May 30 - June 1st, 2003

Chicago has had one for the last six years. So has New York City. Toronto has one – even Winnipeg, Canada and Minneapolis have one. But Los Angeles hasn’t – at least in recent memory – had an improv festival to call its own. That will all change when the first Los Angeles Improv Comedy Festival kicks off Friday in Hollywood.

Held at the ImprovOlympic West Theater and open to the public, the three-day event will feature daily Improv comedy workshops and hourly performances nightly on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It includes a Sunday block party, an awards ceremony and even a friendly competition between cast members of “Saturday Night Live” and “Mad TV”.

Although the list of performers hasn’t been finalized (and, in the true nature of improv, it could change right up to show time) some of the well-known attendees scheduled include Amy Poehler, Horatio Sanz and Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live), Andy Dick (“Newsradio”, “Less Than Perfect”), Neil Flynn (“Scrubs”) and Jeff Garlin (“Daddy Day Care” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”).

The HBO Series “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is slated to receive the first Del Close Honor for the Advancement of Improvisation, an award named after the legendary Improv guru Del Close, whose life is the subject of a documentary slated to screen during the festival, (Actor Fred Willard, who has appeared in improv-heavy movies such as “Best in Show” and “A Mighty Wind”, was slated to receive the individual achievement award at the festival, but due to a scheduling conflict, it will be presented later in the summer).

It seems like a perfect fit for an industry town that relies on the improv community as a sort of Hollywood farm team. So the question is, what took them so long?

“Prior to now there just weren’t enough groups around town interested in it,” said James Grace, the artistic director of the ImproOlympic West. “Until Second City and IO came out here, the Groundlings were the only show in town.” He went on to say that the idea had actually been percolating for a few years before reaching a critical mass. “A festival like this is a big undertaking and a lot of the theaters have been trying hard to make themselves work”.

There also has long been an undercurrent of competition among L.A.’s Improvisational theater companies. “There has been in the past – and there still is – a little bit of “Oh, my God, we can’t let these people come over to our place and steal our students”, said Second City’s Los Angeles artistic director David Razowsky. “That’s what it’s about – students and money. But I think this is a great way to celebrate Improvisation in L.A. It’s something that really hasn’t been done. Improv is a hidden gem here.”

Grace agrees. “If you look past the people who make the money for each particular theater, you’ll see that the people who make the theaters work are beyond the competition and there’s actually a sense of co-operation.”

While IO West is the organizer and host, it wouldn’t really be a festival without the involvement of the other local improv theaters. Participants include the Groundlings (performing “The Crazy Uncle Joe Show”), Second City (“Funny Black People” and an alumni performance); Bang, (“Stacy’s Not Here”) and ACME (“The Liquid Radio Players”). Although it is a predominantly regional affair, improv troupes are also making the pilgrimage from as far away as Boston (Improv Asylum), Chicago (People of Earth), and New York (the Upright Citizens Brigade).

Charna Halpern, the director and co-founder of the Chicago based ImprovOlympic, thinks another reason that an L.A. festival makes sense now is that improv is finally gaining ground in television and movies.

“TV shows are starting to be based on improv”, she said in a phone interview from her Chicago office. “We wanted to give an award and say thank you to shows like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” – thank you for showing the industry we can do TV. Same thing for Fred Willard – we wanted to say thank you for showing the industry that we can do movies. That’s worth celebrating”.

If the weekend is a success, improv theaters, practitioners and fans won’t be the only beneficiaries; festival organizers have decided to donate a portion of the performance ticket sales (and all the workshop ticket sales) to Project Angel Food, a charity that provides daily meals to people homebound by the effects of HIV/AIDS. (In addition, the charity will receive all proceeds from a silent auction of the paintings used in the poster for the festival by Boston-based artist Pat McNabb, Grace’s mother-in-law. The idea of the festival as a charity event cam to Grace after a death in the family.

“My brother passed away from AIDS this last fall,” said Grace, “ and I wanted to do something to honor him. He was a comic book collector, and I have 30 30-gallon tubs of comic books that belonged to him. I was going to a comic book store on Sunset to buy some of those plastic comic bags and saw Project Angel Food right across the street”.

Grace said that donating some of the proceeds to charity was not only a way for improvisers to give back to the community, but “it also turns the page for a lot of celebrities – their talents are going to benefit something other than just the festival.” Even before the first tickets are sold for this year’s event, Grace is looking to the future.

My hope is to see it become a multistage, weeklong festival by next year with workshops that go on all week long and with different venues, maybe at the Groundlings or Second City theaters.”



Amy Poehler is living proof that making stuff up on the spot can lead to a rewarding career in the entertainment field. The Saturday Night Live star trained in the art of improvisation with famed teachers Charna Halpern and the late Del Close at ImprovOlympic in Chicago, and now, out of the goodness of her big little heart, is giving back by taking part in this weekend’s First Annual Los Angeles Improv Comedy Festival.

“The reason I got noticed is because of what I learned from Charna and Del, “ she says. The thrill of improv remains in her veins like a plate spinner who needs to twirl china. “You have one good scene, and you’re hooked. I like being able to write, direct and edit all at the same time. It appeals to the super control freak in me,” she explains, charmingly a tad full of herself. Poehler will join an “old-school improv bash” between her fellow SNL-ers Horatio Sanz, Jerry Minor, Beth Cahill and David Koechner against Mad TVs Ike Barinholtz, Andy Daly, Josh Meyers, Rich Talarico and Mo Collins on Saturday. She’ll also give a workshop for budding talent, or those with $20. “I’m just going to regurgitate the same shit that was taught to me,” she lies. “Then I’m going to discourage them. Go away! There’s no more room!”

The caliber of talent throughout the weekend is almost Chicagoan (that’s where Chris Farley and Mike Meyers started), with the cream of IOWest’s regular troupes – the Lampshades, Red Shirt Freshmen, Beer Shark Mice – along with special performances by the Upright Citizens Brigade (Poehler’s original gang), Second City Alumni, Andy Dick and the Beef Curtain Cowboys. And to wrap up, On Sunday the Del; Close Honor for the Advancement of Improvisation will be awarded to Curb Your Enthusiasm, followed by Jeff Garlin’s Combo Platter with Cheryl Hines and other members of the cast (just don’t expect Larry David). If you scrunch your ears, you might overhear some good gossip. One insider reported that when SNL-ers get together off-campus, “All they do is bitch about Lorne,”

-Libby Molyneaux