Improvaganza! The Hawaii Festival of Improv is a gathering and celebration of Improvised theatre in all its diverse expressions. It is Hawaii’s only festival dedicated to Improv comedy and improvised theatre. Improvisers from all over the world come to Honolulu for a weekend of improv performances, workshops, and events. The festival strives to cultivate Hawaii’s local improv theater community by showcasing local and mainland improvisers while providing opportunities for them to network with each other. The festival also strives to raise the profile of this rare art form by introducing audiences to entertaining, stimulating, and thought provoking performances, and by offering improvisational workshop with some of the country's best improv teachers.
Improvaganza is the brain child of local improviser and festival executive producer Garrick Paikai. It was first produced in November of 2006 by Smash Box productions and Paikai’'s own improv group, ON THE SPOT IMPROV. Since its begining improvaganza has showcased over 60 acts from all over the world.
Improvaganza is also a independent arts festival. It has no corporate sponsors nor is it a non Profit. all it'sfunding by the a handful of Honolulu based improvisers. Every production of this festival has been done in the DIY independent spirit. Everything from insurance cost, to programs, to our kickass after parties is funding completely out of our own improvisers pockets.
Bunker 13 was originally a full length improvised play at Wing-Productions, Seattle. Bunker 13 is an improvised long form comedy revolving around the lives of five soldiers in Vietnam, 1968. The show explores the friendships and hardships of Sarge, Mick, Joker, Rhino and “Z” through improvised dialog, flashbacks, letters from home and trips “downrange” into the jungle. Brutally funny, heartbreaking and profane
Chocolate Squirrel is a troupe founded by Fernando Pacheco, John Waihe`e and Jennifer Waihe'e in 2008. All three members are alumni of Fundamentals of Improv with Shannon Winpenny (FISW) and are performers at Laughtrack Theater. Chocolate Squirrel has been performing since May 2009, when it debuted its first show, “Das Auto”.
Chocolate Squirrel's current project is "The Greatest Improv Show … Ever!", an improvised creation of the most indulgent, lascivious, and perverse i.e..., the “greatest”—improv show ever imagined. Chocolate Squirrel uses an audience suggestion to conceive of the greatest improv show known to man.
Crayons Improv from Tulsa Oklahoma performs their own flavor of shortform improv. Know for their family friendly improv and performance style Crayons is witty and hilarious. They performed recently at the Chicago Improv festival and has also performed at the Austin Out of Bounds Comedy Festival and Improv Fesatival Oklahoma. Improvagnza will be their Hawaii Debut
Dicks and Jane formed in July 2010, and is comprised of improvisers regularly performing at the Laughtrack Theater Company. Karma is a conglomeration of ideas and concepts imparted by many acclaimed improv personalities from Hawaii and Chicago.
Dicks and Jane will present their show Karma at this years Improvaganza. Karma is an improv show that explores causal links between relationships. The actions and inactions of each scene's characters affect the characters that follow. This show is guaranteed to be unique, thoughtful and not-to-be missed.
Dirty Laundry (from Wing-It Productions in Seattle, Washington) is an improvised couples therapy play that takes a comedic look at love, lust and relationships. We take a couple from the audience and thrust them into therapy to show just how close they are to making up... or breaking up. The therapy session drives the show through flashbacks, flash-forwards, and hypothetical scenarios as we explore the crazy ups and downs of love!
Dirty Laundry performed to sold-out crowds during its local run and performed at improv festivals in Seattle, Austin and Chicago. Improvaganza is proud be included on to their list of festivals
Improvaganza Fan Favorites, Galapagos is one of a hand full of improv groups who has performed at improvaganza Three years in a Row. Galapagos is a longform improv group from Phoenix. They have been performing since 2003 and are strong believers of longform Improvisation as art.
In the words of Excutive Producer Garrick Paikai "Galapagos is a team of true improv scholars and philosphers. They use improv to truely explore themes and ideas." For audiences Galapagos adjust there show format slightly fit their performance block. Fans of invocation (a type of opening improvisers use to generate ideas and a mind set) Galapagos give each show a weight of exploration which is amazing to watch.
Hello Laser has been performing together for almost 4 years. Formed by Armando Diaz in 2007, the team plays every Thursday at his theater, The Magnet, in New York City. Hello Laser will perform the Snapshot, an improv show which explores the often bizarre and always hilarious avenues born from a single frozen moment. This year will be Hello Laser thrid year in a row performing at improvaganza. Hello Laser is amazing to watch live and is sure to bring down the house.
Graduates of the Fundamentals of Improv with Shannon Winpenny _ Laughtrack Theater Homewreckers have been wrecking homes on improv stages since January of 2011. An audience suggestion starts the show and an activity which inspires the team’s unique opening. What ensues over the next two dozen minutes is a high energy, briskly physical, no-holds-barred exploration of relationships, ideas, and philosophies based on that suggestion and the initial stage picture. In other words, a creative (and hopefully hilarious) train-of-thought wreck!
Landry & Summers is a two person improv ensemble performing together since 1986 and married since 1991. Performing Sketch and Improv Comedy, Shaun Landry and Hans Summers brings deconstructed improv about relationships. They are both founding members of the original African American Improv Ensemble Oui Be Negroes.
Landry & Summers will be performing their hit show "Yes We are F**king" to Improvaganza. Landry & Summers improv set is not only uses elements of longform deconstruction but uses the barely ever used "Blackout" Technique that brings the lightperson in with the improvisation.
MegaLou (Megan Gray and Louis Kornfeld) have been dating for thirteen years. Both have been improvising for over eight years in New York City where they have studied improv at the Magnet Theater and the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre. Both are seasoned improv teachers and currentkly teach improv classes at the Magnet Theater. Megalou show takes advantage of their relationship to push the physical and moral boundaries of improvised comedy. This will be the duo's second Improvaganza Apperance.
mmmmK is the duo Marc Majcher and Kristin Firth from Austin, Texas. They have been performing together since 2006, and did their first show as mmmmK in 2007. They love creating stories. Some of their first narrative shows were as a duo, but since then they've performed with larger casts in improvised story-telling shows inspired by Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, surreal art, ghost stories, film noir, and Philip K. Dick. Their shows together span the spectrum from silly to serious.
At Improvaganza they will be doing their original "P.S." format. You'll see two characters living unique lives, who are bonded to each other by communicating via the "written" word. They explore the outside relationships of these characters as well as their connection to eachother, and you get to see a piece of their story.
Morally Improv-erished from Juneau Alaska was founded in 2004 to instruct, promote, and perform the art of improvisational theater in Alaska. Their show An Improbable Act incorporates page one of an unpublished, locally-written play or work-in-progress into an otherwise improvised play structure. By working with locally-based playwrights, An Improbable Act promotes local, cross-disciplinary interaction within the humanities.
Sean TC O'Malley and R Kevin Garcia Doyle has been a part of the Hawaii improv scene since it began in 1993. Almost 20 years later they are still improvising together as the amplified acoustic-rock group on a reunion tour "Oil in the Alley."
Oil in the Alley features invisible improv with audience input extracted in context and in character. The reunion tour has a realistic feel, as the former stars rhapsodize with the audience about their once-brilliant careers between performing three or four of their (improvised) greatest hits.
Hawaii's Longest running group and the host group of Improvaganza On the Spot, formed out of Leeward Community College and has represented Hawaii's improv scene all around the counrty. Once again OTS will present two completely origianl improv show at this years Improvaganza. Tell-Tale Dreadful and HUSH.
Tell-Tale Dreadful: Inspired by the works of Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe. "Tell-Tale Dreadful" is On The Spot's improvised macabre cabaret. Set in Victorian London the group improvises in the guise of a wondering troupe of actors performing reenactments of infamous tales of dread. Combining elements of farce, villainy, mime, this highly stylistic show is a delightfully dark and hilarious look at madness, mayhem, and murder.
HUSH: is a live action 1920's silent movie set in the style of some of the silent movies biggest stars like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. Hush captures all the charm and nostalgia of the silent movie era with strong characters, physicality, and musical accompaniment. This show is completely improvised and done without dialog.
Improvaganza welcomes back Seattle'’s premiere puppet improv group Puppet This. Puppet This has been performing for 4 years and at festivals. This Year Puppet present their new show THE GREAT PUPPET HAPPINESS MACHINE.
THE GREAT PUPPET HAPPINESS MACHINE: In this musical improvised show, the twisted minds behind popular improv act Puppet TV combine adult improv savvy with the style of classic children’s shows (The Bugaloos, H.R. Pufnstuf) to transform your fears, bad days and tragedies into happiness any way they can..…even if that means singing about kittens.
Meet Revlis. She comes to us from a distant future. Here only briefly to exchange greetings, learn something about a different time, and maybe share a moment or two. A solo improv performance from Kristin Firth.
Revlis Improv from the Future begins during a blackout with the booming voice of "Time Machine" letting the audience know that he is a time machine, and that they are about to meet Revlis, a visitor from the future, here to conduct research.
This solo show was created by Firth out of a four-week "Solo Improv" workshop with Jill Bernard (who performed at last year's Improvaganza) when Jill visited Austin. The Institution Theater hosted a showcase during which Firth did a 6 minute version of the show. The full-length version premiered at FronteraFest at the Hyde Park Theater in Austin. Frith also produces an ongoing solo showcase at the Hideout Theater, during which Revlis is featured
Laughtrack Theater’s most successful graduating class, Something Classy, combines comedic styling as diverse as the backgrounds of its members. The bonds of friendship off-stage are evident in the play on-stage. Each member brings something unique to the group as a whole; whether it be crazy characters, witty banter or dynamic relationships. It is always something fun, something smart, and Something Classy
One of Two Featured improv Groups at this year's Improvaganza Super Mega Art Show seeks to delve into the pretension inherent in performance art, with hilarious results. The amazing thing is if this is done well enough, artistry is actually created in the process.
Dartanion London and Graham Downing are Hanz and Hiemen: two foreign intellectuals who will teach you to appreciate their interactive performance art, no matter how bad it is. Art is Truth. Truth is Pain. Pain is Funny. Super Mega Art Show.
Twinprov from Oklahoma City met ON THE SPOT (The Host Group of Improvaganza) in April 2011 at the Chicag Improv Festival and after seeing their Rap-sody show was immediatly asked to be featured performers by OTS at this year's Improvaganza.
Formed in 2009, Twinprov is a one-of-a-kind comedy troupe made up of two-of-a-kind twin brothers Buck and Clint Vrazel that specializes in creating reality-altering improv, stand-up, sketch, and musical comedy. The Vrazels have been performing and teaching improv for 11 years and are a driving force in the Oklahoma improv scene. In 2009, they co-founded OKC Improv, the state’s first professional improv showcase where they currently teach classes and perform with numerous troupes
Named by Metromix Chicago as one ot the 10 Can't Miss Shows at this year's Chicago Improv Festival, Rap-sody is an original musical long-form in which an audience suggestion is dynamically explored and expanded upon through a series of alternating improvised scenes and rap/hip-hop songs. Since debuting the form in the summer of 2010, Twinprov has performed Rap-sody at theaters and festivals around the country.
This year Improvaganza has teamed up with Kickstarter.com to help raise the funds needed for our festival. Kickstarter is a website that helps independent artist launch their dream projects, in our case an improv festival in Honolulu. People who believe in our festival pledge money on kickstarter to become our festival backers. We would like to acknowledge and thank all the people who have pledge money to this years Improvaganza Kickstarter Project. Mahalo Nui Loa
Garrick Paikai
Executive Producer
Improvaganza
Jonathan Wong, Elizabeth Westermann, R Kevin Garcia Doyle, Stephanie Farnum, Heather Galbreath, Carlynn Wolfe, Dominica Malcom, Andrew Utech, Dawn, Tony Pisculli, Holly Hearn, Joe Leibovich, Beth Dunn, Polarsounds, Scott Wilson, Sandra Finney
Mike Christensen, Stephanie Curtis Conching, Kim Ip, Kristin Firth, Marc Majcher, Genie Joseph, Jonathan Pitts, Dartanion London, Fernando Pacheco, Wayne Kato, Ann Comstock,Sharon Early, Mari Ann Snider, Sean O'’Malley, Ratana Therakulsathit
The Hideout Theatre (Austin, TX), Ken Uedoi, Michael Reyes, Shaun Landry, Kristin Van Bodegraven, Cate Browning. Pam O'’Mara, Michael Christenson, Alissa Joy Lee, Noelle Poole, Tammy Metz Starr, Carol Doi, Ryan Allen, Ryan ???, Jen Robideau,
Matt Toyama (Xi Mao) . Rod Cachola, Bill Binder, Buck & Clint Vrazel (TWIN PROV), Nicole Tessier, Darren Tome, Jordan Matayoshi.
UPDATED 7/18/2011:
The Improvaganza Kickstarter Project has officially ended. Thank you so much to our backers. if you would still like to back the festival click the contact link above. Mahalo
Imagine a brand new performance/club space built with the audience in mind. That’s what theVenue is. Amenities include an elevated stage, green room, and quality sound and lighting system. theVenue also has VIP seating and full
bar service.
1146 Bethel Street
Across the Street from the Hawaii Theater
Next Door to BambuTwo
The ARTS at Marks Garage is a collaborative gallery, performance and office space for businesses and non-profit organizations aiming to transform downtown Honolulu with the power of the arts. We are located in Chinatown and the Honolulu Arts and Cultural District. The ARTS at Marks Garage is a key community project of Hawai‘i Arts Alliance.
1159 Nuuanu Avenue
Mauka side of the Hawaii Theater
Parking available at the rear of building
www.hawaiiartsalliance.org
Chinatown Arts District
Once again Improvaganza is please be held in the Heart of the historic Chinatown Arts District in down town Honolulu. Chinatown is Hawaii's most exciting and mysterious neighborhood. The historic district has long been a popular gathering place for kama`aina and visitors. As a gateway to Hawaii for many immigrants, Chinatown is a colorful and eclectic blend of Southeast Asian cultures.
Both of Improvaganza performance locations, the ARTS at Marks Garage (1159 Nuuanu Ave) and The Venue (1146 Bethel Street,) are in short walking distance from each other and near by some of Chinatown's great resturants, businesses, and, night clubs.
Some Notable Chinatown Establishments:
JJ Dolans, Murcury Bar, Indigo, Bambu 2, O'Toole's Irish Pub, Du Vin, Down Beat Cafe, Little Village Chinese Resturant, Otto Cake, and Let them Eat cupcakes,
Epic Resturant, Soho
Use the contact form to send us an email and click the Icons below to go directly to our social media pages.
Blink Your Way to Brilliance: Using Science to Make you Faster with Dartanion London
This workshop explores the idea that your brain has two "gears", and one of them is much
faster than the other. This is on purpose, and once you understand why your brain does that, you can be more conscious about which "gear" you want to be in onstage.
Dartanion London is a uniquely versatile (weird) comedian. His smart and silly performances bend genres through standup, improv and sketch comedy. He has performed across the United States and Canada for humans and/or whales (Bumbershoot, LA/DC/Hawaii Comedy Fest, San Juan Island Orca Fest).
His two-sentence writing has been featured in the book "Twitter Wit: Brilliance in 140 Characters or Less". He is a cast member at Jet City Improv in Seatle WA. Some of his original shows he's produced include Week of Fun festival, the standup / improv blend Dartmondo, and Super Mega Art Show which will be performed at this year's improvaganza.
When: Saturday September 24
Where: the ARTS at Marks Garage (1159 Nuuanu Ave.)
Time: 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Cost $50
Email r.kevin.doyle_gmail.com to register for this workshop .
Just Kiss Her: Emotional Physical Improv
with Shaun Landry
Have you found yourself across the stage screaming "I Love You" to the partner you just married improvisationally or found yourself with a black eye in a improv fight scene gone horribly awry? Have you never *been* in a fight scene for fear of it going horribly awry? This improv workshop will cover basic the esseintials of physical contact in improv. Landry's workshop will include stage combat, trust excercises, and a basic theatre major physical work, or Jerzy Grotowski into improv.
Shaun Landry is an Alumnus of the Second City Chicago, Oui Be Negroes, Irish Mutts, & Landry and Summers Who will be performing at this years Improvaganza. She teaches simple physical techniques and brings a sense of fearlessness to your play when it comes to showing real emotional context to your scenes. This class will finally have your audience quietly stop screaming to themselves: ""Good grief. JUST KISS HER!"
When: Saturday Sept 24
Where: The ARTS at Marks Garage (1159 Nuuanu Ave.)
Time: 2:30pm - 4:30pm
