Improvoker

25 Years of Improv Comedy
:2 stars:
2006
90 minutes

Filmed at the 25th Anniversary Celebration of iO (Improv Olympic) (formerly the Improve Olympic), this movie basically tries to document the evenings shenanigans.

While I appreciate the idea of this documentary, the actual film making is really lacking. Not only do the improvisors have to hold a microphone if they want to be heard, destroying any illusion of character, but the cabled mics get wrapped around improvisors legs and makes for bad scene-work. The 90 minute running time means that almost every improv scene got edited for time and basically defeated the point of Long-form improvisation.

Unfortunately this disc is a very bad representation of iO’s excellent talent. I would suggest instead of renting this film, to check out the iO to Go podcast instead as you will get a far better overview of their work.

Highlights: Tim Meadows playing a spelling bee contestant and the UCB4 creating mischief.