Battlin' with the Improvs

Last night, the Improvables faced off against eight other troupes from across the state in the Second Annual Utah Battle of the Improvs, held at the Grand Theater on the SLCC campus in Salt Lake City.

The nine troupes, which included Absoludicrous, And . . . Go!, The Antics, HiJinks, The Jesters Royale, Off the Wall, Quick Wits, ToySoup, and our humble gang, first performed a game each, in alphabetical order. Following each game, the two judges gave their rankings of the performance, and the audience also showed its opinion by way of a laugh-and-clap-o-meter. My ComedySportz colleague Richie Steadman was M.C. for this event.

The Improvables were represented by four very talented players, as chosen by the members of the troupe: Biz, Ian, Parker, and Steve, who chose "Lie Detector" as their game.

Following that first round, all of the votes were tallied up, and the four troupes with the highest count moved on to a semifinal round. Sadly, the Improvables did not make it this far. Quick Wits, which consisted of three very funny performers, walked away with the night's first prize.

However, the evening wasn't a total washout. There were many entertaining and hilarious moments, and we got a good look at the other talented people in the Beehive State. Additionally, the Improvables were announced as winners of the Audience Favorite Award.

Here, Biz, Parker, and Steve pose with our prize, which was a car door spray painted a few different colors and bedazzled with the word Winner on the side:


That's right; see for yourself. I can't make this up.

Many of the other troupe members who were present also came up on stage afterward to pose with our prize:



I may be a bit biased, but we definitely deserved to go home with the Audience Favorite Award. Many thanks go out to our many fans who showed up to vote us as winners of it. All told, it was a fun and a successful evening. Way to go, team!