This December 7th, come and celebrate your favorite improv group’s fifth birthday!
Academic Hall at the University of Ottawa
$20 in advance online, $25 at the door
8pm sharp
The quintet of Desiree Warmington, Dan Lajoie, Tim Anderson, AL Connors and Glen Gower have invited some of their favorite performers in the whole wide world to come join them on stage Friday December 7th, for what promises to be a landmark show for the Ottawa improv scene, in celebration of five amazing years. I know it seems absurd to list Canadian improv celebrities, given that they are often only celebrated by other Canadian improv celebrities, however the following guest artists are definitely worth noting.
Click HERE for some photos and video from the SHOW!
Our guests:
Julie Dumais (Toronto): Julie is the Artistic Director of Toronto’s Bad Dog Theatre Company. A multiple Canadian Comedy Award nominee who has been improvising for almost 20 years, she has performed, directed and taught improv across North America, in Australia and at sea. Julie is responsible for the acclaimed improv company: PROJECTproject (and their popular COMBUSTIONfestival) and she is one half of the appealingly appalling performance comedy duo: 10,000 to Flight. Previously, with the Canadian Improv Games, she served as a Regional Director, National Head Judge & Festival Director as well as Artistic Director of both Improv Camp and the Next Act Festival. Outside of improv, Julie can be variously heard on the airwaves and online, hawking all manner of products, services and dreams for the future. (To find out more about baseball or her dog, you can follow her on Twitter: @JulieDoom)You’ve seen her at the Crush Second Anniversary Special and Improv Awareness X-Canada as well as on live video in the Crush Skypetacular.
Kirsten Rasmussen (Montreal): Kirsten was a co-founder and director of The Montreal Improv Theatre where she taught classes, directed and produced, and performed in over thirty shows including THE JAM, DICK & HONEY, YOU & ME and ME & YOU, IT’S NOT YOU IT’S ME and many more. She works with a sketch troupe made up of stand-ups called FLIPSIDECOMEDY. Kirsten does plays at Le Nouveau International at Theatre Sainte Catherine including OGOKI NIGHTS 1 and 2, DEAD PIGEONS SOCIETY, and SQUEEGEE NIGHTS. She produced a very successful run of YOU & ME and ME & YOU with Dan Jeannotte at the Montreal Fringe 2010, where it was nominated for Just For Laughs Best Comedy.
Michal Grajewski (Toronto): A graduate of the University of Manitoba Film and Theatre Programme, Michal has been an active member of Canada’s Improv Community for over 10 years. He has trained and performed with many renowned improvisers at festivals including: IF Winnipeg Improv Festival (2000-2004, 2008), Vancouver International Improv Festival (2004, 2007, 2009), Chicago Improv Festival (2001), Calgary Improv Brier (2009), PROJECTproject Combustion Festival, Toronto (2009, 2010), Rapidfire Theatre’s Improvaganza, Edmonton (2009), and General Fools’ Festival, Regina (2010, 2011, 2012). Most recently, Michal was involved with Bad Dog Theatre’s successful run of “D&D Live: The Unscripted Comedy Adventure” as a producer and performer. Recent film and television credits include The Rick Mercer Report (CBC), Murdoch Mysteries (CityTV), Repo Men (Universal Pictures), House Party (Comedy Network), as well as numerous nationally-run television commercials. You’ve seen him the Crush Third Anniversary Special, Improv Awareness X-Canada and at the Elmdale.
Anders Yates (Montreal/Toronto):
Anders Yates is a founding member of the award-winning Montreal improv and sketch comedy troupe Uncalled For. As part of Uncalled For, Anders has performed at Fringe Festivals across the country as well as the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. His stage credits include Possible Worlds (with Uncalled For), Always Lost Never Found (written by Mike Hughes) and Tableau D’Hôte’s production of Daniel MacIvor’s Humans. He is a founding member of the award-winning company Dance Animal, the world’s first comedy-dance tribe. Anders has been involved in documentary filmmaking with Montreal’s Rotating Planet Productions. In August 2011, Anders appeared onstage in the Toronto Summerworks presentation of the original play Exit, Pursued by a Bear. He played the bear.
…and more. So much more.
Also, there’s going to be a Crush Reunion!:
Jordan Moffatt (Toronto): Jordan is a human being now living in Toronto but coming to Ottawa for the show! You may have seen him walking around there. He has performed with several improv groups in Ottawa, including Insensitivity Training, Crush Improv, University of Ottawa English Improv Troupe and, of course, Grimprov. Jordan has volunteered with the Canadian Improv games, refereeing in the Ottawa Regional Tournament. Jordan graduated from the University of Ottawa in 2011 with a degree in Communications. He was the third string point guard on his high school basketball team. You’ve seen him tons of times at the Elmdale and My Summer Crush.
Cari Leslie (Amsterdam): Appearing “live” via pre-taped video, Crush co-founder Cari Leslie has been involved with the Canadian Improv Games since 2003 and once hosted a children’s television show that took her to 28 different countries around the world. You seen her all over Ottawa, in Festivals in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver as well as on TVO. She does comedy full time at BOOM Chicago in Amsterdam since September 2011.
Brad MacNeil (Vancouver): If you know Crush Improv, you know Brad. Since August 2012, he now resides on the left coast where he is reconnecting with his improv roots. His talkshow for awesome people, The Brad MacNeil will hit Ottawa Late November, a mere three weeks after rockin’ Vancouver. You’ve seen him host the Fringe Tent’s “Chats with Cat: hosted by Brad” work with A Company of Fools, die repeatedly in Eddie May. Brad will be “appearing” live via surrogate (Arrested Development style).