Live, from Boston, it’s: Saturday Night Laughs
By Sean L. McCarthy
Friday, November 25, 2005

Ah, the post-Thanksgiving family fatigue, leftover hangover, shopping mall hysteria. Couldn’t you use a good laugh right about now?

Thank goodness Boston has some very funny sketch and improv comedy groups that perform regularly in local venues.

Some shows resemble the short-form improv seen on TV’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Others mix in prepared skits, audience participation or longer improvised scenes.

But they’re all sure to provide a lot more giggles than NBC’s dead-on-arrival “Saturday Night Live.”

Meet the major players:

ImprovBoston (founded 1982): 1253 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge, 617-576-1253, www.improvboston.com

Up-and-coming talent flourishes at this long-running nonprofit theater.

Weeknights feature new and experimental performances, including “Hump” on Wednesdays and the “Great and Secret Comedy Show” on Thursdays, hosted by the awfully funny Walsh Brothers. Boston’s TheatreSports franchise takes the stage late Fridays, with a “Whose Line”-style competition. The Mainstage players perform Saturday nights.

Each ImprovBoston performance takes an initial audience suggestion and runs with it, sometimes asking for tips to influence direction or having cast members “edit” scenes.

The shows can be hit or miss. Last week, the sold-out 8 p.m. show saw scenes with overlapping suggestions, blocked suggestions and low energy. The 10 p.m. performance was much funnier, moving from a chorus most fowl to “a sexy Christmas” musical number to an inept pack of tigers.

Between shows, performer Mat Gagne acknowledged the rollercoaster risks, both for the performers and the audience, of improv. “The highs are real high, but the lows are real low,” he said.

Improv Asylum (founded 1998): 216 Hanover St., North End, Boston, 617-263-6887, www.improvasylum.com

Improv Asylum bills its shows as PG-13.

But there’s plenty of edge to the main stage players’ current sketch and improv show, “Yankee Swap Death Match.”
Flat-screen TVs on poles help set the scene and enhance the experience.

On a recent Friday, skits included a first-date dinner gone wrong due to a distinct lack of online privacy, office ninjas (called in for the “Yankee Swap Death Match”) and a surprise party for a newly blind guy.

The improv portions sometimes seemed scattered.

But the high-energy antics of Micah Sherman, a musical duet by Rachel Bitney and Taylor Burris, and the uncanny ability of Jeremy Brothers to channel the likable and winning humor of Bruce McCulloch from “Kids in the Hall” holds the show together.

Hang onto your ticket Friday or Saturday and stick around for free midnight offerings. On Fridays, guest troupes perform sketch or improv in The Night Shift (tonight: Dillinger, Mike The Intern; Dec. 2: Dressed in Black and Vegan, The Menace). On Saturdays, the Midnight Show lets loose as the Improv Asylum performers do things they wouldn’t normally do before midnight.

Take that however you want.

The Tribe (founded 2003): 67 Stuart St., Theater District, Boston, 617-510-4447, www.tribeboston.com

Up, up, up on the third floor on Stuart Street, you’ll find a new buzz where the Buzz once was. Founder and co-artistic director Neraj Tuli calls his tribe a collective, serving up everything from sketch and improv comedy to a cappella, dance, film and multimedia.

“Improv Asylum was very commercial in its approach, and ImprovBoston (takes a) very artistic approach,” Tuli said. “I felt there needed to be something in the middle.”

So far, audiences love it. Tribe won four categories in this year’s Boston Phoenix best-of issue: Best Club for Comedy, Best Theater Company, Best Place to Meet People and Best Kept Secret.

Shows are at 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays (not this week, though) and usually pack the former dance club. Each show is broken into 30-minute segments spotlighting individual troupes.

The Tribe Players (the mainstage cast) displayed a powerfully polished set last week, as seven men and one woman wove their way through a mix of short-form games (including “Slide Show” and “Action Figures”) and short but snappy vignettes.

Other Tribe groups include the Rumble, Wrong Kind of Funny, the Girlie Project, Ten Union Robots, Comedy Bronze, the Tommy Lavelle Show, Director’s Lab, New England Family, Damn Skippy, Sawyer and Hurley, Inner D (a cappella), Detritus Blow and the Good Students.

Why so many groups? “It’s a social experience when you come out to see a Tribe show,” Tuli said. “That’s how we have 130 members or so. People come and realize it’s a pretty cool place.”