BBIF 2008 HISTORICAL RECORD

The All Star Show is a one shot performance featuring BBIF 2008 instructors. Under the leadership of Matt Stanton (founding member and former Artistic Director of Dad’s Garage) this massive talent pool will be providing some Grade A hilarity to a willing audience. Don’t miss out on your one chance to catch this amazing group perform.

Dirk Manly and Blaine Bustier — Movie Mega-Superstars of Stage, Screen, Television (and sometimes Radio), return to Atlanta reprising two of their most beloved roles – those of improvisers “Tim Orr” and “Stephen Kearin”. Together, “Tim” and “Stephen” will create scenes based on audience suggestions. San Francisco-based musician David Norfleet is on keyboard.

Babies mit Bearden is a troupe of four men who have been friends for ages and now use that friendship as a force of good in improv. The four learned short-form improv on their own before training with Atlanta’s JaCKPie to learn long-form improv. BmB has performed together for many years in both long and short forms in theatre and festivals throughout Atlanta and the rest of the world, including the 2008 Chicago Improv Festival.

Everyone remembers the childhood mantra: “The floor is lava!” where you climb around on the furniture and aren’t allowed to touch the ground. That’s Banana Breakup’s motto. Kit FitzSimons and Eitan Lees perform the highest energy two-man longform improv you will see this side of Saturday morning television as they perform every scene ABOVE the stage. Banana Breakup will amaze you, they’ll entertain you, they’ll make you fear for their safety. Banana Breakup: GO!

The Basement Theatre recently celebrated it’s 4th year on the Atlanta improv scene. Always innovative in its improv formats The Basement has created many unique fully improvised shows including Motel, Monkey Pants, Drive-In Prov, Axel’s Angels, and of course Much Ado About Improv. The Basement Players have traveled the country to perform at many festivals and love performing at Atlanta’s own Black Box Improv Festival. The Basement has weekly shows at their intimate theatre in North Buckhead Atlanta. www.TheBasementTheatre.com

Four teams enter, one team wins in an elimination-style improv comedy tournament. During each show two teams will fight for survival until the audience decides the winner. The two teams that make it through the First Round get to put it all on the line in the BBIT Finals! Come for the comedy. Come for the action. Come for the pure decision-making power! >>More Info

Sharp, Stylish, Comfortable and Cool. (We couldn’t get Talented or Funny out of shoes. Sorry!) Canvas All Stars is composed of teachers and coaches from the JaCKPie Theatre Workshop at Relapse Theatre in Midtown. Watch as this team take syou on a trip through one of their signature forms… Cocktail Harold or Town-ville. Sit back, relax and enjoy this group of creative and intelligent individuals at play!

The Charlotte Comedy Theater is a grass roots organization made of up of Charlotte’s most notorious improvisers. Founded and directed by an 13 year Chicago improv veteran, this group is skilled in all improv forms. They perform both long and short form improv as well as having developed their own versions of both. This group of incredibly committed performers has taken Extreme Improv from a back room improv group to a top level improvisational Comedy Theater. Their hard work, enthusiasm and love for the art form is present in every show they do.

CIneprov is Atlanta premier movie mockery show, performing every Friday night at Relapse Theatre in Midtown. We make fun of movies so you don’t have to. It’s a live improvised version of MS3K… without the puppets

Dad’s Garage is a casual theatre in Atlanta where you can get a drink, sit with your friends, and watch award-winning Comedy Improv and never-before-seen plays. Theatre in America is often thought of as elitist and Dad’s Garage is a perfect example of artists working to change that label. We do the kind of theatre we would want to see. Our improv shows are made up on the spot, our mainstage shows are all innovative and original, and our children’s show is the only one of its kind being done. When we’re on stage, there are few boundaries and hardly any rules. We believe in taking chances. The riskier, the better.

All three members of Diversionary Tactics are: 1) Let’s Try This! alumni 2) Computer Programmers 3) BBF of BBIF 4) Thinking about a milkshake – the same milkshake. Diverionary Tactics presents: Rock, Paper, Scissors – 3 improvisers, 3 options, no rules. Improv guided by the winner of the time-honored schoolyard decision-making game of chance. It could lead to a short form game. It could lead to a Harold. It could lead to an audience member giving dental lectures. Even we don’t know until it happens.

The Doug Dank Project is a new long-form style improv show, fusing the unpredictable and impulsive nature of improvisation with the steadiness and permanence of true life stories. The world renowned monologist Doug Dank once declared: “Feed your dog, and she’ll be your bitch for life. Kick your cat, and you may have discovered a game.” A guest monologist will be spilling their guts and providing the inspiration for a bevy of groundbreakingly funny (or possibly heart wrenching) scenes. The show continues where Doug Dank left off before he mysteriously disappeared in the early 1980’s… attempting to capture a similar sense of eccentricity, unconventional style, and irreverent behavior.

Drum Machine is a one-person unscripted structure featuring scenes, monologues and songs accompanied by the mad beats of the Zoom-Rhythmtrak 123 which Bernard calls, “Nature’s finest drum machine.” Typically the show opens with an improvised sing-along, and then explores a historical period suggested by the audience. From a punk persona launch pad, Bernard switches back and forth between characters with stunning virtuosity.

A ragtag group of professional actors, filmmakers, musicians, puppeteers and writers, Free Kittens! is a long-form improv troupe at the JaCKPie Theatre Workshop, trained under Jim Karwisch and coached by Jen Caldwell.

FuseBox Theatre is a non-profit, multimedia improv and sketch comedy company. We were founded in January 2008 by veterans of the Nashville improv scene with the intention of expanding the community for improv, sketch comedy, and live theatre in Nashville and beyond. We also maintain FuseBoxTheatre.com, a community resource for improv articles, interviews, videos, and more.

The hostesses of humor, the Gorgeous Ladies of Comedy have been serving up improv entertainment to metro-Atlanta audiences since 2000. With every show a party, the Gorgeous Ladies treat audiences to their own brand of short and long-form improv comedy with a heavy musical influence.

Formed in 2005, Improv Nashville’s Homunculus incorporates philosophies and styles of long-form improvisation from all over the country. Our cast has trained with, performed with and directed troupes in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and all over the Southeast. According to Wikipedia (which is on the internet so it must be right), the Latin word “Homunuculus” means in “little man,” and is commonly used to illustrate the functioning of a system. It’s also been used in literary works for centuries to describe magic and mystery, the voices in your mind and enlarged body parts. We believe all these definitions represent our troupe best. Really. Check our pants.

They are mercinarys who, with the help of the ever dependable DMV, discarded their previous identities. They are soldiers of misfortune. They do not belong to any one affiliation, but are instead a movement for the people, by the people. They are IN HARMS WAY ………let them save you too.

Laughing Matters is Atlanta’s longest running improvisational comedy troupe. We’ve performed for thousands of groups since 1985 and have been voted Atlanta’s best improv troupe by Atlanta Magazine! Let us get you involved in a great time! Laughing Matters is also the leading provider of interactive corporate entertainment on the East Coast! Troupe members and alumni regularly perform on stage and screen! Laughing Matters has also developed programs that have been used in product launches, national team building exercises, and award presentations. Whether you want to come see one of our public improv shows, book a private murder mystery, or help your organization communicate more effectively, Laughing Matters is your turn key solution!

Let’s Try This! is the offical theatre improv troupe of DramaTech. The troupe was formed in the summer of 1989, inspired by workshops taught by Robert Lowe, who has remained a constant source of help and inspiration to us. As our name suggests we will try many things, from games to short scenes to long-form to what-in-the-world-was-that? We have many directors with different styles amongst ourselves making our shows quite diverse, however we all share a common belief in being in the moment and making our partners perfect.

Mix tape is a one man show that is fully improvised in front of a live audience. Using principles of theatrical playwrighting combined with long-form improvisation, Jim performs a 30 to 45 minute production based on the information provided from music on a Mix Tape. Mix Tapes created by friends, audience members and local musical artists are presented to Jim at the start of his performance and the songs are used as source material for his scenework.

Mock Turtle Soup is the official improv troupe of Clemson University. Formed in the Fall of 2002, MTS has provided Clemson and the surrounding area with 6 years of quality Short-form and Long-form improvisation.

Moral Fixation does long form the way it should be done — long and formy. When they rehearse they usually suck, but that’s a good thing. When they get on stage, they pimp the *t out of each other. Moral Fixation is the brain child of Caleb Usry and Lee Lewis. Very early in the process Greg Tavares was asked to join the group when the previously mentioned two members found out that by having Greg in the group, they would have a free rehearsal space. Ever since then they have been performing long form improv that could only be called “world changing.” After the conclusion of Piccolo Spoleto 2007 Caleb left the group to search much browner pastures. Good Luck in the Windy City buddy. So, irreplaceable Moral Fixation now remains Greg and Lee saving the world from evil doers.

Mr. Friskett is a Syrian, golden hamster with bat-like wings, a bowler hat and a destiny to save the world. He has gathered around him a variety of talented artists and performers who he is training in new forms of improvisational comedy. Will they be instrumental in his plans to save us all, or does Mr. Friskett just enjoy improv? Nobody knows. Mr. Friskett is ineffable.

Offsides improv is a professional theatre troupe that has been performing in Central Flordia since 2004. During this time, Offsides has explored improv in its various forms, taking favorite elements from each and using them to influence their show style. Drawing from a palette consisting of character, environment, relationship, time, and story, Offsides strives to create a show that is both vivid and textured…and funny. Seriously.

Razowsky & Clifford is a two-person improv show that has become one of LA’s “must see” performances. David Razowsky and Carrie Clifford relish in the purist form of improv—starting with nothing. Well, almost nothing, an audience member decides where to place two chairs for the first scene and they’re off and running. The random placement of those two chairs dictates the entire performance, and becomes the spring board for a variety of characters and relationships.

Red Letters is a two man group comprised of Alyssa Mander and Bryan Buckley. The duo began improvising together in 2005 and have been playing together ever since. They will perform their original form The Punch which explores new characters and relationships all from a single suggestion. To get ready for a show, the two love to dance, rap battle and chug Dr. Pepper.

Atlanta Improv Guru and author of “Improvisation, Inc.: Harnessing Spontaneity to Engage People and Groups” leads a performance that will boggle your mind. No one knows what will happen or even who will be in the show. Not even Robert Lowe himself! But you can be certain that he will expose the spontaneous creative potential of the human mind right before your very eyes.

Scene In is a 95 minute movie about a short form group from Little Silver, NJ by the same name. Written and directed by Bryan Strang and starring Matt Kawczynski, Gina Merchan, Rich Monahan, Andy Stein and Bart Nickerson. This tough-in-cheek documentary style movie takes a look at an improv group in turmoil as they struggle to gain respect and credibility in the New Jersey improv scene.

Each Friday night Relapse Theater hosts the midnight SIDESHOW, a multimedia comedy improv show. Each week we feature a new Editor who creates a film of slides and moving images that the improvisers perform in front of – using it as a suggestion and as an environment. One moment we might be put in a commercial for Smokable Snack Crackers, the next we’re at an awkward Korean wedding. It’s all up to the twisted mind of our Editor.

Under the direction of Jill Bernard, students from her Solo Improv Workshop will perform their solo pieces for the first time. Jill’s own solo improv show, Drum Machine, has been featured at the Chicago Improv Festival, the Toronto Improv Jamboree, and the Philadelphia Improv Festival, among others. She has taught improv in over twenty states, two Canadian provinces, and on an episode of MTV “Made.”

Two Girls Three Eyes performs short-form improv every Friday night at Atlanta’s Relapse Comedy Theatre (RelapseComedy.com). This raw, down and dirty game-inspired improvisational comedy show is hosted by Relapse Artistic Director Bob Wood.

The players of The Village Theatre have performed improv together in Atlanta for up to a decade. Originally, they performed together at Whole World Theatre in Midtown and have since been performing at the 10 High in Virginia Highlands and The Earl in East Atlanta. They can now be seen regularly at their new theatre, The Village Theatre, on Decatur Street near Lenny’s Bar where they perform sketch, standup, scripted work and of course improv!

Whole World Theatre (WWT) is a non-profit theatre company that began in Atlanta, Georgia in late 1993, with a dedicated and talented core of actors, led by Founding Artistic Director David Webster, united to form the hottest improv company in town. In June of 1996, Whole World Theatre opened their current location at 1214 Spring Street in mid-town Atlanta. As their popularity grew, the cast of Whole World Theatre were given the opportunity to produce their live improv comedy show for television. “Last Hour Live” – Whole World’s premier TV show - helped to launch the southern based Turner South Network. The Company continues to perform improv shows and remains one of Atlanta’s most successful theater companies.