July 1, 2008
Factory
Vetran improv actors Mitch Rouse, David Pasquesi, Jay Leggett, and Michael Coleman star in the largely improvised new Spike TV show Factory. The complete first episode is available for viewing online.
(via Coudal)
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:35 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2007
Thank God You're Here review
Margaret Hicks reviews Thank God You're Here for Chicagoist and compares it with some other attempts to bring improv to TV.
Parts of it were painful to watch and parts of it – well – parts of it weren’t so bad. We thought Chelsea Handler was okay, taking the easy way out sometimes with her poop jokes. Shannon Elizabeth predictably went straight for the sex, but Tom Green’s clumsy plumber and George Takei’s “neck doctor” were actually pretty funny. There’s no denying that the show would be a thousand times more enjoyable if the core cast (including Nyima Funk and Maribeth Monroe from Second City) improvised with the guests instead of trying to hit certain beats and spit out fabricated lines.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:21 PM | Comments (0)
April 6, 2007
Thank God You're Here
The Australian improvised hit Thank God You're Here is coming to American TV, with American performers, starting Monday, April 9, 2007. The show features improvised scenes that always begin with an unprepared performer coming though a door to be greeted with the titular phrase. The American series will include celebrities like Wayne Knight, Jennifer Coolidge, Bryan Cranston, and Joel McHale.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:15 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2006
Whose Line Is It, Anyway? comes to DVD
The first season of the US Whose Line Is It Anyway? (from what, 1998?) is being released on DVD on September 25, 2006. Or at least the first 'Volume' -- it's two discs and seems to be 10 of the 20 episodes of of the first season. The DVD is available in an Uncensored or (forthrightly) Censored version.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:58 AM | Comments (0)
February 9, 2006
Campus Ladies as podcasts on iTunes
The improvised Oxygen show Campus Ladies is now available as free 10-minute video podcasts on the iTunes Music Store. (A common misconception is that you need a video iPod to watch video podcasts -- you can watch them inside iTunes on your computer.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:03 PM | Comments (0)
January 5, 2006
Campus Ladies
On Sunday, January 8, the Oxygen Network is premiering a new "improvised sitcom" -- Campus Ladies. The show stars Carrie Aizley and Christen Sussin playing characters they developed while at The Groundlings. The show followed two middle-aged ladies who decide to go back to college (the fictious University of the Mid-West). The shows are improvised by the actors. Cheryl Hines (also a producer of Curb Your
Enthusiasm), Executive Producer, says “Through improvisation, the actors make the characters deeper and more loveable. You can hear the voice of the actor, rather than the voice of the writers.”
The show is scheduled to run for 10 episodes and will feature guest stars like Fred Willard (Best in Show and Everybody Loves Raymond), Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live), Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee’s Playhouse), Anthony Anderson (Barbershop), Will Forte (Saturday Night Live), Dan Castellenetta (The Simpsons), Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle) and Justin Long (Dodgeball and Ed).
Oxygen is running a promotion where they're giving away a free bottle of Hot Nude Lady shower gel (it's a joke from the first episode) to anyone who wants one (while supplies last).
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:47 PM | Comments (2)
November 11, 2005
MADE improv
This week's episode of MTV's MADE featured Alyssa, whose dream was to pursue work as a comedian. To this end, she was coached by Jill Bernard of ComedySportz Twin Cities and auditioned and (SPOILER!) performed with ComedySportz Chicago. The episodes will be reshown a number of times this week (check your local listings, as they say).
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:22 PM | Comments (32)
August 15, 2005
Wild and Out
MTV is airing Nick Cannon Presents Wild 'N Out -- a show that features freestyle rap battles and short-form improv games.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:22 PM | Comments (6)
UCB on TV
The Upright Citizens Brigade will have a one-hour ASSSSCAT Improv Special on Bravo on September 7, 2005 at 11 pm (10 Central). The fully improvised one-hour special features the founding members of UCB -- Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh -- and special guest performers including SNL's Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Horatio Sanz, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien's Kevin Dorff and Andy Richter.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:15 PM | Comments (0)
October 21, 2004
World Cup Comedy
Dan sent me this some time ago, but... I suck. So here's information about the already-on-the-air World Cup Comedy:
I am writing to tell you all about PAX-TV starting October 6th at 9pm Wednesday nights repeated again Mondays at 10pm. 13 episodes or more if you guys watch and tell your friends and post like mad fiends throughout the net or not if you don't dig it.
There will be 69 Los Angeles improvisers performing on the show during the first run and hopefully a lot more if we get a pick up. There are performers from Theatresports, ComedySportz, IO West, the Groundlings, Second City and a number of other LA groups and some great guest stars. The show is about marrying improv to TV/film/theatre styles and having fun. It's an hour long competitive format with 12 scenes a show... no games. Not that there is anything wrong with that but we are trying something new. Also it will be as "live to tape" as we can get it. So mistakes as well as moments of sublime goodness will be in the mix. It's great to have so many perfomers from so many groups under one roof. Oh and did I mention there will be women on the show?
Well that's all very well Dan but what do I care? Well, eventually this will be an opportunity for performers nationwide to get to do what they love to do but on TV for money. Starting in October there will be a number of WCC nights at comedy/improv clubs in about 14 markets around the country (don't know which yet) the goal is to get improv nights sponsored in clubs and then the tapes of those shows would be sent to Hollywood and they would pick folks from each market to fly out for an audition. If the show does well we will hopefully have more of these nights and more importantly be able to have casting calls outside of LA as well.
I hope all improvisers can get behind the show and support it.
Thanks for you time,
Dan O'Connor
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2004
Drew Carey's Green Screen
The Houston Chronicle reports on Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, debuting September 16: Carey's 'Green Screen' mixes improv with animation
A merry mixture of improvisation and animation, Carey's WB show will take a high-tech approach to the type of comedy served up on his long-running ABC sketch program Whose Line Is It Anyway?
The comic and his company of regulars, including Whose Line veterans Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood, perform improvisational bits in front of a green screen. The footage is sent to animators who fill in the green-screen background with cartoons, film clips, still photographs and anything else they wish to draw around Carey.
Drew Carey's Green Screen Show [WB page]
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:33 PM
July 20, 2004
Chicago Girls Behaving Badly winners
The Chicago Sun-Times profiles Rebekah Cornelissen and Annie Mackay, Chicago winners of a Girls Behaving Badly talent competition: Being bad, making good
They met at Illinois State University, where they were both part of a comedy troupe called the Improv Mafia. Some of the comedians are still working together, putting on a show every other weekend at a Batavia theater. The members are starting to find success -- one also performs with The Second City, and another has worked as an extra on a movie starring Bow Wow.
"But we're the only ones who've made it onto TV so far," Cornelissen proudly says.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:52 PM
July 13, 2004
Significant Others
Backstage West has another article focusing on improv actors on television, this one about Bravo's improvised sitcom Significant Others and the show's casting director, Francene Selkirk-Ackerman.
Look up almost any name from the cast and crew of Bravo's totally improvised sitcom, Significant Others, on IMDb (the industry equivalent to "Googling"), and you'll find some deceptively scant resumes. Although the half-hour show about couples in therapy marked a foray into television of its scale for many of the participants ... these "newcomers" typically come from years of experience on improv or standup stages, in the theatre, or, like Selkirk-Ackerman, in the commercial world.
"Significant" Skills [Backstage West]
Significant Others [Bravo]
Significant Others [IMDB]
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:28 AM
July 7, 2004
Joe Schmo 2
Many of the actors portraying reality show contestants on Joe Schmo 2 have backgrounds in improv:
Actor Steve Mallory, who portrays Ernie ("The Heir") on Joe Schmo 2, agrees. "They always talk in 'real acting' about being part of the scene. All of that is endemic to improv," says Mallory, who trained at The Groundlings and spent two years performing in its Sunday Company. "You really are feeling things. You learn to take those feelings and put them into acting. I think if you want to be an actor, you have to know how to improv, because it gives you a very real mirror of those skills." The training came in handy for Mallory on Schmo, particularly as he ended up sharing a room with Tim. "My running joke was that I was actually sleeping in character," says Mallory of being constantly in the role. "Normally I'm a stomach sleeper, but I figured Ernie was a side sleeper."
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:03 PM
June 30, 2004
Crossballs
Today I received both a press release for Crossballs, a new Comedy Central show that's "a new take on the traditional debate show format, where comedians pose as experts and debate real people who don't know the show is fake" and a report from a potential guest of the show who wised up, escaping "embarrassment and humiliation".
Update: a "guest" of the show reports: A debate in the wrong environment
Update 2: Wonkette on Crossballs
Update 3: Wonkette links to "the latest first person account of how faux shout show "Crossballs" got an honest pundit into a ridiculous exchange of meaningless ideas. Which has never happened before in the history of television. March, apparently unaware of the existence of "The O'Reilly Factor," appears to think he was duped into this..."
Comedy Central's Talking Boneheads [Wonkette]
"The Debate Show" Fiasco [Equal Rights for Carry Concealed Weapons]
Also, Variety reviews the show
And the Comedy Central official page for Crossballs has launched.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:47 PM
June 7, 2004
Drew Carrey's Green Screen
Drew Carrey's Green Screen is an improvised television show coming this season on The WB. Actors will improvise scenes in front of a green screen, which will allow the tech crew to add animations and video behind the performers. The Official WB page. Colin Mochrie's page about the show.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:02 PM
SCTV DVD set review
The SCTV: Network 90 Volume 1 DVD set has been released and Warren Clements reviews the set in the Globe and Mail.
Another review from USA Today: Ensemble comedy's second coming
Review from the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Classic 'SCTV' comedy series from Canada reaches DVD
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:39 PM
February 26, 2003
"On the Spot" - half-improvised sitcom
The WB Network has announced a partially-improvised sitcom, On the Spot, that will premiere in late March.
The WB press release states:
The partially scripted/partially improvised half-hour comedy series ON THE SPOT, starring legendary comedian Tim Conway, debuts on The WB Television Network on Thursday, March 20, 9:30-10:00 p.m. ET. The series is created and executive produced by Emmy-Award-winning writer Rob Cohen ("The Ben Stiller Show," "The Simpsons").
ON THE SPOT may look like a sitcom and sound like a sitcom, but it's really a high-wire comedy act without a net. Each fast-paced episode has a storyline, but instead of the usual scripted jokes, rehearsed performances and laugh tracks, ON THE SPOT is largely improvised. The clever ensemble cast is kept on its toes by audience suggestions that can turn each week's plot upside down in a heartbeat.
The series also stars comedians Jeff B. Davis, Arden Myrin, Jordan Black, Erinn Carter, Mindy Sterling, Michael Hitchcock, Dweezil Zappa, Lance Barber and Lindsey Stoddart.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:36 PM
February 8, 2001
Second to None on Video
The PBS documentary, Second to None, covering the creation of the Second City Mainstage show "Paradigm Lost" (the same process covered by Mick Napier's on-line journal) , is now available from Amazon.com and at the Second City Chicago gift shop.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:00 PM
September 25, 1999
Improv Heaven and Hell
Improv Heaven & Hell, Canadian cable's premiere improv show, will be taping a second season in Toronto in October. It is possible to get tickets to the tapings.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:02 PM
July 27, 1999
Drew Carey Show
The November season premiere of the Drew Carey Show will be at least partly improvised, with the performers doing 3 live performances (for each TV time zone). More info at ABC's website.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:00 PM