Preview and Interview: PROJECTproject at Out Of Bounds [Improv]

Can you talk a little bit about how you came to perform improv and how PROJECTproject was formed?

We've all been at this for a little while now. I started improvising almost 18 years ago (yikes!) with the Canadian Improv Games -- a national high school improv tournament. After I'd gone off to theater school, I stayed on as a volunteer with the CIG and eventually ran the Toronto tournament... which is where I met Alex when he was still a player. I met Sean quite a few years later when we were both performing with the Second City's Touring Company here in Toronto. Alex and Sarah met when they went to Humber Comedy School and all four of us wound up the same Harold team some time after that. PROJECTproject was formed about 3 1/2 years ago and initially had far more members (I think we peaked out at 12 in 2008). Our goal was to work with improvisers from different backgrounds who shared a similar unabashed nerdiness and enthusiasm for play within the form. We embraced a project-driven model, setting out to tackle an artistic theme or creative question, however ambitious or ridiculous, every time we designed a show or an improv format. The mindset has always been: "Okay... we know we're reasonably competent improvisers... now what do we want to try?"

It sounds like anything can happen at a PROJECTproject show--and not just because it's improv, but because of your format. What does a typical PROJECTproject show look like? How has your format changed over time?

What we do is always changing. We don't have one set format that we perform all the time (though we do have some favorites we come back to on a regular basis... and some that lend themselves to touring better than others). PROJECTproject ran a weekly show for two and a half years -- that was equal parts performance and house party -- and those nights usually kicked off with one or two short guest/collaborative sets, a featured solo set (one improviser all by their lonesome) and a “main event” type project to close the show.

Often we’ll take a theme or an image: ghosts, baseball, sweaters, a vault, board games, a post-apocalyptic world… and run with that. We also love collaborating with non-improvisers… musicians, film-makers, slam poets, illustrators, sketch comedians…

Some project highlights include:

The Album Project -- a live, improvised hybrid of acoustic covers and original scenes inspired by an entire album, chosen in advance -- we’ve done Michael Jackson’s Thriller (with a bluegrass duo) and Paul Simon’s Graceland (with indie folk-rock darlings, The Wilderness of Manitoba).

Project Sleep -- participating improvisers set their alarms to wake them in the middle of the night -- at their deepest point of sleep -- at which point, with no preparation or time to shake out of their slumber, they open an envelope they’ve been given with a suggestion in it and videotape themselves doing a short monologue. Improvisers do not watch their monologues -- they just go back to sleep. These monologues are played onstage for the first time as inspiration for improvised scenes.

PROJECTproject

Dice of Destiny -- a raucous, ridiculously fast-paced “competitive” format where six scenes live or die by the roll of a giant red die thrown at the stage from the audience.

Blind-date Semi-formals -- 20+ improvisers are invited to doll up and join us for a night of surprise pairings, wherein improvisers only meet their scene partners when they are called onstage (by randomly-assigned numbers) to perform together.

That Project Sleep format sounds hilarious. Was there any monologue in particular that you recall that came out of that format?

One of our guest improvisers for that project looked shockingly well-coiffed for just having woken up... he's just that kind of stylish dude. I wasn't nearly as telegenic in the middle of the night. I remember being distracted by the sound of a train whistle, rubbing my nose for a long time and rambling about loneliness. Night time reveals some ugly stuff. Unless you're the kind of guy who wakes up with perfect hair.

Without giving too much away, can you give us any sort of sneak peek into what kind of format you might do for your show at Out of Bounds?

Hmmmm... that's a tough one. We're still back and forth between a few choices. It will be low-tech, though... that sort of stuff travels best for us.

What's the improv and comedy scene like in Toronto and how does PROJECTproject fit in? Where do you guys typically perform -- do you have your own space?

Toronto’s the biggest city in Canada -- our largest entertainment industry hub -- and a lot of people find their way here from other points across the country… looking for work and stage time. The improv scene is really starting to boom here (tons of improvisers, lots of companies, a variety of shows on any given night), though we still have a ways to go in terms of growing an audience that isn’t also so performer-heavy. In terms of comedy venues (not aimed at stand-up), there’s only one performance space in the city dedicated exclusively to improv: the Bad Dog Theatre (though another is opening in the fall), then there’s Comedy Bar (where the stage is shared with sketch & standup) and the Second City. A lot of the improv here happens in bars and cabaret spaces.

We don’t have our own space, though we have had several residencies over the past few years… at Comedy Bar, a venue called Bread & Circus and most of all at a not-entirely-legal lo-fi loft space called Unit 102, where we were members of an artists’ collective for a long time.

Do you guys travel much with PROJECTproject? Is this your first time to Austin?

We’ve traveled a fair bit within Canada over the past two years, performing (literally from coast to coast!) at the Vancouver, Montreal and Victoria International Improv Festivals, the Guelph Comedy Festival and at the Canadian Comedy Awards & Festival in Saint John, New Brunswick.

This will be our first time ever visiting Texas! Although all four of us have performed in the US a number of times before, I guess technically this is PROJECTproject’s American premiere.

Any reason or reasons that you chose Out of Bounds as your first PROJECTproject appearance in the US?

Parallelogramophonograph. We met them in Montreal last October and fell pretty hard. We share a similar enthusiasm for coming at improvisation from interesting angles. They came out to our festival (the PROJECTproject COMBUSTIONfestival) back in May and that just sealed the deal. Those guys aren't just great ambassadors for Austin, but also for the art form. Basically: BFFs!! We can't wait to share a stage with them in their hometown.

What are you looking forward to doing and seeing in Austin?

If the OoB schedule weren’t already so jam-packed with incredible programming we want to take in, I’m sure we’d be into checking out Austin’s famed music scene… but we’ll have to make do with living up to the city’s other motto: “Keep Austin Weird.” Seriously? I’m most excited about the potential for BBQ. Any recommendations?