Austin Short-Form Improvisers Battle Along Gender Lines, Storm Philadelphia
For many comedy fans, improv is synonymous with the television show Whose Line is it Anyway? Not everyone is aware that Whose Line is it Anyway? represents only one style of modern improv -- short-form. Short-form improv consists of several actors performing a variety of different games and scenes, which are normally explained by a host or director who engages with the audience for a variety of different suggestions for the games and scenes. Short-form shows often have some element of competition, whether it's between individual players or teams of players.
Austin’s improv community has been expanding over the past several years to the point where there are now at least five venues offering regular improv programming every week. This provides not just quantity, but quality and variety. This weekend is another big moment for Austin improv, particularly short-form improv, for two different reasons: This weekend The Hideout Theatre presents The Battle of The Sexes at The Long Center and CompedySportz Austin travels to Philadelphia for the ComedySportz World Championship.
The Battle of The Sexes, happening on Saturday July 17 at The Long Center, is a short-form show known as TheatreSports, where, as the name suggests, the teams will be divided by gender. The show features various Austin improvisers as well as two special guests from the improv theater Dad’s Garage in Atlanta, Kevin Gillese and Amber Nash, as team captains.
ComedySportz is a competition style show where two teams compete, with the audience judging and a referee officiating. ComedySportz Austin is headed up by long-time Austin improviser Les McGehee and there are shows at Cafe Caffeine regularly on Friday and Saturday nights. ComedySportz Austin vies for the “Meaningless Cup” at this year's event in Philly, which starts today and runs through the 17th.
Within the greater improv community, there is tension between lovers and purveyors of short-form and those who endorse long-form. Long-form is more akin to an improvised sketch show or an improvised play, where audience interaction is limited to the very top of the show, if it takes place at all. This quibbling, however, means little to casual improv audiences. In a recent interview on The Hideout Theatre’s blog promoting the upcoming Battle of The Sexes show, visiting improviser Kevin Gillese dismissed the debate by explaining that “it’s like saying films suck but photography is amazing, or vice versa.” He goes on to say that short-form and long-form are “the same thing, just done differently,” and “if a visual artist told me that he thought oil paintings were the best thing ever and that graffiti stencils were bullshit… I’d think he was a pretentious asshole. Same policy applies to improv.”
