ImproVintage at Fallout Theater

Do you own a valu­able arti­fact? Is there an heir­loom in your pos­ses­sion? Are tchotchkes col­lect­ing dust in your home? If you answered yes to any of these ques­tions, and you also love improv, then the plan­ets have aligned in your favor. ImproV­in­tage wears ​“Antiques Road­show” on its sleeve, but here your rar­i­ties won’t be trad­ed in for a for­tune. Instead, they’ll pro­vide the inspi­ra­tion for impro­vised hilar­i­ty. Think of it like a fun­ny show-and-tell.

A bit of set dress­ing gets the audi­ence in the mood well before the lights go up. Past show curios and their pre­sen­ters are seen in an array of pho­tos on dis­play. A curat­ed pre-show playlist of sketch­es from the likes of MadTV, Fun­ny or Die and more exploit the world of trin­ket bar­gain­ing as utter­ly spoofa­ble. You’ll be sold on knick-knack com­e­dy even before the show begins.

At last the ImproV­in­tage team takes to the stage, and we final­ly get to see what our audi­ence of cura­tors have brought to the table. This par­tic­u­lar evening saw tarot cards from the 1800s, a Crissy Doll from the (19) 70s, a cen­turies-old wed­ding man­u­script with illus­tra­tions, opera glass­es, and oth­er hand-me-downs and odd­i­ties. In an ImproV­in­tage first, every item present was giv­en a rapid-fire gan­der; more typ­i­cal­ly a select few are looked at. This makes it all the more cru­cial that you sign up ahead of time. Miss out, and you’ll be envi­ous when it’s not your item being ooohe’d and aaahe’d at. So audi­ble was this crowd’s ogling that ImproV­inage host and face of Com­e­dy Wham her­self Valerie Lopez pro­posed they all be ​“hired” for the next mon­th’s show. Oh to have a hot crowd on retain­er.

Quips aside, the improv is the real com­e­dy here. Just as a fam­i­ly heir­loom passed down through gen­er­a­tions gains his­to­ry with each new own­er, the game of improv changes with each new scene. Part of the thrill of improv is how one idea becomes an entire­ly new idea. One moment played out where Michae­lan­ge­lo was told his work on the Sis­tine Chapel was­n’t what the high­er-ups desired, and that the art direc­tion in mind was less ​“devo­tion to papa­cy” and more ​“cats doing fun­ny things”. To this, he replied ​“you could have told me before I tore down the scaf­fold­ing”. I don’t recall how the pre­vi­ous scenes trans­formed into this one, but it was a hilar­i­ous con­cept that end­ed with a punchy but­ton. What I do know is that a lot of mileage was gained just from tarot cards. ImproV­in­tage takes object work to anoth­er level.