Thursday, September 29, 2011

2011: An Improv Travesty

Saturday night, the Improvables sent a team to compete at the Third Annual Utah Battle of the Improvs. Brittney, Bryan, and Steve represented the troupe and, I must say, made me proud, really giving it their all. They played “Replay at Bernie’s” in the first round, getting the first perfect 10 score of the evening and collecting the highest composite score of the first half.

We were also well represented in the audience, with several troupe members and loyal fans in attendance.

Colten and Brittney helped collect votes for us at halftime.

Advancing to the top four in the second half of the show, they played “Accents” and were rated even higher, getting two 10s from two of the three judges and a 9 from the third, resulting in a 29 out of a possible 30 points – higher than any other troupe who took part – as well as a strong audience reaction and applause.

However, we were all flabbergasted when the two finalists were announced, and our troupe wasn’t one of them. In addition, we were also somewhat collectively offended by Toy Soup, the troupe that ended up winning the competition as well as the Audience Favorite Award, who put on what I thought were a very vulgar set of games that broke many of the basic rules of Improv. Not that we are bitter. Or in the least bit biased. It was rather frustrating.

On the bright side, Brittney did take home the Miss Congeniality Award.

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