Bluff City Liars, an improv comedy troupe in Memphis, returns to the Brass Door this Friday to improvise an entertaining mix of short-form and long-form scenes at its sixth Improv Underground (iU).
The group will start the evening off with a few games of short-form scenes similar to what can be seen on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
“We always open the show with a game called Change,” says Brandon McAninch, director of Bluff City Liars and producer of Improv Underground. In this game, two comedians will play out a scenario, and at any point McAninch can call for one of the players to change the last thing they did or said.
Moriah Drinkard Loya
“Yes, and …”
“That’s always fun because I think that kind of encapsulates the idea of improv,” he says. “The players say something, and then the rug is pulled out from under them, and they have to improvise something new off the cuff.”
After that and other short-form games like Freeze Tag and line games, the troupe will move on to their specialty: long-form.
“A common joke is that long-form is for improvisers,” McAninch says. “It’s kind of like improvising a pilot episode of a TV show.”
One of the group’s favorite scenes involves asking an audience member to tell them something amusing about the town they grew up in, whether that’s an interesting person or town lore. “Then, we’ll try to show the audience what we think a typical day in that small town looks like,” says McAninch. “Of course, it’s always far from typical.”
And, in true holiday spirit, the troupe is changing it up for this show with a new format and a new holiday twist.
Improv Underground VI, The Brass Door, Friday, December 6th, 8-10 p.m., $5.
