The Gainesville Improv Festival is returning for a milestone 10th time, showcasing comedy talent from across the country.
The festival will take place Jan. 27 to Jan. 30 at UF’s Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The four-day event includes performances and workshops hosted by notable improv performers.
UF alumni Tom O’Donnell and Skyler Stone created the festival in 2003. The pair met while in school as members of UF’s sketch comedy team, Theatre Strike Force.
“We thought to ourselves, ‘Hey, you know, it would be really cool if we could put together a festival and bring national acts to Gainesville,’” O’Donnell, the 38-year-old co-founder, said.
The goal was to pull national improv artists to Gainesville for educational value, while also highlighting the local improv scene, he said.
O’Donnell said the festival has grown since its inception, when they had to scrounge around for venues during the first year.
Co-founder Skyler Stone, 38, said the festival has “grown up a lot, just like us,” and now brings in comedians from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
“It’s a really nicely run production,” he said. “The groups we are getting are more vast and wide.”
Stone said the distinction of the festival resides in the participants’ connections to UF, many of whom come down and participate every year. The festival has at least one UF alumnus in each comedy troupe.
He pointed to UF alumnus and actor Billy Merritt, who is set to perform and teach workshops.
“He was on Best Week Ever, Reno 911, Law and Order,” Stone said.
Alumni leave and create their own sketch teams, but they want to return and pay homage to their alma mater, he said.
Danny Mora, a UF advertising alumnus, will be performing and teaching with his Chicago-based group, Night Terrors.
“I became interested in improv when I joined UFs comedy-sketch group, but back then it was more of a social-activist group,” the 43-year-old performer said.
Mora has attended the festival in past years and said he was in Gainesville around the time the festival was first getting started.
“When I do the show, it’s an excuse for me to also see my family that lives in Florida,” Mora said. “But I love it, and I loved my time at Florida, so for me it’s an excuse to visit Gainesville.”
He plans to focus on authenticity within his teaching workshops, including reacting honestly to situations during a comedy skit.
Mora said his favorite part consists of hanging out after the show and hearing the audience’s perspective.
“It’s always great when you can show up,” he said. “And put something on that they’ve never seen before, and it leaves them talking.”
Bethany Remely, member of ComedySportz, will be headlining the festival with three other members Saturday night.
“One of the greatest things about these improv festivals is it gives you an opportunity to see styles and types of play and forms that are outside your immediate vicinity,” the 30-year-old said.
Remely said her goal is to interact with as many comedians from different areas.
“There are so many interesting things that performers are doing all across the country,” she said. “And this gives us a chance to get together and learn from each other.”
