Jessie Cooper
At 6:25pm last night, the doors opened to the start of the New Zealand Improv Festival season. Beginning the season was a new feature in their program ‘Improdome’, the battle royale of improv. The premise: across the space of an hour, four teams of four would battle it out in a series of challenges and games, in hopes of winning the audience’s affections and top marks, to win.
Kicking this off was the sincere and excited Jennifer O’Sullivan, an NZIF board member and fellow improv artist. There was barely need to warm up the crowd as the audience was already supportive with jeers and cheers, possibly egged on by a few beers. This response elicited an infectious energy from the performers as the four teams enter the stage. As each member introduced themselves, we are welcomed by a sea of different accents, with performers from all over New Zealand and across seas. These performers are lead by O’Sullivan and her charismatic co-host Matt Powell, who adjudicate the on-goings of the evening.
The night continued just as I’d hoped, with flurries of witticisms, self-aware jokes, ridiculous anecdotes and strange games that are all warmly welcomed by a supportive and engaged audience. One of the moments that exhibited such attributes came from the then ‘underdog’ team Griff-Raven-Hufflerin (my apologies if I’ve got this name confused, but can you blame me?) in a Christmas musical moment shared amongst a dysfunctional family. Jim Fishwick sung the entire scene, which was brilliantly aided by muso Isaac Thomas, cleverly following Fishwick’s cues on his guitar. The impressiveness of the scene helped boost the group into contention with the other teams, bringing us to a nail biting end to the evening.
The true talent of the performers came across in the moments of sincerity, which can be a rarity in improv theatre. Team JACKRABBIT presented a touching office love romance between Ryan Knighton and Christine Brooks that almost had me in tears of both happiness and laughter as they rewarded the audience with a kiss at the conclusion of the scene.
The NZIF have a high level of talent to pool from this year, with Improdome opening the season with a well deserved bang. Last night’s winners, team JACKRABBIT, will be back to perform in the next installment of Improdome tonight (Wednesday 5th of October) at 6:30pm and I highly recommend you go along to see them and all the new talents challenging them this evening.
The New Zealand Improv Festival runs from the 4th-8th of October at BATS theatre with Improdome performing on all nights at 6:30pm. Check out tickets below and make sure you get along to support and enjoy this awesome event!
https://bats.co.nz/whats-on/improdome/
The night continued just as I’d hoped, with flurries of witticisms, self-aware jokes, ridiculous anecdotes and strange games that are all warmly welcomed by a supportive and engaged audience. One of the moments that exhibited such attributes came from the then ‘underdog’ team Griff-Raven-Hufflerin (my apologies if I’ve got this name confused, but can you blame me?) in a Christmas musical moment shared amongst a dysfunctional family. Jim Fishwick sung the entire scene, which was brilliantly aided by muso Isaac Thomas, cleverly following Fishwick’s cues on his guitar. The impressiveness of the scene helped boost the group into contention with the other teams, bringing us to a nail biting end to the evening.
The true talent of the performers came across in the moments of sincerity, which can be a rarity in improv theatre. Team JACKRABBIT presented a touching office love romance between Ryan Knighton and Christine Brooks that almost had me in tears of both happiness and laughter as they rewarded the audience with a kiss at the conclusion of the scene.
The NZIF have a high level of talent to pool from this year, with Improdome opening the season with a well deserved bang. Last night’s winners, team JACKRABBIT, will be back to perform in the next installment of Improdome tonight (Wednesday 5th of October) at 6:30pm and I highly recommend you go along to see them and all the new talents challenging them this evening.
The New Zealand Improv Festival runs from the 4th-8th of October at BATS theatre with Improdome performing on all nights at 6:30pm. Check out tickets below and make sure you get along to support and enjoy this awesome event!
https://bats.co.nz/whats-on/improdome/
