Happy ImprovBoston Day!

In recognition of 29 years in operation, in Inman Square and now in Central Square, the City of Cambridge has declared September 9 "ImprovBoston Day." You can read the official declaration here. The proclamation provides an interesting snapshot of IB's history, going back to its founding by former Second City student Ellen Holbrook in 1982 and the fact that it once operated in a club owned by former Celtic Satch Sanders.

IB kicked off its Second Annual Boston Improv Festival last night, which will bring over 100 performers to three stages through Sunday. Acts come from all over the country, and a few, like We're From Here, WDWMKR, and Montreal Improv, from Canada.

Joe Bill also returns Saturday, but not with his usual act, the fantastic duo of Bassprov, which has played the Lowell Comedy Festival in the past. And the North End comes to Central Square when Improv Asylum brings its new mainstage show, Hungry, Hungry Hipsters to ImprovBoston Sunday.

LivingSocial.com's Boston Daily Deal: Cheap ImprovBoston tickets

Today's Boston Daily Deal at LivingSocial.com is half off tickets to ImprovBoston shows. Limit five per person, and tickets aren't valid for the traditional Halloween show Gore Fest or the Boston Improv Fest. As of this posting, you've got a little less than 19 hours to click on the deal and get your tickets.

Here's the link.

The BC Q&A: Kelly MacFarland

Kelly MacFarland is back in Boston after having won Best of Fest at the Rooftop Comedy Festival in Aspen. She'll be gigging around town this summer, headlining at ImprovBoston tomorrow night with Maria Ciampa and Dana Jay Bein and playing The Comedy Studio next week, but if you don't see her for a while after that, she'd probably hunkering down over her new netbook to finish her first book, a compilation of personal essays she's hoping to finish this summer. We spoke briefly by phone earlier this week.

Are you sort of huddled in these days working on the book, or do you still get out to play frequently?

No, I’m still out playing a lot. I was actually just in Aspen at the Rooftop Comedy Festival a couple of weeks ago.

Yes, congratulations.

Thanks! I was voted Best of the Fest, which was awesome. So I’m still out working. But I’m trying to take the summer to really focus on the book. I’m definitely out playing, I’m recording my CD at the end of August at Mottley’s, on August 27 and 28. I’m really excited about that. And I’m doing a couple of things for the Plymouth Rock Comedy Festival next week. I’m still out there and working. And I’m slotted to do a couple of USO tours in the fall.

How is the book coming?

The book’s coming okay. It’s a little bit of a process, but it’s going well.

What is your premise for the book?

It’s a collection of short stories based on my stand-up and my life.

Are they non-fiction stories?

They are based… Well, yeah, they’re nonfiction. Mostly. Yeah, you can say they’re nonfiction. I’m not really making a lot up.

With “mostly” in parenthesis then?

Yes. All facts will be true. I’m trying to think, the last one I just wrote, it’s all true. So it really happened.

What made you decide to go that route?

I was approached by literary agents last winter, and I’m a storyteller, that’s kind of my thing, and I just thought it would be really cool to see it all in print. And they did too, so we decided to work together.

Have you done anything like that before?

No. Not at all. Hopefully this will be the first of many books.

Was it a daunting process?

Yes. It’s daunting because I’m used to being so verbal, so it’s hard to put it down on paper. And I’m also very critical of my own work. I’m like that with my stand-up, too. So I end up rewriting and rewriting and rewriting, which apparently is a big no-no in the book writing world.

No, quite the opposite.

Really?

Well, you’re not supposed to keep rewriting until you’ve finished it.

That’s what I’ve been doing.

You’ve got to get a first draft before you start editing, and then you edit it mercilessly.

Right. I kind of start it, and then go back and decide that I don’t like any of it. And then I end up rewriting before finishing it. I’ve been told, just get it all out on paper, then go back and edit.

Do you have a publisher yet?

Nope. I’m working with my agent. We haven’t even gone to proposal yet. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later, but that really depends on me. I’ve got to kind of buckle down. I just ordered a new netbook to see if maybe that would help. It’s like a new toy. You know when a girl buys a new pair of earrings to make herself look pretty? I’m buying a new netbook to see if I can make my writing look better.

It might work if it allows you to go someplace where you can concentrate.

That’s it exactly. I want to be able to write any time I feel the urge. You buy a new pair of sneakers thinking it will motivate you to run. Well I’m buying a new netbook to see if it will motivate me to write. Something new and shiny.

Are there any particular stories people would recognize from your stand-up that you’re working on?

Maybe. I don’t really want to say yet, just because everything’s so still in the works. But there’ll be some themes. If people like my stand-up then they’ll like the book, for sure.

Women In Comedy: Submission Deadline Extended

If you missed the first deadline for March's Women In Comedy Festival, I just got word from Festival co-creator Maria Ciampa that the submission deadline has been extended until Monday. For more, check the WIC Web site: http://womenincomedyfestival.blogspot.com/

Here's the full announcement:

The Second Annual ImprovBoston Women in Comedy Festival's submission deadline has been extended to Monday, January 11, and both men and women are encouraged to submit for the 2010 festival! This year's festival will be held at IB Mar. 24-28.

Submissions from a variety of genres will be accepted this year, including improvisational comedy, live sketch comedy, stand up comedy, short film / TV pilot, scripted musical comedy, storytelling, and humor writing.

Please see the Women in Comedy Website to download a submission form and learn more about the submission process for each comedy genre.

The festival is a celebration of Boston-area and nationally-known women in comedy. The festival's mission is to create a forum for people to experience the unique comedic expression of women, see strong female and male performers and, most importantly, to have a great time.

2009 College Improv Tournament -- Prelim Results

The preliminary winners from this afternoon's 2009 Coolege Improv Tournament at ImprovBoston are in:

Match A Winner - Cheap Sox (Tufts University)

Match B Winner - Purple Crayon (Yale University)

Match C Winner - DangerBox (New York Univeristy)

Match D Winner - TBS (Brandeis University)

Match E Winner - Seriously Bent (Suffolk University)

These winners will face off at Improv Asylum tonight at 11PM, and the winner will go on to compete against other groups from around the country.

Third Annual College Improv Tournament: East Coast Regional in Boston today

Fourteen improv teams will compete today in two different venues starting at noon for today's Third Annual College Improv Tournament. Priliminaries start at ImprovBoston at noon, with teams from Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and run on the hour until 4PM. The finals then move to Improv Asylum at 11PM. The shows are open to the public, tickets are $10 for the prelims and $15 for the finals, available by phone at ImprovBoston (617.576.1253) and Improv Asylum (617.263.6887). Student discounts available.

Participating schools: Emerson College, Yale University, Boston University, Tufts University, Salve-Regina University, Northeastern University, New York Univesrity, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Colgate University, Brandeis Univesrity, Penn State, Suffolk, and Mount Holyoke.

Sara Benincasa's Agorafabulous at ImprovBoston tonight

Sara Benincasa brings her new one-woman show, Agorafabulous, to ImprovBoston tonight. The show, about the comedian/writer’s experiences with panic attacks and agoraphobia, has drawn positive reviews in several cities, and Benincasa is also working on a book by the same name. Benincasa has quite a varied resume – she was a citizen journalist for the MTV Choose or Lose Street Team last year, hosted Tub Talk with Sara B., for which she interviewed people in her tub, and currently co-hosts Get in Bed, a sex-chat show on Cosmo’s satellite radio station and hosts the Family Hour with Auntie Sara at Comix in New York once a month.

Maria Ciampa talks the Women in Comedy Festival

Maria Ciampa and Michelle Barbera have met a lot of funny people in their years on the Boston comedy scene. Both have experience in Boston’s improv community, Ciampa as part of the Improv Asylum mainstage cast and Barbera as a producer/player with the Tribe and ImprovBoston. Both now also perform stand-up and make short films.

About a year ago, the pair started thinking about all of the people they knew in the Boston scene – the stand-ups, the sketch players, the filmmakers, storytellers, and writers – and specifically the women who were major contributors to the scene. And that’s when the Women in Comedy Festival, which kicks off tonight at ImprovBoston, was born. This is my conversation with Ciampa about the Festival, including the Funny Guys showcase (it’s a more inclusive women’s festival).

When did you and Michelle get the idea for the Festival?

I would say a little over a year ago. We work together on so many projects – she has her film production company. We’re making a movie and she and her husband put out really great films that have won a bunch of stuff with that 48 Hour. We worked together a lot on that, and we’ve worked together in improv for years, and she was like, we should do a bunch of shows that are produced by or feature women more. And I was like, yeah, yeah, let’s do it. Literally, that’s how it came about.

Has it been in planning for that entire year?

Yeah. For a few months when I was still working full time, there was less being done, but we have used the entire year to plan it, put it together, figure out what shows, what type of talent, how we want to market it, working on the grant – that’s a big piece of it. Michelle’s worked really hard on the Web site. We definitely used all that time.

How did you decide you wanted to approach it? What did you definitely want to have in the Festival?

We wanted it to represent not only the unique voice that women have in comedy, but all the different ways they contribute. So it might not be just stand-up. Like, a lot of people think comedy, they think stand-up. Especially in the comedy community in Boston, and the people I know, they’re involved in so much more than stand-up. There are people doing writing, just doing the writing, for a show like BNN [Boston News Net]. There are people doing video sketch, there are people producing short film, musical comedy, improv, storytelling, There’s so many different ways, we wanted to represent all the different ways we’re expressing ourselves.

How did you go about assembling the talent?

Since this is the first year, it was kind of a, let’s see how this goes. Let’s work with ImprovBoston, who didn’t really have advance notice that this would be in their production schedule. So we kind of had to work around the existing schedule. It was challenging for a festival, but luckily the people at ImprovBoston are easy to work with. So it wasn’t hugely challenging in the end. It became, what types of shows can we have and who fits these shows?

In the beginning I was thinking, okay, the first year, we’re just going to have Boston talent. And then we’ll grow from there. But I started getting all these e-mails. So what I did was to say, okay, I know I want Bethany and Erin to host something because I love what they’re doing with they’re dress-up show. Or I know I want the Steamy Bohemians in there. I know I want Selena [Coppock] in there because we’ve worked together and I know she’s funny and we’ve done festivals together. But then I started getting all these e-mails from women all over the place, like, oh I hear you’re doing a festival and can I get in it. And at first, I said this is the first year and it’s Boston only, but thank you so much and I’ll get in touch with you next year. But then it became, we had a little more freedom, so I was able to invite women from all over. There’s women from New York, there’s women from the Midwest, so it’s pretty cool.

And also a lot of the women who started in Boston are now in New York or Chicago. For example the sketch show, Somebody’s in the Doghouse. Leah’s either now in New York or Chicago and I know Cathleen Carr of Two Girls for Five Bucks, t hey started in Boston, now they’re in New York.

How did you decide to have the Funny Guys show?

Okay, so I’ve always been feminist and I’m comfortable with that, but the last thing I want to do is be is a rude feminist. Because no one likes anybody who’s rude. I think it’s important that we’re inclusive, right? So my first thought was, I don’t want to be non-inclusive. I don’t want to be like, fist in the air like, “We’re better! We’ll show you! We’re gonna fight!” That’s not what I’m all about and that’s not what this festival is about. So we were trying to figure out how we could include guys but still have it be mainly about the voice of women.

So I thought, what happens to me as a woman in comedy a lot of the time when I’m at a club? Even in the festival I did two months ago. You get the intro, “This next person coming to the stage is a woman and she’s gorgeous… and funny!” I know you’re trying to be nice, and that’s great. You are doing your best. But is it not 2009? Aren’t we all just comedians? It always surprises me. So I was like, what if, the same thing I think a lot, what if the tables were turned? What if guys actually had to deal with that? So I was like, “Let’s include the guys, you know? They’re good looking and they have nice hairy chests, bit can they make us laugh?” Or whatever.

So that’s what I want to do, and I was thinking about it. I’m so excited to host this, because I know I’m just going to be ridiculous about it. I’m definitely not going to harass them, but I want to take it to levels of ridiculousness. Pointing out physical things, or comparing their bodies to certain fruits. I don’t know what, but it’s going to be fun for me. But it’s all in good fun. It’s not something where I’m like, “I’m gonna get you back!” But that’s how it came about. It’s my chance to host and bring guys up in a way they might not be used to.

Are you already having to plan for the second year of this?

Yeah. This is my first experience producing a festival, so I didn’t really know what I was in for. And Michelle, my co-producer, she’s been wonderful. She’s worked so much with the Web site and with the line-up and with coordinating with everyone. Over the past two weeks, literally just as the Festival is coming up, she just gave birth. So I’m like, first, next year, don’t have another baby, Michelle, because I need you around. But that’s women. They’ll do that. They’ll go off and give birth.

I’m already planning a lot of good stuff for next year. I want to have even more diversity in the type of shows we have, and I want them to be a little bit clearer. So I want to have one show that’s just all storytelling. I talked to Karen Corday about maybe having a female-themed Mortified. I want to get some authors in and do book readings. I want to have a fully musical comedy show. And also, I plan on expanding it to different venues. And I’ve talked to a few different venues in the area. So while it will stay the Women in Comedy Festival and probably even the ImprovBoston Women in Comedy Festival, we’ll expand it to different venues and be able to get the word out more that way.

Who or what are you most excited about seeing?

That’s so hard. I’m actually really excited about the panel discussions. I mean, I love shows, and I’m always at shows, but we have a panel discussion at 3:45 on Saturday. I guess that’s a testament to what a dork I am. I’m just a comedy nerd. I’m like, “Let’s talk about it!” We’re going to be talking about the business side and the creative side. What’s your process? Taking ideas to sketch form or taking ideas to stand-up form. Working this booker and working this casting agent. Finding your voice. All that good stuff. I do a lot of comedy and I always find that the conversations I love the most are talking about doing comedy.

I’m looking forward to that. I’m really excited about the 8PM on Saturday, because we have our headliner, Kelly MacFarland, and I think she’s hilarious. I’m so happy that we got her to headline the Festival. But all of them. Even the funny films. On Thursday, the 10PM, there’s the funny films show.

What I’m really excited about this Festival is, it has a community outreach portion to it. We got a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council, and I know it’s not very exciting for people to read about, but this is something I’m proud of. Because not only is it, I love comedy and I love helping women’s voices get out there, but we’re also doing a free workshop with Cambridge high school girls, and a free workshop with the Women’s Center of Cambridge, and that’s going to be taught be ImprovBoston staff. And it’s great, because comedy is a way to communicate, it’s a way to just feel better, boost your self-esteem, all that, blah blah – but it’s true. And I’m glad we can use this vehicle of the Festival to bring that to young women at the Cambridge Women’s Center. Maybe it will make them happier for an hour.

Women In Comedy Schedule

WEDNESDAY:
8PM Comedy Kick Off
Stand up comedy with Bari Olevsky, IB sketch group "User Friendly", and storytelling with Jess Sutich (A Night of Oral Tradition)

10PM Funny Guys Stand Up Showcase
Hosted by Maria Ciampa, with Micah Sherman, MC Mr. Napkins, Shane Mauss (Late Night with Conan), Dana Jay Bein, Robby Roadsteamer, and Ken Reid.

THURSDAY:
6PM Fabulous Females Cocktail Party
At ImprovBoston Lobby. Join us for a festive fundraiser to benefit women in comedy.
$25

8PM Bastards, Inc.
Featuring stand up comedy with Jess Sutich (A Night of Oral Tradition), Lindsay Gonzalez, Michelle Barbera (We're Making a Movie), and improv by Three Hole Punch and Bastards, Inc.
$10/$7 students and seniors

10PM Funny Films
Featuring a night of short films and video sketch written, produced and created by women. Hosted by Rheri and Jim Kenney.
$10/$7 students and seniors

FRIDAY:
8PM, Main Theater: Atreus
Aeschylus meets Dallas. The world's first soap opera is reimagined in the modern-day, high-stakes business world.
$16/$12 (students and seniors)

10PM, “Friday Night Variety Show" Hosted by: The Steamy Bohemians. Featuring: Carolyn Castiglia, Daniella Capolino, M. Dickson, Shereen Kassam, Jennifer Myszkowski, Sharon Spell, Carolyn Plummer
$20/$16 (students and seniors)

SATURDAY:
10 - 12:30 Writing Workshop for the Ladies with Marty Johnson
Show up and mention "Facebook" and get $15 off if there is still space!

1pm - 3:30 pm You've Got a Great Show Idea, Now What? with Two Girls For Five Bucks
Show up and mention "Facebook" and get $15 off if there is still space!

3:45 FREE Panel Discussion on the business and creative side of comedy. Catered by City Girl Cafe in Inman Square

6PM, Main Theater: Women of Family Show
An improvised comedy show for the whole family. Come see singing dancing and comedy all off the top of our improviser's heads.
$12/$10 (seniors)/ $7 (students and children)

8PM, Main Theater: The Women in Comedy Stand up Showcase
Featuring Headliner Kelly MacFarland (Comedy Central), hosted by Erin Judge (Comedy Central's Live at Gotham) and Bethany Van Delft (Boston Comedy Festival) with Maria Ciampa (North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival), Selena Coppock (North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival), Desiree Burch (Hysterical Festival), Robin Gelfenbien (Hysterical Festival)
$25/$20 (students and seniors)

9:30PM - “Boston News Network”, Boston’s premier weekly fake news show features the funniest women in Boston: Kristina Smarz, Megan Golterman, and more.
$10/$7 (students and seniors)

10PM - “Improv and Sketch Showcase”, featuring ImprovBoston Mainstage, Two Girls For Five Bucks, sketch comedy featuring Cathleen Carr and Daiva Dupree (Ars Nova), Somebody’s In The Doghouse, sketch comedy featuring Marty Johnson and Leah Gotsik (The Second City at Sea)
$25/$20 (students and seniors)

Billy Bob Neck Subs for Boston News Net at ImprovBoston Tonight

Boston News Net is taking a break tonight, and Billy Bob Neck will step in with his "Case Against Barack Osama Homo Bin Laden." Neck is hoping to stop Obama from being sworn in on January 20th. This is his plan:

"Download this petition (http://billlybobneck.com/PETITION.doc) and get you're neighbors to sign and send it to President Bush before America gets turned into a nation of all night gay sex and crack orgies!"

See him lay it out tonight at ImprovBoston at 9:30PM.

Billy Bob Neck at ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect St., Central Square. $7/$5 students

BNN Mondays: MC Mr. Napkins' Headline Anagram JammaJam

This week's clip from Boston News Net comes from MC Mr. Napkins, a man who can turn the jobless rate into J-Lo's Arse. Which is the best kind of alchemy.



For more videos, visit BostonNewsNet.com

First Night Comedy

The First Night schedule is out, and features two regular comedy shows – Tony V.’s show (Hynes Convention Center Exhibit Hall D at 7:45, 9, and 10:15 PM), which this year features fellow veteran Ken Rogerson, and ImprovBoston (Hynes Convention Center Exhibit Hall C at 7:30, 8:45, and 10 PM).

Tony and Rogerson’s show is called “700 Billion Laughs: A Bailout of Humor From Some Serious Stupidity,” and Tony is quoted in the press release saying, “Start your year by investing in some titters and watching them grow to guffaws. This will be an evening of covering our own assets, diversifying some foolishness and restructuring your hedge fun. We got your dividends, right here!”

I thought something was fishy, since Tony is not prone to “titters.” But when I checked with him be e-mail, he said, “Yup! I said it - I meant it - And I stand by it.” So there you go. A comedy guarantee from Tony V.

For more info on First Night, visit www.FirstNight.org.