The ColdTowne Theater Cage Match

Wesley · Post by **Wesley** » November 21st, 2006, 1:49 pm

I think you can get away with one a quarter.

Maybe one every two months if you bounce them around to different venues so that people don't just think one venue is constantly overhyping and tune it out.

And differentiation. They all need to be different enough in gimmick to attract an audience.

Here's my one fear, though. Same thing as happened at WaffleFest. What happens when not every one who wants to play a certain "festival" gets in? With OoB, it makes sense, but with all-local things...I just don't want people winding up offended if they only got to play in 3 of the 6 yearly things. Especially with more and more people being in multiple projects. I don't want people mad every 2 months.

Roy Janik · Post by **Roy Janik** » November 21st, 2006, 2:03 pm

Wesley wrote: Here's my one fear, though. Same thing as happened at WaffleFest. What happens when not every one who wants to play a certain "festival" gets in? With OoB, it makes sense, but with all-local things...I just don't want people winding up offended if they only got to play in 3 of the 6 yearly things. Especially with more and more people being in multiple projects. I don't want people mad every 2 months.

This goes hand-in-hand with differentiation... the requirements of each festival/event would dictate how troupes are accepted.

just some ideas-
Storytelling- smaller festival, skewed towards troupes who like narrative... of course, it's not a big draw unless it's marketed right.
24 hour Festival- everyone's in, including side projects. We have like 17 troupes now, right?
National Free Night of Improv- one night only, but everyone plays. We create as many venues as possible, and have an online signup system for audiences... hideout, coldtowne, lawn of the Capitol, Carousel, etc...
Fauxfest- not everyone would want to take the time to develop a new persona for their troupe, so there'd probably be room.

*shrug*. I think figuring out who performs in a festival isn't that big of a problem so long as there are 1) clear owners and 2) established guidelines for acceptance.

Wesley · Post by **Wesley** » November 21st, 2006, 2:12 pm

We could also host festivals for general ideas and just infuse improv into them.

Like storytelling. Why should an entire "storytelling" festival be improv? We could own 8 of 12 or 15 slots and dominate it, but widen the net to build bridges with other artistic communities in town and introduce their audiences to us. That would be sweet.

Hell, half of improv is bad puns. I have a pie chart to prove it. And AIC memebers represented at the O Henry pun-off. Why not contact them and offer to do a show that night in conjunction with their festival, maybe even with winners of the various competitions. We could just latch ourselves onto others as well. Utilize their infrastructure and advertising for our own ends.

beardedlamb · Post by **beardedlamb** » November 21st, 2006, 2:12 pm

maybe the hesitation is just in using the word festival. i think specialized shows or event shows and weekends are different. like the same year's eve show certainly doesn't feel like a festival but it helps with marketing and hyping to have something feel like a special event.
festival is becoming this buzz word that automatically attracts people. festivals are popping up everywhere and i do think too much of a good thing is counteractive in this case. but i'm just talking about semantics.

Roy Janik · Post by **Roy Janik** » November 21st, 2006, 2:22 pm

beardedlamb wrote:maybe the hesitation is just in using the word festival. i think specialized shows or event shows and weekends are different. like the same year's eve show certainly doesn't feel like a festival but it helps with marketing and hyping to have something feel like a special event.
festival is becoming this buzz word that automatically attracts people. festivals are popping up everywhere and i do think too much of a good thing is counteractive in this case. but i'm just talking about semantics.

Yeah, good call. I don't want anyone to get freaked out over the word festival. Like Wafflefest is really just a clever way of getting people to come see us without the intensity of OOB, which is a festival with a capital PH. Wafflefest means extra work, certainly, but not an insane amount.

Roy Janik · Post by **Roy Janik** » November 21st, 2006, 2:24 pm

Wesley wrote: Like storytelling. Why should an entire "storytelling" festival be improv? We could own 8 of 12 or 15 slots and dominate it, but widen the net to build bridges with other artistic communities in town and introduce their audiences to us. That would be sweet.

Agreed. It could be a 24 Comedy Festival rather than just an improv festival. Intersperse standup and music in with the improv.

Wesley · Post by **Wesley** » November 21st, 2006, 2:40 pm

But even beyond comedy.

That's the bent, but I mean really different audiences than usual, not just a different form of comedy. There are story-telling competitions that are just straight, like a lot of that NPR crap.

But people love it.

I'd love to find ways to reach out to bands, dancers, poets, chefs (an improvised kitchen stadium at Whole Foods promotion?), jugglers, painters, film-makers, writers, etc., not just sketch and stand-up. Yes, we should deal more with them, too, but we are already building those bridges. We should look to build a few more.

Personally, I also am terrified of improv being pigeon-holed as only being capable of or only being worth producing comedy.

Roy Janik · Post by **Roy Janik** » November 21st, 2006, 2:46 pm

Wesley wrote:But even beyond comedy.

That's the bent, but I mean really different audiences than usual, not just a different form of comedy. There are story-telling competitions that are just straight, like a lot of that NPR crap. But people love it.

I'd love to find ways to reach out to bands, dancers, poets, chefs (an improvised kitchen stadium at Whole Foods promotion?), jugglers, painters, film-makers, writers, etc., not just sketch and stand-up. Yes, we should deal more with them, too, but we are already building those bridges. We should look to build a few more.

Personally, I also am terrified of improv being pigeon-holed as only being capable of or only being worth producing comedy.

Of course, absolutely, me too.

improvstitute · Post by **improvstitute** » November 21st, 2006, 3:14 pm

so what of the idea that these events benefit someone else? that is a great way to get free advertising and an eager audience. We would be giving up profits banking on it getting us future profits that aren't really easily measured. Even so, I feel strongly that benefit events are the way to go...at least some of the time. Say if we did a quarterly event, 2 could go to our pockets and 2 to 2 other organizations like Make-A-Wish Foundation, Safeplace, or Habitat For Humanity (or a billion other charities)

Benefiting others gets another organization or two helping us market the event...and often times to a different group of people. We will make fans just because we were willing to help out.

Roy Janik · Post by **Roy Janik** » November 21st, 2006, 3:26 pm

improvstitute wrote:so what of the idea that these events benefit someone else? that is a great way to get free advertising and an eager audience. We would be giving up profits banking on it getting us future profits that aren't really easily measured. Even so, I feel strongly that benefit events are the way to go...at least some of the time. Say if we did a quarterly event, 2 could go to our pockets and 2 to 2 other organizations like Make-A-Wish Foundation, Safeplace, or Habitat For Humanity (or a billion other charities)

Benefiting others gets another organization or two helping us market the event...and often times to a different group of people. We will make fans just because we were willing to help out.

a 24 improv event could easily be tied into a canned goods drive, I reckon.

arthursimone · Post by **arthursimone** » November 21st, 2006, 4:53 pm

Wesley wrote: Hell, half of improv is bad puns. I have a pie chart to prove it. And AIC memebers represented at the O Henry pun-off. Why not contact them and offer to do a show that night in conjunction with their festival, maybe even with winners of the various competitions. We could just latch ourselves onto others as well. Utilize their infrastructure and advertising for our own ends.

I should get on this and be more aggressive with it; one of the Pun-Off organizers who was duly impressed by the AICers really wants to collaborate on some events leading up to the big day. let us be lovers we'll marry our fortunes together...

ChrisTrew.Com · Post by **ChrisTrew.Com** » November 21st, 2006, 4:57 pm

fyi: a 24 hour improv event is in the works at ColdTowne Theater. It's just a tiny tiny tiny seed right now but it will happen in 07.

Have you guys been to the fundraising thread yet? Go, Go, Go!

Roy Janik · Post by **Roy Janik** » November 21st, 2006, 5:02 pm

ChrisTrew.Com wrote:fyi: a 24 hour improv event is in the works at ColdTowne Theater. It's just a tiny tiny tiny seed right now but it will happen in 07.

Have you guys been to the fundraising thread yet? Go, Go, Go!

I will take on as much of that as you care to give me.

beardedlamb · Post by **beardedlamb** » November 21st, 2006, 5:14 pm

a note on really long shows:

the reason for the whj 27 hour show being 27 hours was originally to beat what guiness had in their book as the longest show being 26.5 hours. but, it turned out to be very good because we were able to occupy two nights worth of prime time spots.
if you do a 24 hour show and start at 8pm on friday, you end your big awesome spectacle show at 8pm the following day and have nothing for the rest of the night. kind of silly.
our biggest audiences were when we kicked the show off at 8pm on friday and the next day the downstairs space was sold out for the last few hours of the show until we ended it at 11pm. you could even stretch it to be 7pm friday to midnight saturday i think. 29 hours just sounds good.

Wesley · Post by **Wesley** » November 21st, 2006, 5:33 pm

I would also love to help with 24 hours of improv and/or working with the O. Henry people. I got a million more, too. We haven't even begun to tap potential avenues for audiences, yet.

These are all those non-traditional advertising ideas we were supposed to splinter off so many moons ago before we stalled a lot trying to get traditional stuff off the ground. I'm ready to begin re-exploring them.