Last weekend I was out in Chicago with my Philly Team, Mayor Karen, for CIF14. what’s odd is, I didn’t see nearly as many shows as I had either expected or hoped to see, but what i did see was a really fun mix of styles and even cultures. The first festival show I saw was Friday Night at IO: the musical harold, the Deltones, featuring a number of great Chicago improvisers (almost know of whom i had met yet, but as the weekend went on, I met a few of them), and ImproTop from Mexico City, a really fun show that broke passed any language barriers and entertained a packed room for close to an hour.
The Deltones aren’t the first musical improv act I’ve seen, but it was one of the first musical improv shows where I felt that the music wasn’t forced. Most scenes had a musical number, but not all. It felt like the music was just another scene move that could be initiated and that they all were prepared for, rather than a required component. They took the title of “Shenanigans” and created a world full of Ashton Kutcher enthusiasts, bad actresses, parents reliving glory days, a bizarre family, and a shy kid learning to about love thru rehearsing Shakespeare. I think the Romeo and Juliet scene was my favorite, where a drama rehearsal exploded as they abandoned the text and just said what the words meant to them, including spelling out R-O-M-E-O, where both O’s meant “Oh my God, Romeo!” (which was called back later in the scene during the song). The show closed with really great scene with a Crab Boat, and the threat of death. It had three people in the scene, with the others providing back up as dancing crabs. Best line: “Oops, you’re overboad!”
ImproTop from Mexico City went on next. This was my first time seeing an international set, and didn’t really know what to expect. Going into it, I wasn’t even sure if it would be in english or in spanish. The show was primarily in english, which I was thankful for (since I never really attending spanish class in college). They played “Four Stories, In Four Styles, For You!” I’m not usually a fan of puns, but when you’re making puns not in your native language, I’m a little more impressed. Each of the 4 stories was based on an audience suggestion, and was done very true to the styles they played. The musical section they did wasn’t very good (they were singing about Birth Certificates), but it was fun nonetheless. I particularly liked the “No-words” style, it was like watching 3 Mr. Beans all at once. It great to see that much physical expression in all of the scenes, but especially in the no-words scene, and I wonder if they are that physical when playing in spanish, or if it is a bi-product of overcoming language barriers. The show did feel like it had reached a great end, and then went on for 10-15 minutes longer, revisiting each scene. It felt like the show had peaked too early and they were filling. The last part of the show, while still entertaining, was a bit slower and lower energy than what it had built to already. Although the very last bit when revisiting the original action movie, they did a Street Fighter scene, including life bars, and some great callbacks to early in in the show.
That was the first half of my friday night in Chicago. Later I went upstairs at IO to see Improvised Shakespeare, which while not part of the festival, I figured I should see while in Chicago. More on that and the rest of the weekend soon!
-Hochman
Improv Kerouac 