Reporting from room 407 at the Chateau Granville, downtown Vancouver Canada, I’m Billy Tierney. After last night’s six matches, the jockeying is over and the teams are set for the semi-finals tonight at the Improv Centre. Vancouver, Orlando and Atlanta secured the top three seeds and Bellingham and Calgary tied for 4th. I haven’t received official word but the Calgary folks apparently aren’t sticking around for Monday’s final, and Bellingham beat them in the second match of the night yesterday so the 4th seed is looking to go to Bellingham. There was some great improv yesterday on the Improv Centre stage, including a Gibberish/Speak scene from Orlando, a Crosstalk scene from Bellingham and a couple of gems from Atlanta. At this point in time, instead of recapping who beat who and the wins/losses, because really who cares (?), I’ll get into the semi-finals teams themselves.
Orlando’s three are Lyle, Chase and Mike and they bring a controlled energy to the stage and seem to have a lot of fun playing together. The Gibberish/Speak scene they did last night was fantastic because Chase and Mike played the game so well. When the bell was dung to switch them from Gibberish to English and vice versa they flowed from one to the other seamlessly and found a number of very satisfying moments. Their theatre, SAK Comedy Lab, plays with a fair amount of musical improv and that has come across in their time here in Vancouver – and Chase is a music Major! We’ll see how they do tonight during Karaoke, am I right?
Vancouver is definitely rolling through this tournament, and I’m not here to point any fingers but I will say they are playing well and being judged by Vancouverites who love their city (read: biased). They’ve also had core team attendance issues so the actual players on the team have changed night-to-night. I must say, I do enjoy watching Vancouver improv – they know how to bring the funny.
Atlanta, oh, dear sweet, aggressive Atlanta. Whether it’s an arms interview, a one-voice interview, or a flock dance Atlanta brings the commitment and intensity full throttle every time. The play they exude on stage is a dance of trust, risk and “let’s see what you do with this offer!”. George is a tall, skinny, gaunt faced, standoffish man who, despite not caring what you think, makes every moment entertaining. Upon arrival to Canada was detained by several border agents and when asked, “What are you going to be doing in Vancouver?” he responded, “Whatever I want.” Ed is a hockey fan who loves life in Vancouver and seems to be the pillar of solidity for Atlanta – the foundation for narrative arc and non-fuckery. Z brings a unique energy to the stage is balls-out game for anything done on stage. I’ve seen him make out with and get humped by George (I kissed him myself in the Bellingham vs Atlanta match) and his and George’s connection and trust displayed in both their arms expert scene and one-voice interview scene impress me still right now. By the way, when we played them in that match two nights ago, they played a No Laughs scene with us in which, when a player broke the dramatic tension of the scene by causing the audience to laugh they would be ‘tapped’ out of the scene by getting slapped across the face by the incoming player – it was tons of fun!
We’ll see what happens tonight but my prediction going into it is that we’ll have no effing clue who will be moving on to the Monday night Valentine’s Day finals – as all the scenes are judged by audience members there is a certain element of didn’t see that coming that exists. Until then, good readers, live well.
Orlando’s three are Lyle, Chase and Mike and they bring a controlled energy to the stage and seem to have a lot of fun playing together. The Gibberish/Speak scene they did last night was fantastic because Chase and Mike played the game so well. When the bell was dung to switch them from Gibberish to English and vice versa they flowed from one to the other seamlessly and found a number of very satisfying moments. Their theatre, SAK Comedy Lab, plays with a fair amount of musical improv and that has come across in their time here in Vancouver – and Chase is a music Major! We’ll see how they do tonight during Karaoke, am I right?
Vancouver is definitely rolling through this tournament, and I’m not here to point any fingers but I will say they are playing well and being judged by Vancouverites who love their city (read: biased). They’ve also had core team attendance issues so the actual players on the team have changed night-to-night. I must say, I do enjoy watching Vancouver improv – they know how to bring the funny.
Atlanta, oh, dear sweet, aggressive Atlanta. Whether it’s an arms interview, a one-voice interview, or a flock dance Atlanta brings the commitment and intensity full throttle every time. The play they exude on stage is a dance of trust, risk and “let’s see what you do with this offer!”. George is a tall, skinny, gaunt faced, standoffish man who, despite not caring what you think, makes every moment entertaining. Upon arrival to Canada was detained by several border agents and when asked, “What are you going to be doing in Vancouver?” he responded, “Whatever I want.” Ed is a hockey fan who loves life in Vancouver and seems to be the pillar of solidity for Atlanta – the foundation for narrative arc and non-fuckery. Z brings a unique energy to the stage is balls-out game for anything done on stage. I’ve seen him make out with and get humped by George (I kissed him myself in the Bellingham vs Atlanta match) and his and George’s connection and trust displayed in both their arms expert scene and one-voice interview scene impress me still right now. By the way, when we played them in that match two nights ago, they played a No Laughs scene with us in which, when a player broke the dramatic tension of the scene by causing the audience to laugh they would be ‘tapped’ out of the scene by getting slapped across the face by the incoming player – it was tons of fun!
We’ll see what happens tonight but my prediction going into it is that we’ll have no effing clue who will be moving on to the Monday night Valentine’s Day finals – as all the scenes are judged by audience members there is a certain element of didn’t see that coming that exists. Until then, good readers, live well.
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