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#improv in #SF is getting some great ink - come check out what all the fuss is about at #SFIF2018! Thanks for taking a look @sfchronicle_datebook! (at PianoFight) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnzBg7Zn38_/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=aaupvhdnedry

#improv #sf #sfif2018

cappstreetcrap

Learning to improv: Mission Street takes a comic turn

Something funny is happening near 17th and Mission streets.

Behind the paper-covered windows of a former Sprint cellphone store, a new comedy training center has opened, offering improv classesfour nights a week and occasionally on weekends. Endgames Improv has been around since 2010 and also holds classes elsewhere in the city and in Oakland, but its lease of 2081 Mission St. is the company’s first large space of its own.

Max McCal, one of the founders of Endgames and now one of its directors, said Endgames used to rent out space at 333 Valencia St. but their lease expired and the new rent was unaffordable.

“This is definitely the biggest move we’ve made,” he said.

The Mission Street location is offering classes in long form improv on Mondays through Thursdays as well as occasional drop-in classes on Saturdays. Endgames also teaches a class at Oakstop in Oakland and has a classroom at Stage Werx Theatre on Valencia Street, where it puts on regular performances.

The lease of the new space follows a year of big growth for the organization, McCal said, noting that among other things Endgames has gone from two nights of shows a week to six.

“I think the word is out on improv – as a form of comedy and performance, as a way to improve your communication abilities and as a philosophy,” he said.

On a Thursday evening last week, the new training center’s first week in operation, a group of more than a dozen students stood in a circle with their instructor and introduced themselves before breaking into an exercise where they pretended to fight with invisible samurai swords, acting out dramatic death scenes.

Although the space still needs work – it will eventually be renovated so that there are three separate classrooms – McCal makes no secret of his happiness with Endgames’ new home.

“Brand new fucking training center,” he told students before that Thursday class got started, “I just get chills when I say that.”

sfimprovfest

The word is indeed out... Great news for SF improv!

#sf #Improv

Euro Trash. No, they're super nice!! - that's the name of their group! Catch their show opening night with the San Jose's AIT Players, Wednesday, Aug 16 @ 7:30pm https://www.eventbrite.com/e/euro-trash-with-ait-players-tickets-36235286718 #SFIF2017 #improv #sf #mysanfrancisco #Happy50thHarold

#sfif2017 #mysanfrancisco #happy50thharold #improv #sf

Opening Night Triple Header! Short form champions @comedysportzsanjose team up with @undashscripted & their Tinderriffic show, Swipe Right - and both are joined by Sacramento power duo (that's a thing? Yep - that's a thing.), Danger:us! @pianofightsf @speechlesslive http://ow.ly/aWpg30eoNPz #OpeningNight #SFIF2017 #improv #SF #comedy

#improv #sfif2017 #comedy #sf #openingnight

Odell and DeJong deliver 100% improvised joy and throw in a mathematically impossible extra 10% because they're just *that* good! Check 'em out with @flashmobmusical Wednesday Aug 16 at 7pm after Opening Night Party drinks (if you get there before the tab runs out!) sponsored by @speechlesslive @pianofightsf #FirstShowOfTheFest #SFIF2017 #improv #SF #comedy

#sfif2017 #comedy #improv #sf #firstshowofthefest

Just closed the doors on our last pre-fest, all-hands production meeting - #SFIF2017 starts this Wednesday! #improv #SF #Happy50thHarold

#improv #sfif2017 #happy50thharold #sf

Show recording of The Committee, performed at 622 Broadway in SF, April 22nd, 1967. Possibly the earliest extant recording of the Harold.

The Harold turns 50 this year. The first successful format for a completely improvised theatrical performance, it was the result of the combination of efforts of Committee company director Alan Myerson, musical director Allaudin “Bill” Mathieu, improvisational mad scientist, Del Close, and the rest of The Committee company. Using Viola Spolin’s Theater Games as a common reference, musical theory & structures, and forms experimented with by The Committee and elsewhere by Close, the Harold was born in a rehearsal at The Committee’s theater at 622 Broadway in early Spring of 1967.

As many in improvisation know, Close took this San Francisco format to Chicago, standardized it as a replicable training tool with Charna Halpern at Improv Olympic (now iO), and trained a generation of performers that shaped what we know as popular comedy today.

The recording pictured above was unearthed by the SF Improv Festival-sponsored project and episodic documentary, The Committee: A Secret History of American Comedy (www.TheCommitteeMovie.com).

Come see BATS Improv and Pockets perform their versions of a classic Harold at the 2017 SF Improv Festival (shows run August 16-19 at PianoFight)!

#improvisation #theatre #history #sanfrancisco