Comedy, collaboration and chaos in store at Improv Festival

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This article was published 20/10/2023 (1067 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Improv Festival is back for another year of off-the-cuff, off-the-wall humour.

“This is our 22nd instalment,” says Stephen Sim, who started the festival in 2000 and brought it back from an unplanned hiatus last year. “For some reason, there were a few years we didn’t do it.”

Sim, who runs community classes through the Improv Company, founded the festival after attending a similar event in Seattle, which brought together improvisers from around the world. Noticing a hunger from Winnipeg’s improv community, he put together the first fest at the Gas Station Arts Centre, which in the years since has filled a steadily growing niche.

This year the festival, which runs through Sunday at the Gas Station, boasts a few heavy hitters as headliners, including Kevin McDonald of Kids in the Hall fame, an adopted Winnipegger and alt-comedy icon. In from out of town will be Tim Blair of the Toronto troupe and CBC show Tallboyz; Ken Hall, a respected improviser who appears in the Netflix hit The Umbrella Academy; and Susan Evans from Edmonton’s Rapid Fire Theatre.

Also on the schedule are the Toronto troupe White Rhino (Hall, Kris Siddiqi, Wayne Jones, and Kirsten Rasmussen) and Winnipeg’s Club Soda, a sprawling, creative crew featuring Kevin Ramberran, Kerri Woloszyn, Monique Gauthier, Jesse Bergen, Luke Cecelon and Kristen Einarson.

But the Winnipeg Improv Festival is all about ensemble work, Sim says, which explains why he’s so excited about the potential for collaboration between the entire ensemble.

“We bring everybody in and workshop during the day to create new shows at night, sometimes with people who’ve never performed together. It’s like we make an improv troupe of our own for the week,” he says.

On Thursday night, White Rhino and the festival ensemble take the stage at 8 p.m.

Friday night is Club Soda’s spooky X-Files-inspired show, directed by Caity Curtis, featuring Evans, musical accompaniment by Cuinn Joseph, and projections from Jane Hilder (8 p.m.)

Saturday is the festival’s busiest day, beginning with an already sold-out workshop, led by McDonald, about squeezing comedy writing from improv performing.

Sim wasn’t surprised by the enthusiastic response for learning with McDonald. During the day, participants will use improv as a tool to develop new sketches, and on Saturday night at 8 p.m., they’ll perform them alongside McDonald and the festival ensemble.

At 10 p.m., the festival will close with a “late-night improv jam,” a free-for-all hosted by Sim that he says will bring out “a little bit of chaos.” Tickets for each event are $15.

On Sunday, there will be an improv workshop ($30 registration fee) for the public, which still has open spots.

Tickets are available at the door or online at winnipegimprov.com.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com