All Over Albany

Theater Sports with Mop and Bucket Company

So the folks over at Mop and Bucket Company called us the other day and asked us to be celebrity judges in their Theater Sports competition this weekend. (They were clearly using the term "celebrity" very loosely.)

"Of course," we said, flattered and eager to please. It wasn't until much later that we stopped to think, "Wait, what the hell are theater sports?"

Theatrical athlete and MopCo. improviser Michael Burns cleared it up for us. And it sounds like a good time.

So we know we said we'd judge this Theater Sports thing. Umm... What is it?

It's pretty simple, really. There's a guy by the name of Keith Johnstone who is one of the major improv gurus of the world. He decided some time ago that he loved the kind of excitement and involvement he saw at sporting events and the way the audience took ownership and cheered and booed. And he said wow, you go to the theater and it's just stultifying. People sit there and they're barely awake. So he developed this format that is a "competition" between two teams. What he wanted was a situation where the audience felt that sense of ownership and there are judges and the match is scored.

There are two teams made up of MopCo. actors. There are judges and a referee and the teams compete in improvisational theater games.

Sounds like that show "Whose Line is it Anyway?"

"Whose Line is it Anyway" was derived directly from theater sports. And many of the best of the "Whose Line" people came from theater sports companies.

Just like in "Whose Line," audience participation is part of the game. We'll ask the audience for help with scenes and ideas. And when a scene is wonderful it makes it more wonderful because it's collaborative and in the moment.

But they can't all be wonderful. Failure is a big part of improv and that kind of freaks people out.

Failure is part of a game, right. In fact, it's what makes a game work. Think about what baseball would be like without striking out. I think there's something in us that celebrates a performer taking risks.

A good evening of improve is going to have some stuff that sucks. This also is often true of scripted theater. It's not supposed to be true of scripted theater -- but sometimes it is. With theater sports you have a format where failure is an accepted part of the game and it works. It's like in a circus, when a trapeze artist misses the grab and falls into the net. They don't bounce up, storm away and say "I should have been an accountant." They stand up, take a bow, and everybody applauds.

I hesitate to use this word, but improve is a "nice" art form. It's kind. It's not so much like stand-up. Some stand-up comics have that really sarcastic, acerbic, "I'm in competition with my audience" thing. Improv is not like that. The audience is our partner. We want them to look good.

Why should people come to this? What makes it fun?

The audience loves it because they get the feeling that this is accessible and real and that there's nothing up our sleeve.

One of the games that is a big audience favorite games is called gibberish. I leave the room and another actor gets a story from the audience. I come back and the actor tells me the story in gibberish and I have to figure it out. Really this is a return to charades. And people love it because as a culture we don't get together communally and play anymore. So a big part of what we're offering is , come play. Don't sit passively in front of a box , be it a TV or computer. Just come be part of this thing and have fun.

Mop and Bucket Company has Theater Sports competitions this Friday and Saturday (Feb 27th and 28th) at 8 pm and Sunday at 2pm, (they're also doing them March 6-8th) Upstairs at 440 at Proctors. AOA will be judging this Saturday night. If you're there, stop by and say hi.

This interview has been edited and condensed.