Ever have a nightmare about all your friends discovering your deepest, darkest secret? Usually, having your most personal thoughts broadcast to the public seems scary. But what if you could do it completely anonymously? And also get to watch some incredible improvised scenes inspired by your story? Austin Secrets takes the terror out of telling the truth. And they've learned that you guys love to gossip -- they sold out an extended run at The Hideout, and are presenting a special edition of the improvised show this Thursday at the Long Center. If you have a confession to make, send it anonymously and show up on Thursday to see Austin Secrets create scenes and stories based on submissions. We spoke with The Hideout's Roy Janik about the show, "The Truth Chair," and the catharsis of sharing your secrets with 200 random people. more ›

"We've been so successful here, now we have a chance to do it where we're from," Trew explains. "And that's a dream come true!" adds Nelson. As the New Movement expands, the Austin theater will continue to offer comedy classes and an expanding weekly calendar of shows; in fact, expect to see some exciting new touring troupes. In the wake of today's announcement, the pair are already busy planning a groundbreaking comedy festival, to take place in New Orleans in November of 2011, along with next year's installment of the Megaphone Marathons, a three weekend, three city improv comedy explosion that'll be back in Austin, Dallas and New Orleans next fall. more ›

Every November the Hideout Theatre, Austin's longest running improv theater, hosts WaffleFest, a local improv festival rounding up representatives from Austin's diverse improv scene and serving up as many waffles as you can eat. WaffleFest is in it's Eighth year. There will be long-form improv, short-form improv, improvised narratives, and improvised musicals. Don't know what this means? Been interested in seeing Austin improv but didn't know where to start? WaffleFest may help you sort some of this out and introduce you to a number of great acts that perform regularly around town. more ›

Election season's over, holiday vacations are fast approaching and our post-FFFFest burnout gives us a chance to catch up on the latest episode of The Walking Dead -- life's pretty great, huh? Making sure we don't get too comfortable in our mid-Fall laziness, our friends the Coldtowne Theater Main Stage players present Rapture the Flag, a satirical account of those Left Behind (...like, by the rapture. Get it?) The full-length comedy revue, directed by theater co-founder Michael Jastroch, combines sketch, improv, song and dance, and gives us a primer on what to do -- and who to avoid -- in this futuristic landscape. We sat down with My Backyard News, Rapture the Flag's official news team, to learn more about the situation. more ›

ColdTowne Theater's most recently formed house troupe just announced their name: Journey to the Big Water. They are the ninth official improv house troupe to be formed out of ColdTowne Theater's Conservatory. One of the more successful and hardest working troupes that preceded them is Midnight Society, the second troupe to emerge from ColdTowne. Midnight Society's hard work has been rewarded with a nomination for a B. Iden Payne Award in 2009, appearances in festivals all around the country, a weekly improv slot and a regular slot for sketch comedy at ColdTowne Theater. One of the yearly highlights for Midnight Society has become their annual Halloween sketch show, dubbed the Halloween Spooktacular. more ›

Julie Klausner's first book, I Don't Care About Your Band (What I Learned From Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Felons, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, And Other Guys I've Dated), is a fearless, hilariously truthful memoir that chronicles her regrettable romantic encounters and the lessons she learned from bad boyfriends, emotionally unavailable artistes and the pursuit of the seemingly perfect man. While she's a pro at crafting stories that are both relatable and laugh-out-loud funny, writing isn't her only passion. You may have seen one of her appearances on shows like Saturday Night Live, Conan O'Brien, Strangers With Candy, Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins and Delocated. Or maybe you're a comedy connoisseur who can't get enough of Julie's viral videos, like The Cat Whisperer. Perhaps you've seen her illustrations in McSweeney's Future Dictionary of America or The Stranger. Oh, and she's also a performer and former teacher at New York's landmark Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater. Talk about a Jackie-of-all-trades. more ›

Just Like the Rodeo, Gnap! Theater Project's "month-long series of one-night only experiments in performance and comedy" at Salvage Vanguard Theater, just wound down. Performances this year included a staged reading of , an interactive improv show based on the famous board game. more ›

Got a not-so-secret crush on “Dashing” Cody Rhodes but hate tuning into two hours of droning commentary and Nickelback-inspired theme music? There’s a solution: McMahon. The New Movement Theater, a group of comedians with a serious passion for the WWE empire, have introduced a show that combines the mesmerizing imagery of a high-octane wrestling match with the wit of a brilliant comedy routine. more ›

One of the touring acts from last year's Out of Bounds Comedy Festival returning to perform again this year is TuskegeeXperiment, an all African-American improv comedy troupe out of LA. TuskegeeXperiment is comprised of Stephen C. James, Marshall Givens, Jason Kelley, Tammie Smalls, Dwana White and Edana Walker. Austinist chatted with Marshall Givens about forming the group, their provocative name, and why Snap, Crackle, and Pop are the best breakfast cereal rappers. more ›

PROJECTproject is an improv, well, project out of Toronto Canada playing at this years Out of Bounds Comedy Festival. They're known for innovating unique and experimental formats for improvised shows. PROJECTproject consists of Julie Dumais, Sean Tabares, Sarah Hillier and Alex Tindal. Austinist got a chance to talk with Julie about PROJECTproject's origins, some of the formats they've created and what they aim to do with their time in Austin. more ›

The Out of Bounds Comedy Festival is bringing down the unique improv duo Grandma Hates Technology. While improv duos are fairly ubiquitous, Grandma Hates Technology, a father and his teenage daughter, is a much more unusual combination. Grandma Hates Technology will be performing two shows in this years festival. Austinist asked Mike Weiss about how he came to perform improv with his daughter and what their relationship brings to the performance table. more ›

The thrill of an open mic lies in a comic’s ability to capture or lose an audience in mere minutes. For a performer, this means either the elation that comes with leaving a crowd wanting more or the cold comfort of knowing your set is, if nothing else, at least mercifully short. Whether you’re a stand-up looking for some stage time or you’re in search of new, under-the-radar acts, we recommend stopping by one of Austin’s many anything-goes comedy nights. more ›

Over the past several years, ColdTowne Theater has been steadily expanding its weekly comedy offerings to the point now that there are improv, sketch and stand-up shows every night Thursday through Monday, with most nights having three or four different shows. ColdTowne Theater has been located snugly next to and below I Luv Video at 4803 Airport Boulevard. more ›

Walking in to the theater to find a seat, one is treated to a live musical presentation. Four of the cast members play small instruments, mostly percussion, and seem to be improvising a song. It’s whimsical, simple and playful. They exit and a video plays. The video is sort of a documentary about T. Henry Baudecliffe. The story goes that in 2009, a man passed away at St. Mark’s Community Home in Austin. The staff discover loads of drawings and scribblings—the beginnings of stories, parts of stories, fragments. Without any known relatives to bequeath these to, they begin to dessiminate to the greater community. The drawings are child-like, and share similar themes: fear of industry, insects, birds. The documentary shows us some of these drawings and features interviews with a variety of individuals who knew Baudecliffe, though none knew him more than cursorily, or have come to know his works. No definitive answer is given, as some think him an idiot savant and others dismiss him as talentless. After the documentary presentation, it is explained that we are to witness an improvised Baudecliffe tale, or at least as one might be imagined since he did not seem to ever complete a story. Some of the interview clips and samples of Baudecliffe's work are online at whoisthenrybaudecliffe.com. more ›

Austin’s improv community has been expanding over the past several years to the point where there’s now at least five venues offering regular improv programming every week. Austin’s improv scene 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. more ›

As 2010 begins its second half (already! Can you believe it?), there've been a number of spectacular performances, productions, and scripts to grace the Austin stage this year. And, as we start to look ahead to what the next six months have in store, we first want to take one last look back. Austinist polled its theater and comedy writers and asked each of them to offer two moments that stood out in the first half of 2010. more ›

For the second year in a row, the Out Of Bounds Improv Festival has doubled in size—from a little over a hundred performers in 2008 to 500 this year, including The Kids In The Hall's Kevin McDonald and NPR's Will Durst. And if you've been wondering where and when you were going to be able to see all of them, we've got the full schedule available now. Venues include improv mainstay theaters The Hideout, The Salvage Vanguard Theater, and Coldtowne Theater, as well as The Velveeta Room and ND at 501 Studios. The festival runs the week of August 31st, through September 6th. The full schedule is available on the festival's website. more ›

He blogs about professional wrestling. He's the host of Air Sex World Championship. He's got a rap career. He performs and teaches improv comedy. He just made a pilot for Comedy Central. Who is he? Chris Trew, of course. Can he combine all of these facets of his life into one show? Sure. It's called A Celebration of the Unremarkable, and it's playing at The New Movement Theater. more ›

A Celebration of the Unremarkable is Chris Trew's first-ever one man show. Trew will be discussing his appearance on Bad Girls Club, delivering live performances of his High School rap notebook, and showcasing portions of his McDonald's Corporate Comedy Act. A Celebration of the Unremarkable takes place June 4, 5, 11 and 12 at 8:00 pm at The New Movement Theater at 1819 Rosewood Ave. (the corner of Rosewood and Chicon). more ›

On any given weekend, Austin has a wealth of dramatic theater and comedy offerings for people seeking a live show. The comedy scene, however, appears to be dominated by improv and stand-up. It seems to require a little more effort to track down sketch comedy offerings outside of Esther's Follies. ColdTowne Theater has been working hard to change that by putting an emphasis on sketch productions. Their primary focus in this arena is the current mainstage show Shanty Town Lake, follow up to their first show Eye for an iPhone. Shanty Town Lake stars some of ColdTowne's finest talent tackling the funny. The show started it's run on Friday April 2 and is running every Friday until the end of June. more ›

Tonight the Ladies Are Funny Festival (LAFF), which is in its fourth year of production, takes over Salvage Vanguard Theater. LAFF, running through Saturday night, has expanded over the last few years to include more nights of shows featuring a bigger line up of female comedians and performers from all over the map, including Austin, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto. Over the next four nights sketch comedy, improv, stand-up and one-woman-shows will be tickling audience's funny bones. more ›

In August 2009 I had the good fortune to be cast in the show and later this month I get to travel to Chicago to perform at the Second City Skybox stage with some of the Dusk cast. As a relatively new contributor to Austinist, I wanted to share some insight into my experience with Dusk last year and getting ready to go perform in Chicago. In August 2009 I had the good fortune to be cast in the show and later this month I get to travel to Chicago to perform at the Second City Skybox stage with some of the Dusk cast. As a relatively new contributor to Austinist, I wanted to share some insight into my experience with Dusk last year and getting ready to go perform in Chicago. more ›

A parody ideally strikes a nice balance between poking fun of its subject matter and holding true to the tenets of the genre it's deconstructing. Apocalypse!, Gnap! Theater Project's current main stage show, does a good job of striking that balance. Apocalypse! is a completely improvised play in the style of the post-apocalyptic genre. What exactly is that? It's the story of a world which has experienced a complete catastrophic destruction of society, exemplified by such diverse films and novels as The Road Warrior, The Road, and 28 Days Later. Austinist got a chance to take in the show on Saturday April 3. Overall, the show was impressive and a whole lot of fun. Despite a few small complaints from that night, Apocalypse! is highly recommended. more ›

This Friday night ColdTowne Theater's newest main stage sketch revue, Shanty Town Lake debuts. Shanty Town Lake, the successor to ColdTowne Theater's first main stage sketch revue, Eye for an iPhone, is described as "a mix of social and political satire, music and straight up nihilistic comedy." The writer/performers have been developing the show's material through improv in front of audiences in addition to writing sessions. The show consists of two acts for a total run time of 90 minutes. Count on well thought out sketches and an improv set, which may wind up featuring scenes that are mined for future sketches. more ›

While Austin is well known for having a strong arts and theater community, the same can't really be said for its surrounding suburban and rural areas. However, things may be changing in Austin's neighbor to the north, Round Rock. In 2000, according to the census, there were slightly more than 60,000 people in Round Rock. Today the city estimates just under 100,000 residents. With this kind of population growth one can expect to see industries and communities of all kinds flourish, including the arts. Round Rock has been home to Sam Bass Community Theater since the early 1980s. Outside of that venue, there hasn't been much by way of live theater in Round Rock in the past. Now there are several individuals working hard to create a vibrant live theater scene in Round Rock. In the not too distant future Penfold Theatre Company hopes to find a home in downtown Round Rock, and in the immediate future The Lair is opening up its doors to showcase improv and other forms of alternative theater. more ›

Gnap! Theater Project's newest work, the improvised show Apocalypse!, opens this Friday night. Apocalypse! is billed as "an improvised play about the end of the world." The concept brings to mind films like The Road Warrior or 28 Days Later. Because the show is improvised, each night the rotating cast will create a new world at it's end. The Armageddon on any given night may be the result of zombies, mutants, something entirely different or all of the above. One can expect drama, action and, of course, comedy. more ›

All the world's a stage, but not everybody has a script. more ›

There are a lot of regular improvised comedy shows in Austin; here's a crash course in the Hideout Theatre's Saturday-night institution, Maestro. more ›

Befitting a theater that's home to a troupe named The Midnight Society, every Friday this month will find Coldtowne Theater asking its patrons "Are you afraid of the dark?" more ›

Parallelogramophonograph presents a fresh, never-before-seen screwball comedy tomorrow night at 8pm—and every Thursday through Oct. 16—at Coldtowne Theater. // Also on Thursday, Midnight Society debuts a monthly sketch showcase at Coldtowne, aptly titled “Pizza Party!” You can figure that one out, right? // College campus regulars Mission Improvable also hit Coldtowne (the theater), sharing the stage with Coldtowne (the troupe) and Look Cookie, Saturday at 10 p.m. more ›