Mission Accomplished

The California Comedy Festival was a huge success! With your help, and the help of 50 improvisers from around the country, we raised over $1,000 for Sacramento and Placer's Evolve You Foundation.

With that money Blacktop Comedy can offer free improv workshops for the high school students about to leave the foster care system. After talking with Evolve You we found out that over 50% of these kids end up on the street after getting the boot from the foster care system. That's ridiculous.

We're helping keep kids off the street. With the money from the California Comedy Festival we are able to offer the students improv classes. The improv classes for students are more than an afternoon of fun. The improv class offers the Sacramento kids a series of tools to live in the moment, adapt to change, and overcome self-doubt.

The Shows were incredible, the teachers brilliant, and the weekend unforgettable. Thank you In Transit, Side Pickle, The Revengers, Made Up Theatre, Off One Letter, Shades of Grey, Euro Trash, American River Colleges' Pandora's Jukebox, Jackson Soup, Rollin' in Riches, Steve Cheslea Ben, and Blacktop Comedy's very own BYOI and Your F@#$%! Up Relationship. 

Also, thank you to all the incredible volunteers who make everything at Blacktop Comedy and the California Comedy Festival possible. From flyering Rocklin, canvasing Sacramento, preparing the gift bags, grabbing water when the performers, and so much more, our volunteers helped the festival run smooth. So, who are the incredible volunteers? Thank you Austin Jansma, Jessa Jansma, Meggan Johnson Hyde, Celestial Meeker, Jonathon Al Milby, Jonathan Norman, Forrest Farman, Antonio Varela, Ciara Cumiskey, Jacquelyn Ackerson, Timothy Smith, Kasey Castaneda, Ami Duenas, and Alejandro Duenas, Betsaida Lebron, Jakob Hillock, Chris Kimbrough, Jay Miller, Aeriel Hunter, Gordon Sharp, Troy Wallis, Garrett Bank, Jordan Mata, Cristian Amaral, and Mo Lim-Chua, Yaz Khabiri and Allison Morrow

There were lots of great moments during the show, workshops, and behind the scenes! We'll be posting all the pictures very soon...and video! We have hours of footage we want to get online, and in the hands of all the teams.

And, maybe you're feeling generous, and want to give directly to Evolve You. You can do so here (you can also learn about all the incredible projects they have planned). Brian Taylor is the gent who runs the foundation. Tell him Blacktop Comedy sent you!

Meet Rob Long of The Revengers

Photograph by Mike McFarland

The Revengers create a comic book inspired by audience suggestions. It's as cool as it sounds. I hope you'll be able to see their show Saturday night at the California Comedy Festival!

We had a chance to ask Rob Long some questions about improv....

Q: When and where did you begin improvising? 

A: March, 1989, in Bakersfield, California.

Q: What troupes and individuals were your early passions and influences? 

A: When I started, ComedySportz and Whose Line Was It Anyway were everything I knew about improv, though I quickly learned about the Kentucky Fried Theatre, Viola Spolin, Keith Johnstone and Theater Sports.

Q: How did your troupe come together? 

A: Eric Dains said “I have an idea for a troupe name –The Revengers, but I don’t know what to do with it.” I responded, “I’ve been wanting to put together an improvised comic book. That name seems to fit.” From there, we looked around for who we knew that loved both comics and improv, and the four founders started workshopping what tools we’d need to put a comic book onstage.

Q: What do you love about your troupe? 

A: What DON’T I love about my troupe? I love the pure fun of doing it – it’s the show where I just cut loose and commit myself to having a blast. I love the scene painting we use. I love the way we’re doing more than a show – we’re building a universe, a Revengerverse. I love the discoveries we make, onstage and off. I love the stories we get to tell, onstage and off. I love the characters we get to keep revisiting and exploring.

Q: Improv can be exhilarating. What do you personally consider to be the most exciting moments in your work?

A: The moments of pure discovery, when we surprise both ourselves and the others onstage. The “Yes, And” of it all, when one of us throws something out and two or three others go, “Yeah, I can do something with that.” It takes us to magical places.

Q: How would you define what differentiates a successful live performance from a poor one? A: What can improvisers do from your point of view to improve their live act? Did you have fun doing it? Then it’s successful. To improve your act, figure out what you love about your show, what drives your passion, and chase that. Don’t forget to embrace the fear. When you have fun, when you dive headlong into the fear and don’t let it stop you from enjoying yourself, everything, including audience response, will be successful.

Q: What's the most important lesson you have learned as an improviser? 

A: I am enough. Discovery is more important than invention. Follow the fear. Be passionate about what you’re doing. Those are so intertwined that I’d have difficulty picking one. Probably that I am enough.

Meet Side Pickle

Have you seen Side Pickle? If you live in Sacramento, you're likely to say, "no." You should say that with a sign and sadness, too, because they're fantastic. It's a sad thing not to see a Side Pickle.

But, cheer up!

Side Pickle of Minnepolis arrives in Sacramento this Saturday! We had the opportunity to ask Joe McGowan and Phil Schramm of Side Pickle some questions...

Q: When and where did you begin improvising?

A: Phil - I started performing improv my freshman year of college at St. Olaf College in 2009, the group was mainly short-form that started to dabble in long-form as the years went on. After I graduated in 2013, I started taking formal classes in long-form improvisation at Huge Theater. 

A: Joe - I first got the buzz when I was living in New York. I was doing Americorps and we had a current SNL cast member Sasheer Zamata come in and teach us some basic games and such we could use with clients. I feel in love improve that day! Sadly, I could not afford classes at that time and put my improv ambitions on hold. 4 years later I started classes at HUGE Theater in Minneapolis and have never looked back.

Q: What troupes and individuals were your early passions and influences?

A: Phil - I could list some of my favorites groups and influences for days, because everything I watch I have absorbed in some way, so I will limit them to a few. There was an improv trio called Splendid Things in Minneapolis that was one of the most engaging and hilarious groups I have ever seen. I have aspired to be like every improviser in that group, they were quick, emotional, and had some out there but grounded scenes. Also, Jill Bernard always amazes me with her one woman musical Drum Machine, and I am glad I can call her a friend. And finally, I am heavily influenced from a scripted theater background too, specifically the Theater of the Absurd (favorite playwrights include Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco). I connect to that style of scripted theater so much that my work typically bleeds it.

A: Joe - I am a show and workshop fiend! When I first started out I took in every class/workshop/show I could get my hands on. If I had to pick a most influential person it would be without a doubt my 101/201 teacher Molly Chase. She gave me the perfect mix of confidence and regulation. Her ability to take all the scary “rules” of improv and put them into small packets of fun but pertinent information that can be easily accessed on stage. As for troupes it would have to be The Mess based out of Minneapolis. The point of this group is to have as many people on stage at once with high energy and never slowing down. They made it look so easy I had to seat and study how they could achieve doing this week after week with ease. 

Q:  How did your troupe come together?

A: Phil - I box office at Huge Theater in Minneapolis, and Joe had just taken one of the weekly drop-in classes at Huge (this was approximately a year ago). He had just started taking classes and I had completed the track a few months prior. Joe was eating a sandwich from a nearby eatery, and we started riffing and joking about sandwiches as we started to look up some facts about sandwiches online. Joe invited me to a practice jam he started and the rest was history. Our group name is inspired from our love of sandwiches, as it is not a real sandwich unless it comes with a side pickle.

A: Joe - Phil put it in such perfect words! I would just add that I realized then and there how our energy and dynamic would play out on stage. 

Q: What do you love about your troupe?

A: Phil - I personally love the freedom amongst the two of us that allows us to completely trust the actions of the other. No matter the scene, we will always find a mesh that is entertaining, either comically or theatrically. I can always trust Joe in scenes to provide for me the greatest choices at the top of his intelligence.

A: Joe - I love the moment when we catch eyes and both of us are on the same page, that spark ignites into a beautiful yet crazy scene! We absolutely love pimping each other out in scenes and then upping it over and over for both our and the audiences entertainment. Lastly no one listens to me like Phil does. He is ready to pounce on anything and everything I throw at him. 

Q: Improv can be exhilarating. What do you personally consider to be the most exciting moments in your work?

A: Phil -  The most exciting moments I can think of in Side Pickle are the ways Joe and I surprise each other each performance. We always find new ways to do scenes, to approach characters, incorporate unique spaces, that each show is usually a mini adventure in discovery.

A: Joe - Phil has a knack for tying everything together in the last few minutes of our set. That takes our work to a whole new level every time. Also we are not afraid to break the 4th wall and talk to each other as improvisers or straight to the audience. When done right it creates a unforgettable experience for all.  

Q: How would you define what differentiates a successful live performance from a poor one?

A: Phil - For improv, the difference in a successful performance boils down to respect. Are you respecting the venue? Are you respecting the audience? Are you respecting the improv? Are you respecting each other on stage? Are you respecting yourself? I am all about professionalism when it comes to doing shows, and when I see performers disregarding basic rules of humanity, it turns me off of their performances. And when I say respect, I don’t always mean “being polite”, I mean in also in the sense of respecting the intelligence of the audience, and your own intelligence at the same time. When you show care in your craft, people will be engaged.

A: Joe - It all ties to one main thing. Show me you care you are up there. Don’t lean on the backline, dress like you knew you were going to perform,  use the whole stage it is there for a reason! Every moment you are on stage is apart of the show. Don’t waste a second of it! 

Q: What's the most important lesson you have learned as an improviser?

A: Phil - "You are always enough." No matter what you do, who you are, where you come from, whatever, you never need to be more than what you bring. Every choice you make in a scene is exactly what that scene needed. I used to always be jealous of improvisers who were very knowledgeable and could spit out history facts or popular culture references like the back of their hand, which latched me into thinking every choice I made would never be as good as it could be. Improv auditions terrified me as I would play with performers who I perceived as drastically better than me. I thought to myself “I would never be as good as them”, and I believed I was letting my scene partners down by my lack of goodness. When I took a step back and started just focusing on me and self-improving (at some point in my reflection I heard this quote), I began to realize that I am “enough” to my scene partners. My choices and experiences provide the exact amount of weight needed in any scene. Everyone brings something unique with them to improv, which is perfect, and nothing more is needed. You already have all the tools you need to make great improv. And while it is completely fine to gain knowledge from things (art, movies, history etc.), is not a necessity to be a great improviser.

A:  Joe - Take the good and bad out of your improv analysis and translate it into easy and difficult. Taking a step to remove negative emotion from your thoughts will allow you to clearly see what is happening on stage and thus allow you to truly learn. I got this principle from the book “The Inner Game of Tennis” by Timothy Gallwey.