Tag: 2020 Countdown Improv Festival

  • How to run a successful online improv festival

    How to run a successful online improv festival

    With the fourth annual first-ever online Countdown Improv Festival (August 12-16, 2020) still fresh in our minds, we wanted to write up a brief postmortem in order to be transparent about our process, to share what worked and what didn’t, and to provide an overview that might prove helpful (or at the very least interesting) to those who might be looking to produce or attend a similar event themselves.

    We were initially skeptical about whether it would be worth our time to bother trying to produce this year’s festival online. We worried that the magic of the in-person event wouldn’t translate onto the computer; that an online festival just wouldn’t be the same. Well, it wasn’t the same—but that doesn’t mean that it was worse. In some ways, this year’s festival was better than the in-person version. With 50 separate shows spread out across 5 nights, the festival was certainly bigger than ever before. We reached more people than ever before this year; the acts were more consistently innovative and surprising than ever before; and we were able to implement certain production features that would have been impossible to implement in person.

    All in all, the 2020 Countdown Improv Festival taught us that it is possible to produce an online improv festival that retains the community look and feel that draws us all to produce and attend these events in-person. It takes a hell of a lot of thought, work, and planning in order to make it happen, but it is possible—and, we would submit, well worth doing. Here are some of the things we learned along the way.

    Understand what you need in order to make this happen

    It became pretty clear early in our planning process that trying to produce and run the festival from our from separate living rooms in cramped New York apartments—where we each live with other people— would be an absolute shitshow. Could we technically have run the festival like this? Sure! If the circumstances of the pandemic had forced it, we would have done it, and it would have been fine—but probably not much more than fine. Our decade-long collaboration has taught us that we always work better when we’re in the same place; our experience producing this festival since 2017 has taught us that it’s very important for the two of us to host the festival together. Thus, it was critical for us to find a way to be in the same physical location for the duration of the festival. That was what we needed in order to make the festival happen.

    This was absolutely pivotal to our partnership. The pandemic had rendered every single goal and plan we had previously made for 2020 quickly obsolete. The festival was our one shot at having the experience of doing the thing we love most, in each other’s presence, for any amount of time. This festival is always about our performers (see more below), but this time, it was as much about us, too.

    So we made a plan. We set our sights for looking for Airbnbs — within a reasonable driving distance from New York and with ample space and a strong internet connection — from which to host the festival in person. We worked hard to find a house that would feel comfortable to us, preferably one that didn’t have faux wooden signs affixed to every wall announcing that it was “wine o-clock somewhere” or some such shit. By some miracle, we found the perfect place, and set our sights on producing the festival from some woman’s den in an undisclosed location in central Connecticut.

    We both pre-quarantined for two weeks before meeting up in person in order to minimize the COVID transmission risk. By the time we arrived at the Airbnb, we were confident that we wouldn’t be making each other sick just by being in the same place. And by the time we started setting up for the festival, we knew that we had made the right call in insisting on doing this together in person. The fact that we were having fun together made it more likely that we could create a fun experience for our performers and viewers. If you’re going to produce an online festival, you need to know what you need in order to make it happen, and then find a way to get what you need.

    Maintain your mission and know what’s important to you

    The mission of the in-person Countdown Improv Festival is to provide the best performer experience of any improv festival, period. Our main goal as producers is to make performers feel appreciated, encouraged, and inspired, and to put them in position to do their best work. With this mindset, we believe that it’s possible for any one of the acts that we program to have the best show at the festival, whether they have 10 years or 10 hours of performance experience under their belt. (Note: As far as we know we have never actually programmed a troupe with a mere 10 hours of performance experience, but we would be down for it. Why not?)

    One important thing we realized when we pivoted our festival online was that this mission could stay constant; it didn’t need to change just because we were all now in Zoom boxes instead of face to face. Given the variability in experience with online improv, we had to embrace our own mission even more forcefully than we had in the past. We had to believe, and make others believe, that we had complete confidence in their ability to adapt their format to Zoom, even if they had never done it before. (And, to be clear, this wasn’t a put-on, we actually *did* have faith that every team we accepted into the festival could do this! We didn’t always know or understand *how* they would do it, but we knew that they could.)

    The main way we achieve this goal is by embracing the tenets of improv itself, and treating every act equally. Our festival is firmly anti-stratification. Our model isn’t built around headliners or master teachers. Do we seek out really good performers and teachers and try to bring them to the festival? Yes, of course we do—but we don’t hang our marketing strategy on them being there, or direct all of our energy and resources toward making them happy. Everyone is on an even playing field at Countdown, and we firmly believe that this is why the shows we program have a higher success rate across the board than many other improv festivals.

    So instead of focusing primarily on the higher-profile performers and teachers on this year’s roster, and promoting them heavily in hopes that their reputations might draw in curious viewers from improv communities around the world, we instead decided to double down on our principles and promote the festival as if all of the shows were equally worth watching; and to work with all of the performers in order to get them to believe that they could devise and execute a great show in this format. We believe that doing this helped our viewership numbers on Twitch and Facebook stay pretty consistent throughout the festival, and also helped to keep the quality level high throughout.

    Communication is key

    In order to carry this mission out, we set up Zoom calls with as many acts as we could schedule in the month leading up to the festival. This year’s festival was our biggest one yet, featuring 50 different teams across 5 nights. We missed a couple, but we definitely had about 45 30-minute calls over the course of the month preceding the festival. And, to be clear, the two of us were on every single call except maybe two that we each took on our own. As the faces of the festival, it was important for us to personally connect with everyone and, in some cases, meet them for the first time, before the festival began. Normally, this happens when we pick people up from the airport at our in-person festival, or greet them when they arrive at the theater. We knew we couldn’t wait until the online event itself to do this, as we just wouldn’t have time.

    These calls, as it turned out, were absolutely critical to our success. You can only do so much with email and over Facebook (though we used those, too) to get people on board with your concept and make them feel like this is worth doing. Getting face-to-face with every single act, addressing their questions and concerns, telling them what they could expect from the festival, and helping them think through how their show could be adapted to Zoom was an invaluable experience that set the tone for the festival itself. If you are planning on running an online improv festival, we would submit that you absolutely must do this.

    The thing is that people are looking for reasons to believe that an online festival won’t work, or that it won’t be as good as the “real thing.” And it’s not that they’re being negative or pessimistic, it’s more that online improv is just different from what we’re all used to, and, honestly, it’s not what any of us got into improv for. So, as producers, we had to work extra, extra hard to give skeptics reason to believe the festival might actually be fun and awesome. We had to work to maintain a level of enthusiasm ourselves that was high enough to give our performers permission to be enthusiastic themselves. We had to be as communicative as possible.

    Even more than usual, you’re going to need a team

    For those of you who aren’t already aware, the in-person Countdown Improv Festival is produced almost exclusively by the two of us, Kelly Buttermore and Justin Peters. Yes, we always have some volunteers during festival week, and, yes, we always rely a lot on our wonderful designer, Dan Deming-Henes. But otherwise the two of us do everything on our own, from building the website to soliciting and reviewing submissions to selling sponsorships to hosting every single show. Doing it this way is exhausting, but it’s also a quality control measure. If something goes wrong at one of our festivals, there’s no passing the buck. It’s on us, and no one else, to make sure that everything is perfect.

    We realized pretty quickly that it just wasn’t going to be possible to do things like that this year. The technical requirements of the festival were such that we just weren’t going to be able to meet them without outside help. So we brought on a technical director—our friend Anthony Francis—to run the stream, and it made all the difference in the world to have someone else to rely on. We also had “green room” managers each night tasked with ensuring the performers were prepared and knew where to go and how the night was going to work. If we had planned a bit better, we would have also added a dedicated social media manager to the team. We’ll do this for sure next time. Keeping things under tight control is a fine strategy under normal circumstances—but these aren’t normal circumstances, and you’re gonna need people around you whom you can trust if you want your festival to succeed.

    An online festival won’t cost you less money, it just won’t

    This is a short lesson! Don’t expect to spend less money producing an online festival. Ours cost about the same as the in-person event. Full disclosure: We spent just under $10,000 producing this year’s festival, and we made about $9,000 back. So we took a loss—our first loss ever as festival producers—but it was an acceptable loss for us, given that this was our first online venture and we didn’t know exactly what to expect. Now that we’ve got some experience under our belts, we fully expect to come out in the black the next time we do this sort of thing online.

    But you also don’t need to take a huge loss

    Our budget each year relies on a few income streams: submission fees, ticket sales, donations, corporate sponsorships, and individual sponsorships. (Workshop sales are basically money-in/money-out for us, since most of the money we make we just pay right back out to our teachers. We also make a negligible amount of money on merchandise sales each year.) As we started to plan this year’s festival, we realized that we wouldn’t be able to count on the first two income streams in that list. In March, as COVID-19 first started to ravage the country and people were losing their jobs, we had made the decision to make applications free and to refund all of the submission fees that we had received so far. While inarguably the right thing to do, this decision also deprived us of one of our key income lines in our budget. We also knew that we weren’t going to be able to sell tickets to this year’s festival—at least, not in the same way that we’ve done so before. In 2019, submission fees and ticket sales comprised about 45 percent of our festival revenue. For 2020, we had to come up with ways to overcome that projected loss.

    We began by pushing harder than usual on our remaining three income streams: donations, corporate sponsorships, and individual sponsorships. We actually found it easier than ever before to approach corporate sponsors this year. The online nature of the festival meant that we were no longer tethered to companies in the Tampa/St. Pete area, that we could approach companies anywhere in the world. So we broadened our pitch to focus on the expanded audience numbers we were expecting, the novelty of the “online improv festival” idea, and the prospect of reaching a worldwide audience—and we booked some sponsors that we would not have otherwise been able to work with.

    We packaged our individual sponsorships as “show sponsorships” this year, in which individual donors could pay to sponsor a specific show during the festival. (How this worked is that the hosts read out the sponsor’s name and message, live and on the air, immediately preceding the show being sponsored.) Tying sponsorships to specific shows was a really successful idea for us, as it gave performers’ friends and family members a tangible way to support them and wish them luck—sort of like placing a “break a leg” ad in a theatrical playbill.

    We had great success soliciting donations from our Twitch audience. The key was to have our donation and Venmo links right there on screen all the time, and to mention them frequently during breaks and interstitials. We also found ways to gamify the donation process. On the final night of the festival, for instance, we announced that if we reached a certain donation threshhold by the end of the night, the two of us would do the festival outro from the Airbnb’s walk-in shower. (Fully clothed, of course.) We gave frequent updates throughout the night as to how far away we were from our goal, and the more we talked about it, the more money people gave. We still have no idea why so many viewers wanted to see us get wet, but apparently they did.

    Finally, we found a way to claw back some of our lost ticket revenue by selling a small number of “VIP Tickets” over the course of the festival. For $10, these VIP ticketholders gained access to the performance Zoom, where they were able to serve as a “studio audience” of sorts for our performers, who could hear their laughter and applause during our shows. We didn’t sell a ton of these tickets, but it was still a good idea to do this, because it really helped the shows for the performers to have some audience feedback to play off of.

    In sum, we were facing a huge loss, so we got creative and found ways to lose less money than we otherwise would have. You can do this, too!

    Invest in community

    “How the hell did you spent $10,000 producing an online improv festival?” you might ask. Fair enough! A lot of that money went to technology: cameras, lighting, computer hardware and software, and other things we wouldn’t have needed in person. Some of it went toward our own travel. The biggest discretionary expense—i.e., the things we chose to spend on as opposed to the things we absolutely needed to spend on—was performer swag. Just like we’d do in an in-person festival, we printed up T-shirts, posters, name badges, and other merch, and mailed them out to each performer in advance of the festival. Doing so cost us several thousand dollars, but it turned out to be worth it for a few reasons.

    Primary among those reasons is that the merch made the festival feel like a festival, not just a bunch of random shows on Twitch. The shirts and name badges helped to cohere the community of performers. The swag gave people permission to actually believe that the festival was a “special event” worth setting time aside for. We encouraged performers to film “unboxing videos” of themselves opening their gift boxes, and the videos that people produced and posted to the performers’ Facebook group were really wonderful, and helped the community come together. The festival wouldn’t have been the same without the merch.

    If merch isn’t in your budget, there are still things you can do to invest in community. We also had weekly performer Zoom calls each Monday for six weeks preceding the festival, just to give performers the opportunity to get to know each other in advance of the festival, and to make it more likely that they’d take the time to watch one another’s shows. We also scheduled pre-show happy hours and post-show afterparties each night of the festival, to give performers the space in which to mix, mingle, and get excited. All of this work paid off: our performers were, by and large, happy, positive, and present for the duration of the festival. Invest in your community and your community will invest in you.

    Have an audience development plan

    It was hard enough to promote an improv festival before COVID, when we were all improvising for fixed geographical communities and competing for attention with other local events, as well as with Netflix and Amazon Prime. But these days, every online improv event is now also competing with every other online improv event, and every single improv Facebook group is flooded with posts from people around the world advertising their own shows and workshops—which means that it’s harder than ever to break through the noise. As such, it’s not enough to throw up a few Facebook posts and assume that improvisers from around world will tune into your festival. They won’t – or, at least, not without a strategy on your part.

    Six weeks before the festival started, we had developed a 45-point audience development plan, the goal of which was to ensure that, for any given show, the audience numbers would never drop below a floor of 25 viewers at any one time. (As depressing as it is to perform improv in person for an empty house, we figured that it’d be even worse to perform online for nobody, and we were determined to spare our performers this indignity.) We broke down our target audience into 10 constituent groups, and came up with different strategies for how to contact and market to each constituent group. Not all of these strategies worked, but the point is that we took the time to devise them. We didn’t take our audience for granted. We worked for every single eyeball we got.

    In the end, we averaged about 60-65 viewers per block of shows, spread out across Twitch, Facebook, and Zoom. We were really happy with this number, but now we also consider it a baseline. We’re going to keep refining our strategies so that we can keep growing our viewers for future productions.

    Experiment with programming

    We mean this in every sense of the word “experiment.” Use the latitude of the medium to try stuff that you wouldn’t otherwise try at an in-person festival, both in terms of content and structure. For example: While we absolutely do believe that every single group we admit into our festival has the chance to have the best show at that year’s festival, we also know that there are some groups that are less likely than others to have a terrible show. These groups are typically the more experienced and well-traveled groups. As festival programmers, you always count on a few groups like these each year to have a great show no matter what, and you typically schedule these groups near the end of the night, on a weekend, because that’s generally when you’ll get the biggest crowd.

    Reverse that logic for an online festival. We saw some of our highest viewership numbers this year in the early slots on Wednesday and Thursday, and some of our lowest viewership numbers in the late-night slots on Friday and Saturday. This is the opposite of how it works in person, but when you think about it, it makes sense: Early-evening weeknight shows are typically lightly attended in person because people are just getting off work and can’t necessarily make it to a theater. Well, these days, more people than ever are working from home, and “making it to a theater” is just a matter of navigating to the appropriate URL. But this also means that, when it gets late at night, it’s easier than ever to just leave the “theater” and go to bed, because you’re already home and your bed is right there! Anyway, point being, there’s no need to save all of your “can’t miss” groups for the purported late-night prestige slots. Experiment with programming some of them early.

    It’d also be smart to program some “experimental” shows. We had success with this at last year’s in-person festival, when we solved a problem of demand outstripping supply for available performance slots by creating an experimental second stage – named for and hosted by our friend L.E. Zarling – that ran on Saturday night, concurrent with the main stage. We tried to learn from the mistakes we had seen other festivals make with their own second stages. If we were going to run a second stage, it had to be a true experience, filled with exceptional teams who were willing and excited to take risks, the sort of thing that people would be talking about long after it wrapped and wish they had attended.

    The key is to view experimental work as having just as much of an audience as your more run-of-the-mill improv show would, and believing that your audiences are smart and slick enough to dig these sorts of shows. So, put faith in your online audiences, as well as your in-person ones, whenever we get to have those again. Encourage your teams to tweak their normal show formats and lean into the artifice and constraints of the online medium. Encourage them to create and perform shows that could only exist online. Under normal programming logic, you’d typically put these groups later in the night, in recognition of their experience and with the expectation that their show might have a greater probability of not landing. But why not put these groups first, in those early slots, and show your audiences what online improv has the potential to be?

    Finally, check the weather forecast

    It figures that the one year we don’t run our festival in Florida – a state in which, by the way, we do not live – is the year that we’re adversely affected by a hurricane. Hurricane Isaias blew through the state of Connecticut the day we were supposed to check into our Airbnb there. We had planned for a full week of pre-production in the house, to do test shows, and get everything set up. Well, best laid plans. The power stayed out at the Airbnb for five days, delaying our travel there by almost a week. The expense of Justin’s additional nights spent quarantining in a hotel took a bite out of our budget (and tested his tolerance for the Hyatt Place) and forced us to work separately in these critical pre-festival days when we’re normally pulling together to put the finishing touches on everything. It was stressful, and perhaps the last thing we needed at that moment.

    In the end, though, once we got situated, the parts of our brains that truly love producing that had sat dormant for five months began to awaken again in each other’s presence. Running this festival online was undoubtedly challenging. It was also inspiring, and invigorating, and rejuvenating for us. Exactly none of it is how we thought it would be at the beginning of this year. And yet, it was the festival we were meant to have – and our most successful one yet. We’re so grateful to have had the opportunity to do it… and we had so much fun that we’re going to be producing another online comedy festival this December. Stay tuned for that!

  • Spotlight On: Sharon & Karen

    Spotlight On: Sharon & Karen

    Sharon & Karen is an improv duo from Washington, D.C., featuring Stacey Axler and Heather Marie Vitale. The two will make their Countdown Improv Festival debut in the 6:35 PM show block on Sunday night of the 2020 festival. In this spotlight interview, Axler and Vitale discuss their performance style, the characters they most often play, and why D.C. is an incredible place to do improv.

    We’re really excited that you’re making your festival debut this year! Can you tell our readers a bit about your show format, and what they can expect to see on Sunday night? 

    Heather Marie Vitale: We are so excited to be part of this festival! Our format tends to vary by show as we will let the fun guide us, but you can always expect a Sharon & Karen show to be very silly, very honest, and I will probably get really weird.

    Stacey Axler: Our format is very fluid, but I hope what they see is a show which goes in some unexpected places!

    We’re fascinated by the ways in which improv duos evaluate their own shows. What, to you, constitutes a “good” Sharon & Karen show? What are you ideally looking to achieve on stage? 

    HMV: We love the feeling of walking off stage and knowing in our guts that everything clicked, that we gave it our all, that we listened hard and supported one another, and that we loved the hell out of each other for every single second.

    SA: I think we love our shows the most in which we feel like we really listened to and supported each other. When we let ourselves get and feel impacted by our words and actions. Nothing we say is wasted or thrown away. We achieve a realness in our dialogue and actions, no matter how wacky the topic may seem.

    You’ve got great chemistry on stage. How would you say that your individual styles of play complement each other? In what ways are the two of you very different improvisers?

    HMV: I think that Stacey and I get one another on and off stage; she’s my improv soulmate. We know how to balance our characters’ quirks and dynamics and really make the other person look amazing. I think that when we play on other teams, I tend to be the more grounded one and Stacey tends to have wild characters. On Sharon & Karen, I think that gets switched (at least for part of the show). I love that about us because it means that we’re constantly challenging each other to explore new characters and push our own artistic boundaries.

    SA: Working with Heather Marie is such a joy.  She is very patient on stage, I think that is integral to the improv we do because we don’t rush to find the funny thing, we wait and see what happens. I feel like I tend to take us “off the rails.” Heather Marie has never, not once, said “no” to anything I have said to her onstage, even with some ideas being rather nonsensical. I feel like when I see Heather Marie making larger improv moves in Sharon and Karen, I tend to dial back and focus on her contributions to each scene. When we talk on stage in character, the root of the conversation feels a lot like we are having a conversation, just us, on a normal day. I think we both try to root our characters into some normalcy. 

    You’re both great at character work. What sorts of characters do each of you often find yourselves playing, and why do you think you gravitate to those characters?

    HMV: My go to characters always seem to be kids or teenagers (somehow prom is involved?), bro-y dudes, women who have been jilted, and gremlins. When I do a Sharon & Karen show, I will have at least one insane character who starts at an 8 and will have burned down the entire scene by the end of it.   

    SA: I think I play a lot of characters close to myself and my own personality, but people who have a big decision to make. I feel gravitated to do that on stage because in real life I am very indecisive. It is nice to make a decision on stage.

    DC is a stealthily great improv town. How would you characterize the dominant Washington, DC improv style? How has the scene there grown and changed in the time that you’ve been performing there?

    HMV: DC is an incredible place to do improv because it’s all about the love of the art form and the performance. So many of us have serious day jobs, so comedy is an incredible outlet. The scene is overall really supportive and focused on being as inclusive as possible. I’ve been involved with improv in DC for about 5.5 years, and in that time it’s exploded. I don’t think DC really has a style, per se, because people come here from all around the world with their own ways of playing, but I’d say we’re generally focused on relationships and building out characters and game from there.

    SA: There are a lot of different improv styles in DC. DC is a very creative place and I think the community at large is ready and willing to try new things and new formats and to experiment. The scene has grown tremendously over the years with more teams and projects being formed every day. It is a joy to see and to be a part of such a vibrant community. I learn so much from peers and teammates. 

    Finally, who do you think will be inducted into the Countdown Improv Festival Hall of Fame this year?

    HMV: Dr. Anthony Fauci or Henry Winkler (two personal heroes).

    SA: I really don’t know, too indecisive!

  • Spotlight On: Crossed Wires

    Spotlight On: Crossed Wires

    Crossed Wires is an improv duo featuring Amanda Rogers and Steve Wyeth. Based out of Madison, Wisconsin, Crossed Wires will be performing in tbe 6 o’clock block on Saturday night of the 2020 Countdown Improv Festival. In this spotlight interview, Rogers and Wyeth talk about their show format, the genesis of their duo, and the top post-show hangout spots in Madison.

    We are so excited that Crossed Wires is back for the second year in a row! For the benefit of people who haven’t seen you perform, can you describe your show for us? What can audiences expect to see this year?

    Steve Wyeth: Fortunately, it looks like we’re able to use the Atlas stage to do the show, so you’ll be getting the full effect. We basically perform a short movie, with tons of action, montages, and even music! It’s a wild ride!

    Amanda Rogers: Expect a show that is like going to a movie theater to see a movie, but the movie theater is stuck in a tornado.

    The “ABC Title” show format has been an Atlas Improv Co. favorite for years. How have the two of you taken that format and made it your own? What distinguishes a Crossed Wires ABC Title show from other takes on the format? 

    SW: It tends to be a lot faster paced, for better or worse. Also, because we always intended to take it on the road, we provide our own sound track. The biggest difference however, is we bring a really — I don’t want to say goofy — but goofy energy to the format.

    AR: Our version of ABC Title takes out the beginning elimination round and streamlines it in a way that allows us to blend our stories a bit. 

    What are some of your favorite and least-favorite movie genres to perform, and why?

    SW: I like action and horror best, for this format. They allow us to do big, wild stuff. Crossed Wires is at its best when we can hit the gas. Least favorite? Rom Com. It just doesn’t move that fast, which I don’t mind in some cases, but I think it’s better suited to an ensemble. What I’d love to try sometime is a musical!

    AR: Favorite Genre: Light-hearted horror because… I like to play murder, for fun? Hate: Rom-Coms… Ugh, feelings…

    You both perform as part of a larger ensemble at Atlas Improv Co. in Madison, Wisconsin. What inspired the two of you to start working together as a duo? How do your performance styles complement each other?

    SW: My recollection of how we got started is that we were having drinks after a show. It was a pretty light crew hanging, myself and Amanda, and maybe two other people. The discussion was on teams, generally. Atlas artistic director Dan Row had put an idea out there of Atlas members forming smaller teams, in order to better travel to festivals. Amanda was pretty new to the company at that time, though I already viewed her as a very strong performer; she mentioned that she wanted to try a two person narrative format, but wasn’t sure who to ask; I said I’d do it. I don’t think she a hundred percent believed me, at the time. But, we got started, and it was clear to me at our first practice that this was going to be something special. We both have big time energy that we bring to the stage; Amanda is full of wild ideas, and I have this “go for it” mentality, and we just really complement each other.

    AR: I really wanted to do a two person team for narrative and Steve offered to be in it. That was super cool. I feel like our improv styles are alike in a way that allows us to be on the same page easily, but are also flexible enough to go jump on the first idea. That makes our show seem like a runaway train. Just constantly moving forward. 

    We love Atlas and we love Madison, and we can’t wait to come back there and hang out with you guys soon. In the meantime, please rank the following post-show Atlas hangout options from best to worst, and please explain your rankings:

    • Star Bar
    • The Brass Ring
    • The Tornado Room
    • Francisco’s (note: the internet tells us that they might have gone out of business)
    • Drinking Grain Belts that had previously been chilling in Steve’s car
    • Going home and taking a shower
    • Essen Haus
    • SW: 1: Essen Haus, it is the place of friendship and joy! Do they have the best drinks? No. The best food? No. Is the polka band sometimes infuriating? Yes. But it has an undefinable magic.
    • 2: Grain Belts from my car. Other than Grain Belt being the best beer in existence, it usually means a chill night hanging at the space.
    • 3: Tornado Room, and an excellent steak. This would be higher on my list, but the chances of getting a table are so low; maybe one out of three times can we get in.
    • 4: Star Bar. It’s close, and it has character.
    • 5: Francisco’s, RIP. A longer walk, but pretty good tacos. Sadly, it is no more.
    • 6: The Brass Ring. It kind of has everything you want: good drink selection, serves food. But, it is merely adequate quality, and lacks character.
    • 7: Going home. I’m usually too wound up to get to sleep anyway, so I’d rather stay out and be with friends who have had a truly meaningful impact on my life. I might also have a drinking problem.
    • AR: #1 Essen HAUS- the place of friendship and love
    • #2 Tornado Room- those steak sammies are amazing
    • #3 Brass Ring- would be higher on the list if they didn’t close so damn early.
    • #4 drinking Grain Belt (love chilling at the space)
    • #5 going home and taking a shower
    • #6 Franciscos is dead and I’m not even mad
    • #7 Star bar- too loud/ if the outside is open it’s up to a # 5

    Finally, who do you think will be inducted into the Countdown Improv Festival Hall of Fame this year?

    SW: Barack Obama. Remember him? I don’t remember any improv festivals getting forced online when he was president.

    AR: I think you guys should be in the Hall of Fame because I love you so much!

  • Spotlight On: Cuzzins

    Spotlight On: Cuzzins

    Cuzzins is an improv duo featuring David H. Hepburn and Alex Taylor. In their show, the two real-life cousins “therapize” audience members and help them solve their problems. Based out of Miami, Fla., Cuzzins will perform in the 9:05 PM show block on Friday, August 14 at the 2020 Countdown Improv Festival. In this spotlight interview, Hepburn and Taylor discuss their format, their work with the Black Improv Alliance, and their own chances for induction this year into the Countdown Improv Festival Hall of Fame.

    We’re so happy to have Cuzzins back for 2020! For the benefit of those who aren’t familiar with your work, please tell us a little bit about your show, and what audiences can expect to see at this year’s festival. 

    Alex Taylor: Cuzzins provides a therapeutic way to solving personal problems that everyone faces throughout the world. The caveat of our set is we are not going to tell you what to do, we will show you what we would do in your situation depicted through improv with a twist and at the end justify what you saw by applying it to your life  

    David H. Hepburn: Expect little to nothing except and including the collapse of all things known unfolding into an origami-esque fractal of the conspicuous subconscious streaming tickle tendrils tangentially fringing mellifluously upon the cortex keys of existential sublimity. Aka, expect to have fun. 

    In your show, you “therapize” audience members by offering humorous solutions to their personal problems. How did you hit upon this format? Have you ever had an audience member tell you something that made you go “Wow, I have no idea how to solve that one”? 

    AT: We kept workshopping ideas with Stephanie Rae (Black Improv Alliance) on what would be unique to our personalities. David and I have a unique view on the world and giving advice based on your viewpoint was and is exciting. Funny thing, is most of the problems that arise typically can be solved through murder and mayhem (just kidding). We’ve never had that issue of not knowing how to solve it because we are improvisers. The problem that has occurred is how to justify it based on the scene we did. 

    DH: The concept is the brainchild of the ingenious Stephanie Rae, founder and leader of the Black Improv Alliance. She has a facility for conceiving of innovations to improv forms. Coming up with fresh new spins is one of her signature gifts. Recognizing our palpable chemistry, she designed a form tailored to suit our sometimes-unorthodox brand of play. Part of what’s cool about our form is that it’s literally impossible to not have something for any and everything, and while we are certainly not professionals, not certified or accredited psychotherapists, we are gifted: we have been kissed by divinity. 

    The two of you are real-life cousins! How does that fact influence your on-stage dynamic? Did the two of you always know that you wanted to work together someday? 

    AT: Us being cousins in real-life helped us click faster. It made improv more enjoyable to me because I can be myself around him. It is/was a great place for us to reconnect because we did not know each other liked improv. Only when we found out that we were both into improv is where we decided we need to work together on this. That was 2-3 years ago. 

    DH: Being real life cousins gives me a freedom and a trust that was almost uniquely immediate and very specific to our performance DNA. There’s a dimension of fun, ease, and security linked to a prideful satisfaction of playing with family that would be hard to manufacture. I had no idea Alex was the least bit interested in performance at all in any way, shape, or form until he walked into an improv session and we were like, what up cuz!!! Haven’t seen you in years. 

    You’re both part of the Black Improv Alliance, which is doing great work both on and off the stage. In fact, your team photo on the website was taken during “Operation Black Joy,” in which you and the rest of the BIA delivered ice cream to families all over Miami. Can you tell us a little bit about how the BIA has grown and evolved since last year’s festival, and where you see it going in the months to come? 

    AT: The BIA has grown into an adult two-year old.  BIA started in 2018, just four of us. Since last year’s festival, we have participated in 3 improv festivals, we launched a website this year (blackimprovalliance.com). We have received more visibility through not just Miami, but the world. We are committed to increasing diversity in teaching and cast members in improv theaters across the world. The BIA is in the process of starting an improv academy dedicated to teaching improv to everyone and ensuring that improv is a safe space for anyone that wants to do it. I see BIA maintaining its footprint in Miami and the world for a unique look at improv from the unapologetically black perspective. Also, ensuring Miami is widely known as a great place to do improv for BIPOC improvisers. 

    DH: Yeah, I’ll cosign everything that my cousin said. To be clear this is Stephanie ‘s vision many years in the making coming to fruition, and it’s a privilege and an honor to be on board as her dreams are manifesting. What she’s been able to do with a small group in a short period of time is gob-smacking. The breadth and scope of her vision knows no bounds. BIA is the direct result of her ceaseless efforts, infinite imagination, and incomparable creativity, and her meteoric rise is merely in its nascent stages. It is humbling and all-inspiring to be along for the ride. 

    What are you most looking forward to about this year’s festival? What, if anything, are you not looking forward to? 

    AT: I am looking forward to seeing all the shows I missed last year, the box of goodies, and performing. I wish we were able to meet in person; the electricity of performing in front of that audience was amazing. My silver lining is, if the world was status quo, I probably would not have made it to Countdown this year. 

    DH: Honestly, I am looking forward to Justin & Kelly.  The way they greeted us last year left an indelible mark. They genuinely made me feel special. There was an earnestness to their expression of appreciation that elevated my contribution as a participating performer in my own eyes. Justin & Kelly are beguilingly humble and affably tangible titans. Unforgettable…and what more can anyone say about these hallelujah, inducing chinchilla soft T-Shirts! Glory to The God of Plush Luxuriousness. 

    I’m not looking forward to nervousness or the absence of physical presence. 

    Finally, who do you think will be inducted into the Countdown Improv Festival Hall of Fame this year?

    Us or Key and Peele. 

  • Spotlight On: The Project

    Spotlight On: The Project

    The Project is an improv duo featuring Chuy Zárate and Antonio Zárate. The father-son duo, based out of Austin, Texas, will perform in the 9:05 PM show block on Friday, August 14 at the 2020 Countdown Improv Festival. In this special video spotlight interview, the Zárates talk about the genesis of their duo, what’s great about the Austin improv scene, and their picks for the 2020 Countdown Improv Festival Hall of Fame.

    ***Click here to sign up for Chuy Zárate’s Countdown Improv Festival workshop, “Forget What You Know,” at 12:30 PM Eastern time on Saturday, August 15.***

  • Spotlight On: Sweaty Dee

    Spotlight On: Sweaty Dee

    Sweaty Dee is a solo, character-based improv show featuring Randy Wood. In it, Wood portrays the character Jeremiah “Sweaty” Dee, a “clumsy, disheveled” attorney who is “a self-described ‘expert on most things.’” Based out of Seattle, Washington, Wood will perform in the 10:00 PM block on Saturday, August 15 at the 2020 Countdown Improv Festival. In this spotlight interview, Wood talks about solo improv, TikTok, and who Sweaty Dee will be voting for this November.

    Your real name is Randy Wood, but improv audiences know you best as the character Sweaty Dee — and soon, our audience will, too! How did Sweaty Dee come to be and what should people know about him?

    Randy Wood: I used to produce a monthly variety show called “Spectacular” at the now-closed Pocket Theater in Seattle. I would host the shows as various characters, and in between other acts, I’d do a short sketch. One of the characters I played was a super villain named “Skull Laytor.” In one one sketch, he finds that his castle is being repossessed by the bank so he hires the service of the worst lawyer of all time–Sweaty Dee. Sweaty evolved from that show into the character he is now: a clumsy, disheveled, and self described “expert on most things.”

    What do you love most about solo improv? What would you tell someone looking to try it for the very first time?

    RW: I got my start in performing by doing stand up comedy, so I got very used to performing solo. One thing I really love about stand up, and solo improv, is that you have total control of what’s going on in the act. If a bit is going south, it’s up to you to cut it short or take a new direction. It also forces you to be very in-tune with the audience because they are your scene partner. As for someone trying it for the first time — it can be very scary, but the wonderful thing is your voice, and your voice alone, is going to shine the whole set. If it seems daunting, but you want to try it, start with a super short set, like 3-5 min. And there’s lots of opportunities to explore this online right now, like FB or Instagram live. Go for it!

    You’re doing a lot of videos on TikTok. For those unfamiliar with the medium — like, for example, your festival producers — what is it, how does it work, and what do you like about performing on it?

    RW: TikTok is like a cross between Instagram and Youtube with an emphasis on trends. For instance, if a dance or piece of audio is trending, everyone finds a way to interpret it in their own way. There is an algorithm that helps connect users to your content (and you to other users). Also, I get feedback instantly (kind of like an open mic where people are constantly yelling out what they like or don’t about the act) from users in the comment sections of videos — which has really helped me hone my act. 

    Who is Sweaty Dee voting for this November? He seems like a guy who would never vote for a major party candidate. 

    RW: Sweaty Dee has been his own write-in candidate for every Presidential election since 88. 

    Finally, who do you think will be entered into the Countdown Improv Festival Hall of Fame this year?

    RW: Joe Exotic.

  • Spotlight On: C.Y.A.

    Spotlight On: C.Y.A.

    C.Y.A. is an improv duo from St. Petersburg, Florida, featuring Tori Baird and Lauren Ross. Their show is a riff on the “choose your own adventure format,” and you can see it in the 7:00 PM block on Thursday, August 13 at the 2020 Countdown Improv Festival. In this spotlight interview, Baird and Ross discuss the genesis of their format, their performing dynamic, and their own most memorable adventures.

    C.Y.A. stands, primarily, for Choose Your Own Adventure, which is the format that you two improvise together. It’s super fun, and we can’t wait for everyone to see it. What can audiences expect from your show when they tune in on Thursday, August 13?

    This format is something we created on our own with inspiration being drawn, of course, from the Choose Your Own Adventure books that were wildly popular when we were kids. We like to describe our show as an emotional dramedy. Our audience can expect a heartfelt comedic journey where they not only get to be a part of the adventure, but get to actively participate through our entire show by helping us to make decisions that will determine where our journey will lead.

    Tell us about how the two of you met and started working together. What do you love most about improvising together?

    We met while trying to form a short form team for a Ladies Jam in Orlando with our wonderful friend Claire. From the beginning we had such a strong connection both on stage and off. We are both very physical actors and love to play with that concept in our shows, it will be interesting to see how this idea will play out in an online environment. Our favorite part about improvising together is that when we are truly connected, it doesn’t feel like work. Tori describes us as “our very own odd-couple,” meaning that our dynamic is very eccentric (Lauren) and grounded (Tori) in how we approach our characters and story lines and there is a very natural and beautiful balance between the two of us that allows a true emotional connection on stage.

    In life, we don’t always get to choose our own adventure. (Take right now, for instance.) What’s the biggest adventure each of you has been on?

    Tori Baird: My biggest adventure was going to Germany when I was younger. I really tried to immerse myself in the culture. My best friend and I both drove on the autobahn for the first time, which for those that don’t know is a popular stretch of road in Germany where there is (for the most part), absolutely no speed limit (yes, my life flashed before my eyes)! I also tried to learn as much of the language as I could soak in. We went to a restaurant one day and I needed to find the bathroom, I asked the waiter for directions, listened to his reply, followed the instructions and found my way to that bathroom and the whole conversation was in German! **Bows graciously for applause** In all seriousness though, it was my biggest adventure to date and full of moments I will never forget.

    Lauren Ross:My most memorable adventure was moving from Tucson, Ariz. to Florida. I rented a small U-Haul trailer and filled it with everything I could and drove myself across the country heading towards a new start in life. My dog kept me company, we jammed out to music and sang showtunes exceedingly loud, okay I did most of the singing. I got to see such beauty in so many different states along the way, New Mexico was a personal favorite. I accidentally gave myself a tour of New Orleans (pay attention to the highway signs by the Super Dome, take my advice). It was a really stressful and really fun trip but the best part was when I walked into my new home for the first time and realized I had done it — moved myself across country with no help and no one else — I was so empowered and felt like I could tackle the world in that moment.

    What excites you most about performing online this year?

    Neither of us has performed in a festival before and we are just so excited and honored to be a part of Countdown Improv Festival this year! We’ll be honest, neither of us has really explored online improv in a serious way before, so we’re excited to present our show in this unique format. Of course, it will have its challenges, but we’re thrilled to be able to tackle them together!

    Finally, who do you think will be entered into the Countdown Improv Festival Hall of Fame this year?

    Amy Schumer is definitely our pick for the Hall of Fame this year! 

  • Spotlight On: Impromptu

    Spotlight On: Impromptu

    Impromptu is an improv trio comprised of Teresa Bueno, Joe Rinaldi, and Kathy Rinaldi. Based in Sarasota, Florida, Impromptu performs fully improvised plays set during the 1940s and 1950s; they will perform in the 7:50 PM block on Friday, August 14 at this year’s Countdown Improv Festival. In this spotlight interview, the trio talks about their “Southern Gothic” style, nostalgia, and where to go in Sarasota when you’re sick of going to the Daiquiri Deck.

    Impromptu performs fully improvised plays set during the 1940s and 50s. What inspired you to create this format, and what can audiences expect to see when they tune in to watch you perform on Friday, August 14?

    When we saw Impro LA perform an unscripted play in the style of Tennessee Williams, we were hooked! We loved everything about it, especially the idea that improv could be dramatic rather than simply a game or a run to the funny. We found that we gravitated towards the 1940s-50s for a lot of reasons – including the fashion (which helps ground us), the tremendous variety of important world events, and the way that a lack of social media/technology allowed these events to enfold in a very different way. The demands of a world war rocked the norms of family life and redefined traditions that forced family members to confront and redefine their roles at home and in their communities. Ultimately, people are people and the issues that concerned those of the earlier decades are still prevalent today. Audiences will see a trio take a single word/location and transform that into a fully realized scene complete with drama and humor.

    We love that there’s a nostalgic element to your longform, and we can probably all agree that we need nostalgia more than ever at a time like this. What’s a time and/or place in your own lives that each of you is nostalgic for?

    Teresa Bueno: I would love to step into the time when my childhood imagination reigned supreme. From the age of 5 until around 10, I could lose myself in my boundless and untethered imagination at any time in any circumstance. I could be anyone, go anywhere and have anything. I wax nostalgic when I think about the power and freedom of my childhood imagination. 

    Kathy Rinaldi: If I’m being serious, I’m nostalgic for a time when I was geographically close to my brothers and sister. However, the truth is that I’m nostalgic for thick hair, a body that didn’t need to diet, and the ability to fall asleep pain-free. Did I mention I wasn’t 20?

    Joe Rinaldi: I’m nostalgic for a time when I was young and my family thought the sun shone out of my a**. But seriously… no, that’s right.

    Have you been inspired by any favorite plays or playwrights in particular?

    JR: William Saroyan, William Inge, Clifford Odets, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill.

    KR: While we often are inspired by the amazing mid-century playwrights, we find that our style is more generally “southern gothic” – lots of drama, clever dialogue, and very relationship-driven. That said, we are working on new styles for when the stages open again!

    TB: I would have to say Tennessee Williams. Being born and raised in the south, I can deeply identify and relate to his characters, their values and dialogue. I find his work shockingly raw and honest, which are attributes I strive for in my performances.

    Tell us how the three of you met and began working together.

    Two of us – Kathy and Teresa – first met in a 101 improv class at FST in September 2017. Joe started in the 201 class. We all three continued our FST improv education together through the entire improv curriculum—and beyond! It was seeing Impro LA that spurred us to work together, as dramatic improv isn’t prevalent in our area. It takes a lot of work because you have to research the style, genre, and the era, but we all love that! There’s a synergy that happens when we play together, and we think it has a lot to do with the fact that we are a group composed of an actor, a playwright, and a storyteller.

    What excites you most about performing in an online format at this year’s festival?

    A silver lining to the pandemic is having the opportunity to study with amazing teachers all over the country and to learn new things, including performing through Zoom. We’re especially excited to perform in the Countdown Festival because it will be our first time to use Zoom for a festival performance. The audience will see our characters up close and personal for the first time—something impossible in regular stage work. It’s also great that our friends and relatives living in other countries will finally be able to see our work!

    Finally, the three of you hail from Sarasota, where you trained at the terrific Florida Studio Theatre. Besides FST, the only other place we’ve been to in Sarasota is the Daiquiri Deck. What’s the first place (besides the Daiquiri Deck) that non-locals should visit in Sarasota once we can travel again?

    TB: John Ringling put Sarasota on the map. He literally shaped and defined the city and his influence is felt everywhere . A trip to Sarasota is not complete without visiting The Ringling Estate. We highly recommend visiting their home, CA’ D’ZAN (https://www.ringling.org/ca-dzan), and check out the miniature circus at the Circus Museum: https://www.ringling.org/circus-museum

    JR: Sarasota might be small in size but it has the cultural resources and vibe of cities with far larger populations (NY, Boston, Toronto, Chicago). We have four union theatres, an opera, a symphony, a ballet company, touring shows, an international film festival, and much more. It’s part of the reason we moved here from NY ourselves.

    KR: For me, it’s the food. And the beaches. But mostly the food. We moved here from NY and the variety of food is amazing! The only thing we’ve missed are really great meat-lover’s pizzas, and an authentic NY bagel.

  • Spotlight On: JewMama

    Spotlight On: JewMama

    JewMama is an improv duo comprised of Jeremy Lesifko-Bremer and Michelle Lesifko-Bremer. Based in Gainesvile, Florida, JewMama will be performing in the 7:50 PM show block on Friday night at the 2020 Countdown Improv Festival. In this spotlight interview from 2019, the Lesifko-Bremers discuss the genesis of their format, the pros and cons of improvising with your spouse, and where to get good vegan Polish food in Pittsburgh.

    Your format is so fun and kinetic! Can you describe your performance style for those who haven’t yet seen it, and tell us about the genesis of that format and how it has developed?

    Starting with a suggestion of a location, we build a world made up of three scenes. Each scene is populated by different characters, and our goal is for each set of characters to have a different, dramatic relationship. By the end of our set, we hope to “collide” the three scenes into a satisfying climax. The inspiration for this format came from our first duo coach, who challenged us to do a two-person Harold (for civilians, that’s an improv form that looks like an improvised play). We had so much fun doing it that we decided to adapt that form for our show. We’ve both acted and directed plays before, so we really like thinking about interesting stage pictures. That’s where the idea of using three different parts of the stage and physicalities to differentiate the scenes came from. Unexpected benefit: this form gives us plenty of opportunities to get physical and mess with each other, which are two of our favorite things to do.

    We love a good duo origin story. How did the two of you first start performing together as JewMama?

    We’d been taking classes together and performing on another team (shout out to our brothers and sisters in The Deep End!) and were asked to perform as a duo for a Valentines-themed show called CoupleProv at our old home theater, Steel City Improv Theater. We’d always joked that we’d call our duo JewMama, so we called our own bluff and JewMama was born.

    You’re married to each other! What are some pros and cons of having your duo partner also be your life partner?

    Pros: We know each other’s brains really well, so we have a kind of shorthand that makes it easier to predict where we’ll go once we start improvising. Also, since we promised to stick together til death do us part and all, it’s pretty easy to trust each other on stage. Finally, it’s funny to get super physical with each other and scandalize our audience, especially if we forget to tell them that we’re married. Cons: We know each other’s brains really well, which makes it really easy to mess with each other. Also, we’ve been known to yell at each other in the green room when one of us (ahem…Michelle…) isn’t happy with a choice the other made (…cough cough…Jeremy…).

    How do you both like to get ready for a show? Do you have any pre-show rituals?

    We have a power mantra that we yell at each other in the green room, which is a ritual that was gifted to us by one of our coaches. We can’t share the mantra, as that would sap its power, but it’s based on our mutual love for the TV show The West Wing. We also do some word association and energy building exercises. We like to get pumped.

    What makes small-group improv rewarding to you?

    You’re on stage the whole time, so you have to be super present and purposeful. Also, Michelle is bad at remembering stuff, so that adds an extra layer of drama. Sappy alert: We really love doing improv with our best friend.

    Finally, the two of you recently relocated to Gainesville from Pittsburgh. It’s our opinion that Pittsburgh is one of the best cities in the country for unique regional cuisine. What are your favorite Pittsburgh foodstuffs, and why are they great?

    Believe it or not, there’s a vegan Polish restaurant in Lawrenceville, our old neighborhood, called Apteka that is off. the. chain. Best pierogis in town are made with shredded mushrooms, not cheese or beef. Also: church lady fish fry game is on point. And we’ve been known to eat a pepperoni roll in our car while Christmas shopping. Don’t judge.