FARMINGTON – Last year, Mother Nature took it easy on Western Maine, but Old Man Winter came back with vengeance. All the more reason to laugh the ice piles away. Improvisers from all over Maine and as far away as Rhode Island arrive in the Bjorn Auditorium on the Mt. Blue Campus, Friday, March 31 for Improv Comedy Mud Bowl 2017.
Members of Providence Improv Guild and improv team Boom Scones have lent their comedic talents to supporting high school improvisation in western Maine for six years running. Veterans of the New England comedy scene, PIG not only entertain the crowd with their customized comedy, they challenge local improvisers young and old, and in the case of Teachers Lounge Mafia really old, to match wits and ridiculousness.
Battling the members of PIG will be Farmington’s Mt. Blue Curtain Raisers, a team of high school improvisers who will have home stage advantage going into the evening. Traveling over from Rumford will be Mountain Valley’s Room for Improv-Ment, a perennial favorite who bring powerful degrees of funny to every show. Falmouth High School’s comedy crew, Nothing, are anything but nothing when it comes to talent. And showcasing for the first time at the Mud Bowl will be Mountain Valley Middle School’s improv team.
Hoping to school them all will be western Maine’s Teachers Lounge Mafia, who have been warming up for the Mud Bowl with a string of performances in Augusta, Farmington, Yarmouth and Portland. They won’t need to shake off any ring rust. They will, however, need to make sure they have their insurance policies updated and hydrate well before the event.
The show will begin at 7 p.m. with a series of showcases from each improv team, to be followed by the no-holds-barred comic lunacy of the Mud Bowl, between events, concessions will be available for purchase.
Improv Comedy Mud Bowl 2017 will be held on March 31 in the Bjorn Auditorium on the Mt. Blue Campus in Farmington. A suggested donation of $5 a person will be collected at the door to support workshops and training for the high school teams. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with showtime at 7 p.m. Questions may be directed to Curtain Raisers Artistic Director, Dan Ryder, at dryder@mtbluersd.org or 778-3561.
