Audio By Carbonatix
Bathed in the glow of a tiki torch, trapped on a deserted island — or stage — with nothing more than their funny bones, a group of Denver comics will try to outlast each other in the first Improv Survivor.
As in other improvisational shows, these ten players will solicit ideas from the audience for humorous sketches. And that’s when things get brutal — and funny — according to organizer and host C.J. Fletcher.
Backed by frantic drumming, the players will periodically stop a scene and go to “the rock,” where they will cast votes to boot one member into the audience. At other times, the audience will be allowed to decide the fate of a cast member or a scene in progress.
“What better way to make you laugh?” Fletcher asks.
Well, that remains to be seen. During a recent rehearsal in a library basement, a half-dozen veterans of Denver’s comedy world grappled with the dog-eat-comic concept. When a visitor threw out the word “prince,” the players began spinning five sketches using that as the starting point: a spoiled royal, the pop star formerly known as, and other suggestions were part of one level.
Merely staying in the action was the other. At various points during the hour-long event, Fletcher called for a vote. As in the TV show, the reasons can range from good (“He’s not funny”) to merely silly (“Since she is the only woman whose breasts are bigger than mine, she must go now,” one player crowed).
Things can get tricky for the survivors. If a key player is removed — say, Goldilocks is 86’d from a scene about the cute little fairy-tale soup-slurper — the remaining actors have to seamlessly explain why that character is no longer there. Merely suggesting that a bus jumped the curb and offed the little girl probably wouldn’t be good enough to avoid a thumbs-down vote.
Of course, this experiment could produce surprising results, simply because it runs counter to some of the basic strategies used in more traditional improvisation, where support — not competition — is the key. Fletcher, himself an improviser, is aware of the danger lurking on the isle. “It’s safe to say that I wouldn’t trust any of them to be on an island with me,” he jokes. “You don’t know what alliances and backstabbing are until you see improv comics go at each other.”
