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Friday, July 10, 2009

6:00 pm – FST Improv Opens the two days of laughs (Sarasota)
Taking what is right in front of them, in the form of audience suggestions, FST Improv creates characters and sketches on the spot. No one – not even the performers themselves – knows what is going to happen next. It is this element of the unknown that makes every Improv show unique –and what makes for some exciting moments onstage.

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7:00 pm – Goodbye Mailbox (LosAngeles)
Longform Improv. Performers Names: Jonathan Smith, Andie Bolt, Harrison Brown, Jonny Suarzbein
Named "Hot Farm Team" by Rolling Stone magazine and "Best Comedy Club" by AOL, The UCB Theatre is widely recognized as home to today's funniest actors and writers. Among our esteemed alumni include several performers and writers for Saturday Night Live, The Office, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 30 Rock, Best Week Ever, Old School, Blades of Glory, Semi-Pro and countless other films, commercials and television shows. Performers who have gained success continue to lend their talents to the theatre and training center.

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8:00 pm – Audience of Two (New York City)
Formed in 2001 at Swarthmore College as a sketch comedy radio show on WSRN 91.5, and began performing live sketch shows at venues around New York City in 2004.  Recently, they defeated fifteen other improv and sketch teams to win the People’s Improv Theater’s 2008 SketchProv Festival, and were named one of the Top Five Live Shows of 2008 by The Apiary.  Their latest sketch comedy show, Why Are We Friends?, recently completed a sold-out run at the People’s Improv Theater.  Sam and Ben have now been performing together for eight years, and if annoying each other and then writing sketches about it doesn’t pay off soon, they’re in big trouble.  They are thrilled to be considered for the 2009 Sarasota Improv Festival.

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9:00 pm – City Hall (New York City)
A New York based sketch comedy group, started in the fall of 2005. CITY HALL blends sketch comedy, music, dance, and puppetry together in order to answer adult questions, in a children’s show format.  Audiences have watched as CITY HALL has tackled subjects like life and death, love, friendship, and the afterlife.  The members of CITY HALL come from various theatrical and writing backgrounds and seek to combine, the dark absurdity of Monty Python, the original characterization of Kids in The Hall, the music of Flight of the Concords, and the sweetness of Mr. Rodgers into one comedic cocktail.  Your CITY HALL members are Christopher Booth, Patrick Frankfort, Dan Kramer, Luis Nunez, and Josh Wolinsky.  Hop aboard the imagination train – next stop CITY HALL.

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10:00 pm – Dad’s Garage (Atlanta, GA)
Dad's Garage produces 52 weeks per year with improv shows every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. We perform traditional and original formats including the improvised soap opera Scandal!, TheatreSports™ (we're the only officially sanctioned team in the Southeast), and our Japanese-style game show Samurai Davis Jr. and Dim Sum's Super Mega Happy Fun Time Improv Show! For the Improv Festival: Dr. Bob Frapples Improv Psychiatry Seminar– In this 60-minute Dear Abby-style show, audience members pose questions to the illustrious Dr. Bob Frapples, Improvisation Psychiatrist. Dr. Bob and his highly trained improv graduate students are guaranteed to find the solution to any problem through a series of spontaneous comedy scenes and the magic of improv psychiatry.

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11:00 pm – Improv Jam (FREE to Weekend Pass Holders/$10.00 single tickets)

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Saturday, July 11, 2009

11:00 am – FST’s Kids Komedy Cabaret (Sarasota)
Kids Komedy Cabaret is a mix of improvisation and sketch comedy written and performed by kids. Giggles and rib tickling laughs abound as the young performers ages 8 to 17 show us their comical take on the world from a fresh and silly perspective. Rated 'K' for kids of all ages. Individual tickets to this performance are $6.00 (includes lunch)
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5:00 pm – FST’s Vintage Whine (Sarasota)
FST's Senior Improv Group
Individual tickets for this performance are $5.00

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6:00 pm – Slave Leia (Los Angeles)
Performs their own signature improv form called the "24.”  The 24 is a modified "Evente" form that starts with an audience suggestion of an a event and time. All scenes are initiated with a time of day within the 24 hour period around the event, culminating in the event itself. We take that Quentin Tarantino thing and that 24 show, have them mate and make an improv baby, live on stage. 

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7:00 pm – Available Cupholders (Austin, TX)
The Available Cupholders theatre ensemble is dedicated to producing experimental, enriching and entertaining improvisational comedy. The Cupholders aspire to explore and expose an art form cloaked in natural communication, believing improv to be the theatre of everyday existence. Unlocking the power of this art form through live performance and various performative media, they strive to be on the cusp of daring theatrical experience that takes place anytime, anywhere. Their goal is to elevate the form and playing field, shedding light on the ever-changing zeitgeist in which we live, with belly laughs along the way.

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8:00 pm – Thy Will Be Done (Boston)
Fully-improvised story of a man and a woman struggling to find love.  In Thy Will Be Done, Will Luera and Alison Royer navigate the twists and turns of a new relationship while occasionally pleading with a higher power for help.  Each night, the audience provides the location, some background music, and a memory to help build the story of two people chasing love.  Sometimes they find it and sometimes they don’t.

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9:00 pm – Booth and Pat (New York City)

Booth Daniels & Patrick Frankfort took their decade of warped tomfoolery and bizarre insomnia-induced conversations and put ‘em into a duo act – part sketch comedy, part song with just a touch of the off-kilter. They’ve been seen at Carolines, Gotham Comedy Club, Comix, the Los Angeles Comedy Festival, The Duplex, Don’t Tell Mama, the P.I.T., Broadway Comedy Club, as well as regular appearances on the Joey Reynolds Show on WOR. Hailed as “the Smothers Brothers on crystal meth,” “a well-oiled laugh-riot machine,” and “a satirical mini-miracle,” they’re taking the entertainment world by storm, or at the very least, a sputtering drizzle. With original songs and schtick, they promise an evening of quirky entertainment, which is melodic, spontaneous, warped, but most of all, funny.

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10:00 pm – SAK (Orlando)
SAK Comedy Lab is a 200 seat improv comedy theater in downtown Orlando. Conveniently located near the Amway Arena, SAK performs improv comedy shows Tuesday through Saturday. SAK's ensemble performs in many different forms and styles of improv shows such as The Audition, SAK Request Live and Rub a Dub Dub, to name just a few.

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11:00 pm – Lazy Fairy (Sarasota)
An ever-evolving, innovative, Sarasota-based improv troupe dedicated to entertaining, training and teaching others in the purest form of theater: IMPROVISATION. Lazy Fairy Improv will perform their signature piece, “The Pinter,” - an fully improvised play performed in reverse order from end to beginning!

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11:40 pm – Improv Jam (FREE to pass holders/$10.00 single tickets)

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