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« Pierce Brosnan, ice cream sandwiche… | Wit's End, back again »

Friday, August 5, 2011

What do you call an act like that?

Drunken rehearsals with Wit's End

Posted by Liz Johnston and Griffin McInnes on Fri, Aug 5, 2011 at 4:34 PM

click to enlarge

from left to right, sketch performers Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie, Chloe Sullivan, Griffin McInnes and Liz Johnston. - Ian Gibb

Ian Gibb
from left to right, sketch performers Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie, Chloe Sullivan, Griffin McInnes and Liz Johnston.

We’re relieved.  

But not about the fact that the show is over! In fact, it’s been oodles of fun, and anyone who’s been on stage knows it’s addictive.

 We’re relieved because the shows have actually been getting some hearty laughs.  

Let us explain: when it comes to rehearsing an improv/sketch show, picking out what’s really fun and what isn’t can be, well, sketchy. We really struggled whether to keep the Panda Love scene in space, but we think we've made the right decision… in keeping it.

 Our rehearsal process for this part of the double bill was pretty simple. We’d get together with a few like- (or maybe sick-?) minded, funny people. With “childhood” as our only guiding theme, we’d talk, goof around, and improvise scenes and characters we thought we’re funny, then piece them together in such away that they loosely made up a whole show.  

(One rehearsal consisted solely of us drinking ourselves silly while watching The Aristocrats and then taking turns telling our own versions of the joke. This sort of a rehearsal should be mandatory for couples therapy, ‘cause holy shit do you learn some fucked-up things about people you thought you knew. For those of you unfamiliar with the film, watch it immediately. For those of you who are, hence the “or maybe sick-?” above.)

 But here’s the thing. WE thought these things were funny, but when you spend hours in rehearsal, it’s pretty easy to lose sight of what’s objectively hilarious and what could just be an inside joke. So we had no idea if the audience would share our odd sense of humour.

 But they do! And we’ve made a concerted effort to keep things fresh and exciting so that as performers we don’t get bored on stage. And we’ve found, luckily, that us having fun translates to the audience having fun.

 So if you’re in the mood for some goofiness, come see our last show tonight! If you have ideas for wacky scenes, characters, settings, etc., send them to witsendtheatreco@gmail.com and we’ll use them in the improv part of the show.

 And rumour has it that if you stick around after the show, we’re gonna drink ourselves silly and take turns trying to one-up each other’s previous  Aristocrats jokes. Just sayin’: a man walks in to a talent agent’s office...