Impro Cirque - 6th Edition

Last night, Impro Cirque was at it again with another hilarious performance! And this time, I brought a camera!

 Nicolas Fortin, MC extraordinaire

The night's match featured:

Red Team:

• Tom "Le Chelou" Cholot
• Soizick "Suzy" Hebert
• Ugo "The End" Laffolay
• Samuel "2Catch" Roy
• Anna "Kitch" Kichtchenko

Blue Team:

• Raphael "Muffin Top" Cruz
• Roch "Rocco" Jutras
• Hugo "On the Side" Ouellet-Cote
• Nicolas "Throw" Boivin-Gravel
• Alexandra "La Petite" Royer

Artists gettin' ready to rumble

With each edition, the popularity of Impro Cirque continues to grow. There were so many people there that by the time everyone was seated, it was a half hour past the scheduled start of the show. Moreover, many were forced to sit on the floor! But it didn't matter. The energy at Impro Cirque is nothing short of electric, and the level of enthusiasm is beyond contagious.

I had some seriously high expectations going in. And while I would like to say I was not disappointed, I must admit, there were some low points.

To begin with, the crowd. I know it's a strange point to make, but the crowd was a little too rowdy at times and often disruptive. I don't know how to explain it... it felt like those who have attended multiple, if not all the past representations of L'IC, turned it into their own inside joke and the resulting behaviour excluded those less familiar and disrupted the flow.

For example, if ever you disagree with the referee, you throw clown noses at him. This is extremely satisfying and usually pretty funny. But only when appropriate. When people start throwing clown noses every time the ref addresses the public, well... now you're just being the 'cool' kids in class and disrupting things for disruption's sake.

Also, and I hate to say this, there were a couple of improvs that were just plain bad. They were confused and the artists seemed to have a really hard time working together and being able to pick up on the propositions being made. This was especially sad when the theme was old school Batman and Robin trying to catch the evil Chinese cook (discipline: spinning plates, see photo below). That had mad potential. The improv was so confused that the ref actually stopped the artists and made them start over... aiee...

This was a disaster.

However, whatever low points there may have been, the high points were, without question, outstanding.

The opening improvisation was themed Greek gods and the discipline was straps. Both Hugo and Ugo are amazing on straps. There's a guy who does straps in my show, and while I love him to bits, he's got nothing on these two. Hot damn, I forgot how high the level is on straps in Montreal!

Ugo is a beast.

Now, there were some people from whom I expected brilliance, notably Raph and Tom, and they did not disappoint. But the real standout performance/discovery of the night was Alexandra Royer. Her hoop act was well constructed, she had great presence, and some great skills (Crocodile on a hoop? Bad. Ass.). But what sealed the deal for me was her portrayal of a mermaid. That moment will forever be a classic of Impro Cirque.

I don't care if the picture is blurry, it was awesome.

Going in, I had very high expectations for the Red team, but they pretty consistently got their asses handed to them by the Blue team. Fortunately, by throwing the final vote in favour of the Red team, the final score resulted in a tie. And who doesn't love a tie breaker?

 138 to 140

Caucus!

The final improv of the night was contact dance with the theme of heartbeats. Contact dance is something I love to do but, when done poorly, it can be a total bore to watch. Fortunately, this was not the case last night. It was actually quite beautiful, especially when you could really see the artists inhabit the theme.

At this point, my camera died. Here is a pic of 

an African dance themed three-high instead.

In the end, there could be only one winner. The final score was...

Congratulations Blue team! You deserved it!

And before I bring this bad boy to a close, I really need to give some shouts to co-founder (along with Nicolas Fortin) Philippe Trepanier. He is also the referee and is bloody brilliant at it. Ever the white clown, he is utterly hilarious. I also have huge amounts of respect for him and how he manages to balance the comedy with the actual structure and technical requirements of improv theatre. Hats off to you, friend!

Don't make me go circus on your ass.