We're Getting A Space
everybody get in here
My school The World’s Greatest Improv School, is getting a space.
Really, we’re getting HALF a space. We’re taking over a stage created by the recently closed Ledge Theater, which was sharing a big space with The Pack. But we do have a dedicated stage, seen above.
The upshot is there are two black box theaters sitting right next to each other in a big retail space that used to be a Radio Shack.
This double theater site is three doors to the right of The Clubhouse, the indie improv institution run by Becky Drysdale.
Which means that suddenly an unassuming strip mall in Los Feliz is Improv Central.
The biggest asset of all of these spaces is the big free parking lot that sits out front. These are the only improv venues in all of Los Angeles with ample free parking. That might not sound a lot to those outside the city, but it’s an insanely valuable perk.
Our Fundraiser
We started a fundraiser along with the Pack to pay for some capital improvements. Mostly air conditioning and an exterior sign.
Building out a black box theater CAN be inexpensive if you have lots of volunteers and you keep things simple. But there is no cheap way to get air conditioning. You pay someone a minimum of $15,000 (or a lot more) and they bring a huge metal box that hums like a David Lynch movie and sucks up 50% of the electricity of the local area and then voila… you have kinda cool air!
So we set up a GoFundMe for (gulp) $35,000.
To my delight, we have almost raised that amount! We got almost $16,000 within 24 hours. Our air conditioning has been installed! Well it was installed, and then broke, and then we replaced our thermostats, and it still didn’t work, but then the company sent another person out, and NOW it works.
But we could not have afforded that without help.
If you want to give you can, and thank you very much to all who do it! Although truly I think we’re going to hit our goal within a few days. You can watch our promo video where myself, Miles Stroth (owner of The Pack) and Eric Moneypenny (sketch teacher at the Pack) give you a tour of our space.
I would embed it here if I knew how to do that! Just click this link if you want to see.
The Fun Part
Now we get to build a theater. This is truly one of the most fun parts. People volunteer, you pick out chairs, design a stage, pick out colors. This part is very fun!
It’s still not much to look at, but it’s coming along! We hope to have shows in October. I will update you as to our progress.
Anyway. It’s fun! Will this be the bane of all of our existences? Will we someday all hate each other as we all go on social media to talk about how terrible everything is? Aren’t there already 100 improv theaters in Los Angeles? Will there be accusations of corruption from people who barely know us and have never done improv but have appointed themselves experts because they have an account on Discord? Maybe!
But for now it’s a blast!
Plugs, Ongoing
High Functioning - Ian Roberts and I do an hour of improv EVERY SATURDAY 7pm at the UCB Annex. See this video for Ian and I showing you where the UCB Annex is.
Clubhouse Fridays - WGIS’ weekly improv show. Fridays 7pm at The Clubhouse. Free!
The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC!
How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print. It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re broke and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.
Screw It, We’re Just Gonna Talk About Comics - Comic book podcast, hosted by my brother Kevin and I. We are about to start coverage of the little-known 1985 comic Watchmen (yes, THAT Watchmen). Subscribe for bonus episodes!
Screw It, We’re Just Gonna Talk About The Beatles - monthly deep dive on a little known indie band from Liverpool called The Beatles. Subscribe for access to back episodes!
This is awesome.
Congratulations
Awesome