Our monthly comedy mashup returns to Cafe Deux Soleils on Tuesday, September 24 with an annual celebration of some of the city’s finest arts festivals: Vancouver Fringe and Vancouver Writers Festival.
The first half of Improv X will feature short form games inspired by theatre genres and the recent Vancouver Fringe. The second half is a montage of scenes inspired by the upcoming Vancouver Writers Fest and their official Festival Reading List!
Come kick off the Fall with a night of funny! Doors at 7:30 pm, show at 8 pm, and tickets are $7 or $5 for students! See you there!
The comedy mashup returns to Cafe Deux Soleils on Tuesday, September 25 with a celebration of Vancouver Fringe 2018! Joining us for Improv X Fringe are performers Jennifer Pielak (Inside Voices), Travis Bernhardt (Pick of the Fringe winner Unscriptured) and Rachelle Lachland (Dyck Spacee)!
Jennifer is an actor, improviser and singer who has trained as a performer in Vancouver and Chicago. Along with being a working actor in Commercials, TV/Film & Theatre, she is becoming known as one of the top musical improvisers in Canada. She co-founded Off Key Improv and teaches classes in the art form here in Vancouver.
Jennifer has performed improv at Second Storey Theatre, with Vancouver TheatreSports Rookie League, The Fictionals Comedy Co, Table23 Comedy, Improv Boston, the rEvolver Theatre Festival, the Vancouver International Improv Festival, and the New York Musical Improv Festival. Her latest theatre credits include RENT (Maureen), Connected: The Musical, Dogfight, and playing Katniss Everdeen in Hunger Games The Musical Trilogy (which got it’s start at Vancouver Fringe 2015).
Travis Bernhardt is a Fringe veteran who has performed all over the world with his shows Unpossible, Charlatan and 2017 & 2018’s hit Unscriptured. As well as being a regular performer with Instant Theatre and The Fictionals, he’s the Travis half of the duo Chris & Travis, who has performed at Fringe festivals across Canada. Travis is also an award-winning cabaret host, magician, and corporate entertainer.
Rachelle Lachland regularly performs improv in Vancouver at the The Quad Comedy’s monthly shows at XYYVR Lounge. She has created formats and produced shows through Union Jacked and The Quad Comedy and has had her work featured in Instant Theatre Company’s Prototype Festival. She is Producing, Directing and Playing in the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival show ‘Dyck Spacee- A Spy-Fi Improvised Radio Play’. The show is a Film Noir/ Science Fiction comedic genre mash up. Her goal in life is to share improv with as many people as she can, in as many countries as she can afford to go to!
We will be inspired by Inside Voices, Unscriptured and Dyck Spacee, as well as the Fringe and other theatre works! Join us for Hot Improv Tuesdays at Cafe Deux Soleils on September 25 starting at 8 pm – tickets just $7 or $5 for students!
Theatre for the masses! Vancouver Fringe Festival 2018 returns from September 6 to 16, featuring 99 shows by hundreds of entertainers in over 700 performances!
Part-theatre and part-party, there’s something for everyone at the Vancouver Fringe. There are mainstage shows, BYOV events, live music at the Phillips Fringe Bar, and more to enjoy. With so much to see and do, what shows should you spend your hard-earned Fringe time on? The Fictionals are here to help you decide with our GYFO Picks, all featuring members of our #ImprovFamily.
When and Where: September 6 to 16 at Firehall Arts Centre
The Show: Veteran musical improvisers Jennifer Pielak and Peter Abando use the present-moment, their incredible chemistry, and their storytelling skills to let inner voices out to play. This duo will make you wonder how they got inside your head in this silly, honest, and introspective musical that celebrates vulnerability and how weirdly the same we are.
The Show: Nakatomi Plaza. Christmas Eve. 1988. John McClane is on a mission to save his wife from German terrorists led by the debonair Hans Gruber… while singing parodies of hit songs from the ‘80s. District 13 Presents (Hunger Games Musical Trilogy) is back with an all new action-packed musical ready to blow your mind. Yippee-Ki-Yay!
When and Where: September 6 to 16 at Firehall Arts Centre
The Show: Putting the JOY in feminist killjoy! Sketch, stand-up, monologue, satirical news, and more starring Diana Bang (Assaulted Fish, The Interview), Morgan Brayton (CBC’s The Debaters, Vancouver Fringe Festival Critics’ Choice Award), Fatima Dhowre (Winnipeg Comedy Fest, JFL NorthWest), and Katie-Ellen Humphries (Vancouver Comedy Joke of the Year Award, The Debaters).
When and Where: September 6 to 16 at Carousel Theatre
The Show: The improvised church service for a religion made up on the spot! A brand new comedy from multiple time (2013/16/17) Vancouver Pick of the Fringe award winner Travis Bernhardt. Come sing, laugh, and pray together.
When and Where: September 6 to 16 at the Improv Centre
The Show: Award-winning comedy duo Hip.Bang! (Just For Laughs, Comedy Central, The Irrelevant Show) returns to the Vancouver Fringe with a new immersive comedy about modern surveillance and invasion of privacy. Please arrive early to sign the mandatory waiver and to prepare your belly for some deep, satisfying laughs.
The Show: From the ever-popular Neil Labute, a biting tale of love, lust, and betrayal. When shy and sheltered Adam meets art student and would-be vandal Evelyn, the two are immediately drawn to each other. Before long, Evelyn adds a dose of chaos and rebellion to Adam’s life with her boldness, fierceness, and the revelation of one shocking secret.
When and Where: September 6 to 15 at the Improv Comedy Institute
The Show: Dyck Spacee is a spontaneous improvised radio play that combines recognizable Film Noir tropes with a dash of Science Fiction. Listen as a curious new mystery-adventure unfolds every show, inspired by audience suggestions. You’ll get shady villains, red herrings and hilarious reversals of gender stereotypes. A little bit of everything with something for everyone!
When and Where: September 7 to 15 at False Creek Community Centre
The Show: Inspired by art house cinema and a penchant for the fantastically bizarre, Virginia Jack creates a brash and compelling one-act play on the spot. Two improvisers create characters together, and build an entire play from a single audience suggestion. The result is sometimes dark, often beautiful, and always hilarious.
When and Where: September 7 to 15 at Red Gate Revue Stage
The Show: Gossamer Obsessions is sketch comedy unlike any you’ve seen before. Warped by the winsome world, two curious narrators offer hilarious, spine-winding tales of mirth, malady, and mirthful malady. Gossamer Obsessions has previously headlined the now-defunct Vancouver Sketch Festival and toured the continent to great acclaim.
When and Where: September 7 to 15 at Waterfront Theatre
The Show: Ruby Rocket is an intoxicating, intoxicated female private detective who always gets her man. Except when she doesn’t. In this hilarious dark comedy, Stacey Hallal improvises with a rotating cast of brilliant improvisers from Vancouver and the Fringe, transporting you into 1930s Cashigo City – a city as corrupt as it is dirty, which is saying a lot. Because Cashigo City is filthy. Jon Timm provides stunning projected visuals that will keep you completely mesmerized.
All tickets for the Vancouver Fringe Festival shows are $15 plus a one-time $7 membership fee. Some shows have special half-price performances. For more information visit: www.vancouverfringe.com
