ABOUT US

Brand new to Improv Shmimprov? Alright, here's how it works. We're a late-night improv comedy troupe. We play every Friday night at 11:00, and tickets are only five bucks. We don't pre-sell tickets, everything is first-come, first-serve at the door. If you're feeling lucky, you can roll the Admission Die and pay anything from $0-$9. We perform at the Maverick Theater in downtown Fullerton. Beer, soda, and candy are available as well. Improv Shmimprov is no-holds barred comedy, so strong language and offensive situations are almost guaranteed to pop up at some point during the show. While we don't enforce an age limit, use discretion if bringing younger audience members who you might not want exposed to vulgarity. The show last about an hour, usually a little longer. We play fast and we play hard, and we do it all in the hopes that you're going to have a great time along with us. We're tried and tested. Don't believe us? Well just check out our History. We've been doing this since 1998. We've had over 200 shows in the last three years. Find out what makes us so addictive.

Improv Shmimprov's history stretches back to 1998 to the beginning of an improv group called "Live Nude People (with clothes on)" at the campus of the University of California, Irvine. A small group of drama students that performed four times each school quarter, Live Nudes would eventually grow into a campuswide phenomenon, drawing hundreds of students to their free late-night shows. Among the original members were future Shmimprov founders Chris "Shaggy" Wolfe, Jacob-Russell-Snyder, Lindsay Hendrickson, and Nathan Makaryk. Freshmen at its inception, Shaggy, Lindsay and Nate would spend all four of their collegiate years with LNP, emerging as the show's leaders and organizers. Included in the cast were fellow Shmimprov founders Patrick Heyn and Nick McGee. When graduation came about, control of the group was handed to cast members Myka Fox and Miles Taber, both of which have now graduated themselves and perform with Improv Shmimprov. Live Nude People still performs every other Friday night at theaters in the Arts Department of UCI.

Liike most recent graduates, it took a while for things to get back on their feet. The original creator of LNP created a new cast in Los Angeles in the hopes of recreating the powerful attraction in "the real world" that the UCI group had achieved on campus. Many from the original group frequented the LA cast which included newcomer Jamie Scheel. LNPLA struggled however, and was met with limited success and financial difficulties. Jamie and Nate both became involved in a splinter group known as the Sideliners, which did not fare much better. Although these groups died out, they carried with them valuable experience, and their absence provided a very potent motivator : boredom. So rather than focusing on becoming successful or, in fact, performing at all, Improv Shmimprov was born in the form of a small group of people who got together every week for no purpose but to make each other laugh. For seven months, founders Shaggy, Jacob, Lindsay, Nate, Patrick, Nick, and Jamie met weekly just to have fun, which is the spirit that has driven Shmimprov to this day.

The first incarnation of Improv Shmimprov in performance was known as "Improv Shmimprov's Laugh Kitchen : Preheat to Funny!" and nick-named "Cooking Shmooking." The concept for the Laugh Kitchen was fairly simple : Jacob was hungry at the weekly gatherings, and wanted to combine them with food. But how could food and improv be combined? Shmimprov finally began performing for others based on a show format in which each audience member would "pay" for admission by bringing one food ingredient (anything from a chicken breast to a packet of parmesan cheese to a scoop of Lucky Charms) and throughout the show, the host would cook a meal in the kitchen that had to incorporate all of the audience's ingredients. The losing team of the night's show was forced to eat whatever the cook had concocted. The Laugh Kitchen performed in such prestigious locations in Orange County and Los Angeles as "Jacob's Dining Room" and "Shaggy's Den." In an act that proves the inherent intelligence of the universe, all recordings and video tapes of the Laugh Kitchen have been lost.

Through the proverbial grapevine, word reached Improv Shmimprov that the Maverick Theater was potentially looking for shows to fill its lineup. The Maverick had literally been built as a venue for owner Brian Newell's original show, "The King," and he then realized he had a fully functional theater and should continue to use it. In the summer of 2003, the Maverick was producing "The Rocky Horror Show," and a few weeks before the show opened, Nate and Lindsay met with Brian to pitch Improv Shmimprov. Anyone who is familiar with Rocky Horror knows that there is a heavy influence of audience participation in the form of vocal interaction and props. Coincidentally, the members of Improv Shmimprov had organized these audience prop bags and performed a preshow for Rocky Horror three years earlier with LNP at UCI. The combination was perfect : Shmimprov could handle this aspect of the show for the Maverick, and in return could perform late-night after Rocky Horror was over. Thus began the long-lasting union of Improv Shmimprov and the Maverick Theater. Shmimprov quickly gained a healthy mix of loyal return audience and an unlimited supply of new people who were at The Block simply shopping. Shmimprov trademarks like the DumbShow, the Admission Dice, the Penny Throwing, Arguebeast, and the Game Wheel helped secure Shmimprov as a popular late-night spot for entertainment. Then, at the end of Rocky Horror's run, the Maverick was suddenly slated for demolition.

The Maverick triumphantly returned almost three months later after the space had been resized by The Block. Completely dismantled and rebuilt again, the Maverick and Improv Shmimprov returned as strong as before, if perhaps a few seats shyer. Jacob having moved to New York during the first season, Shmimprov filled its ranks with the next generation of graduates from Live Nudes at UCI, notably Myka Fox and Jon Reiser. The Admission Dice were lost in the move, setting tickets to the incomparably low five bucks a head. The Shmimprov family grew as it rescued Tawnie Cameron from the dying Orange County Crazies and recruited improv-veteran Erik Furuheim fresh after moving to California. Now selling out every Friday and Saturday night, Shmimprov was a staple of entertainment for The Block at Orange.

Also known as the Shakespeare Season, memorable by the large Elizabethan set that encompassed the stage for the Maverick's productions of "Romeo and Juliet," and "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)" which starred Shmimprovers Nate, Nick, and Erik. The Penny Throw was phased out so as not to damage the set, replaced with the far friendlier and more unsettling HugTime. Jon and Shaggy both began temporary sabbaticals to focus on other projects, and Shmimprov too found itself performing at other venues. The Martini Blues in Huntington Beach and the Masquers Cabaret in Los Angeles both welcomed Improv Shmimprov to their stages in its third season. Shmimprov, like an Arguebeast or a Tall Guy, was unstoppable.

Shmimprov’s fourth spectacular season was ended prematurely by the second closing of the Maverick Theater. With the popularity of the Block at all-time high (undoubtedly caused solely by Shmimprov itself) new retailers could offer the Block more money than the Maverick could, and so the theater had to be completely disassembled again in June of 2004. The Maverick swore to return again, but Shmimprov needed to find a new home until that time arose. The momentum of the show had grown so large that every show had been selling out for months, and the closing performance at the Block drew enough people that an entire convention of Fire Marshalls wouldn’t have been able to fill out the paperwork.

The comedy continued at a smaller theater in Anaheim Hills : The Chance Theater. Located off the beaten path, it took the group a longer time to build large audiences again, but the loyal Shmoopies who followed every weekend helped to re-establish Shmimprov as the definitive place for late-night entertainment in Orange County. The beloved Tawnie moved away to Santa Barbara, and the ranks were filled with guest appearances by Live Nude Alumni such as Brian Lyman, Cory Schonauer, and Greg Comitz. After fourteen shows, the group decided to take its first voluntary hiatus. Taking the month of August off except for one eight-hour long marathon (a Shmimprovathon, to be exact), the group buckled down to finesse the show, knowing that the first five seasons were only a prelude to what Shmimprov had in its future. With rumors of the Maverick due to come back better than ever, it was time for the players to have a short break … before they would never have a Friday or Saturday off again for the rest of their lives.

The Maverick Theater was back! At a brand new and permanent location in downtown Fullerton, Shmimprov was guaranteed performances until the end of time, particularly because manager Nate was also one of the owners of the new Maverick. In the Maverick's art-deco cabaret theater, Shmimprov flourished. Returning to its twice-a-week schedule, Shmimprov was able to incorporate new and exciting ideas, such as the month-long celebration of Shmoctoberfest and the first of their infamous Drunk Shows which take full advantage of the beer license at the Maverick's bar. Co-founder Patrick Heyn got his 100th show Roast this season, and the troupe picked up a few more pretty faces into its ranks such as Amber Queen and Jax DiBenedetto. Even co-founder Jacob Russell-Snyder returned from his journeys abroad to rejoin Shmimprov in its fantastic new venue. Several other improv groups such as Offending the World and The Cherry Spitz Fan Club fell victim to the undefeatable momentum of Shmimprov, Finally able to complete an un-interrupted season, Season Seven filled a total of fifty shows and ended with a now-traditional eight hour Shmimprovathon to mark its short hiatus before the new season in 2006.

2006! Season Eight! Improv Shmimprov did everything! Time to roast Erik Furuheim and Lindsay Hendrickson? DONE. How about a month-long elimination extravaganza? DONE. More challenge-matches? YOU GOT IT. What's that? You want more? How about Improv Shmimprov producing it's first full-length comedy show, "SEX : aka Weiners and Boobs," performing in conjunction with Shmimprov's regular comedy every weekend? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Maybe you want the newspapers to confirm what everyone knows? FINE. We'll bring the Orange County Register out here and they'll tell you that "Shmimprov players show Los Angeles how it's done." You hear that LA? You done been served, and we've got more where that comes from. We're packing them in, we're knocking them down. And no matter how expensive gas rises, the tickets stay at five bucks. Maybe you haven't figured it out yet, but we're not in this for the money. We don't even pay ourselves. We're in this for you. We love making people laugh, and you happen to be people. So come laugh! Have some beer! The year's not done yet! And there's no telling what we've got cooking when Season Nine comes around! It just doesn't stop! Keep the music loud and the comedy hard! Check us out on MySpace, or sign up for the mailing list!