Six Friends, No Script: Improv Comedy Coming To Edmond Town Hall Stage
Asked what they want to be when they grow up, most kids will respond with firefighter, astronaut, athlete, or doctor. Ron Hill has always been open to suggestions.
Created by Hill, “It’s All Fun and Games” offers a brand of improv comedy packed full of boundless energy, whacky characters with an alum of NYC’s underground improv circuit, and featuring comics varying in background from Chicago’s famed Second City to NYC hotspot Upright Citizens Brigade. They are taking our audiences on adventures through intelligent, creative, and funny sketches, and improv games where it’s all made up on the spot. And since it’s improvised, no two shows will ever be the same!
“It’s All Fun and Games” will be presented at Edmond Town Hall Theatre, 45 Main Street, on Friday, September 13. Curtain is 8 pm.
The genesis of the show came years ago when Pamela Hill took her son to his first improv comedy show in New York City. At the time, Ron Hill was a big fan of Saturday Night Live. But after seeing the off-the-cuff antics of the performers on stage, he altered his career course from sketch to improv. At 15, he was accepted into Groundlings East, where he schooled on the ways of improv.
From the time he was in high school, Hill has wanted to work in improv comedy, a performance art that depends on audience input.
“There’s something about the energy of an improv show,” Hill, of Fairfield, said. “Nothing’s been rehearsed, there’s nerves in the air. You can feel the worry, the excitement, the thrill of stepping out on stage not knowing what you’re going to do.”
Similar to the format of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” with the added energy of Impractical Jokers, Hill and company will use audience suggestions for the characters and situations they create. In the game Dinner at Joe’s, they interview audience members to inspire characters and then create on-the-spot scenes.
“For the audience to see themselves and their friends portrayed on stage, they feel like they’re in on the joke,” Hill said.
Hill, who launched the company, will be joined in Newtown by comedians Anthony Reimer, Josh Hurley, Nick Carrillo, Langston Belton and Jason Scott Quinn. Several members of the group, including Hill, have trained at New York City’s Gotham City Improv (formally Groundings East), which has produced such greats as Melissa McCarthy, Will Farrell and Lisa Kudrow.
“It’s All Fun and Games,” a name his mother suggested, was created when Hill enlisted his friends in the New York City comedy circuit and the troupe presented its first show at the Bijou Theatre in 2012.
Hill now has aspirations of opening his own comedy theater, which would host performances and improv classes for kids and adults.
“It would be a new place for teens to stay out of trouble and try something new and for adults to have a drink and relax and watch a funny show,” Hill said.
In the meantime, Hill will continue to present as many performances of “It’s All Fun And Games” as he can. And, as always, he’ll be open to suggestions.
Tickets are $25 general admission and available through Eventbrite (search for Improv Comedy Night 8PM).