Seoul City Improv, the city’s first and only English-speaking improvised comedy troupe, will be marking 10 years in the funny business with an anniversary show-slash-party Saturday.
The troupe started out performing the kind of short-form improv made famous by “Whose Line Is It, Anyway?” but later branched out into other forms, such as long-form improv and musical improv comedy, and SCI will try to highlight all its facets at the show.
Seoul City Improv (SCI)
SCI has been busy in recent years, according to the group’s president, Joel Horne. They moved into a new theater space owned by one of their members 18 months ago, and have taken part in the Shanghai Improv Festival and Busan International Comedy Festival, where they performed an open-air show nearby Gwangalli Beach.
“It was a very different experience, but we managed to drum up some fans in spite of the language barrier and unusual setting. It was great,” Horne said.
At home, they have begun monthly shows, and frequently host visiting improv artists from overseas and joint shows with Imfrog, their Korean-language sister group.
Saturday’s show will start with a selection of the group’s favorite short-form improv games, followed by a naturally unscripted long-form section where everyone takes on a character and jumps in and out of scenes to tell one long story.
There will be a party after that, followed by a show with more audience participation in the style of a TV trivia quiz, in which winners get to play short-form games that mix the audience and cast.
If staging a second show sounds like SCI is trying to have their birthday cake and eat it too, Horne explained that going by past experiences a second performance was inevitable
“In the past we’ve had our regular show and an after-party, but the stage proves too tempting for people to not get up on it again, so we’re formalizing it this time,” he said.
The show is on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Korea Improv Theater near Exit 8 of Sookmyung Women’s University Station in central Seoul.
Tickets are 10,000 won and available only at the door.
More details can be found on www.facebook.com/pg/SeoulCityImprov.
By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)
