouth, among other things, more and more people will come each month. Just like Guilty Pleasures, now at 8:00, this is a very unique show to the city. There’s nothing out there quite like either one of these shows. Same with Why Am I Not Famous?!?. And Guilty Pleasures is a great show that had a big audience last month in the 10:00 spot. Part of that big audience was people who knew Brendan, but part of it was also because Guilty Pleasures is always a hilarious show. When I was with the Drexel Football Team, I learned how to advertise and pack people in for our improv shows very successfully, but that was at a college and kind of an insular environment. People didn’t have to walk too far to get to our shows. Now that I’m out in the real world, my tactics have to change. I’m anticipating a slow build to massive popularity. Hopefully.

Well thanks again for the taking time to chat with me today. It sounds like you have something really fun in the works. If you could leave our readers with one final thought in anticipation of your show, what would it be?

Thanks, it was a lot of fun. I just read Roger Ebert’s review of Transformers 2 and it’s one of those great Ebert reviews where he just levels it, destroys it. Don’t go see Transformers 2. Come see The Bully Pulpit instead and watch us make fun of Transformers 2.

THE BULLY PULPIT w/ LUKE GIORDANO
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8TH @ 10PM
PHILLY IMPROV THEATER @ THE SHUBIN
407 BAINBRIDGE ST | $5 | TICKETS

In their newsletter today, the PHILLY IMPROV THEATER announced that they’ve added EMILY DAVIS to the cast of its house team FLETCHER.

Emily is a recent transplant from NYC, where she completed the PIT program, in addition to taking classes through Magnet & UCBT.

I’m currently taking PHIT Level 4 w/ Emily, and am already enjoying her work. I’m excited to see her onstage w/ Fletcher soon.

Tomorrow night, the backroom of the Urban Saloon will play host to the cream of the crop in Philly improv… ILLEGAL REFILL & RARE BIRD SHOW. These two groups will take the stage in this intimate setting for a night of laughs and improvised mayhem. I challenge you to find a better double-bill this side of the Garden State Parkway.

ILLEGAL REFILL w/ RARE BIRD SHOW
THURSDAY, JUNE 25TH @ 9:30PM
URBAN SALOON | 2120 FAIRMOUNT AVE
$10 COVER

Wednesday night the MINISTRY OF SECRET JOKES returns to Fergie’s Pub with a fresh lineup and a new segment!

This month host DOOGIE HORNER welcomes comics KENT HAINES, BRENDAN KENNEDY, BENNY MICHAELS & CAROLYN BUSA, as well as the digital duo JON GOFF & POWERPOINT PAM.

The evening will feature the latest battle in the ongoing OMNIANA saga to which Brendan Kennedy has held victory over for many months. The newest challenger will be Benny Michaels.

We’ll also see a new segment entitled HACK! where three comics are given a hacky joke setup and have 60 seconds to come up with their own punchline.

More details at ministryofsecretjokes.com

THE MINISTRY OF SECRET JOKES
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 @ 8PM
FERGIES PUB | 1214 SANSOM STREET

The PHILLY IMPROV THEATER announced yesterday (via Twitter) that they will be adding an additional week of show at the Shubin in July. Regular Shubin Week continues to run the first full week of the month (July 6-11), which will be followed by a bonus week of shows.

I hope to see this build up continue, but as of now the theater has not confirmed anything beyond the month of July. I’ll be sure to keep you updated as more news is released. And be sure to check back soon for a full rundown of what you can expect to see at the Shubin in July.

Some of my favorite standups will be sharing a stage tonight at Grasso’s Magic Theatre in Old City. TERI VALENTINE, CHIP CHANTRY & ALAN MARX are set to delight a lucky and intimate audience in this warm, ambient space that’s a throwback to old vaudeville.

COMEDY NIGHT@ GRASSO’S MAGIC THEATRE
feat. TERI VALENTINE, CHIP CHANTRY & ALAN MARX
FRIDAY, JUNE 19TH @ 8PM
103 CALLOWHILL ST | $15 | ALCOHOL-FREE SHOW

Earlier we incorrectly reported that Illegal Refill will be on the C vs A Radio Hour tonight. The show is actually next Thursday, and Illegal Refill is not slated as a guest until next month.

Tune in to the C vs A Podcast tonight to hear host Dave Walk chat with guest Illegal Refill.