Improv Asylum Brings Their Act to Worcester
By Dave Moran

The zany folks at Boston’s popular Improv Asylum ~ billed as “the funniest show you’ll ever be a part of” ~ are bringing their distinctive brand of interactive comedy to Worcester on Saturday, September 6, for a one-night only performance at the Hanover Theatre.

A cross between “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and “Saturday Night Live,” the show typically works like this ~ a cast of actors, usually six on stage at a time, take suggestions from the audience and have to rapidly turn them into comedic situations.

Half the fun of the performance can be watching an audience member shout out something ridiculously random and then watching the troupe scramble to turn the idea into a skit.

“If you find yourself thinking in improv, that’s where you’re dead, and that’s where it’s going to fall down,” said co-founder and performer Norm Laviolette. “I’m not saying that I’m always funny up on stage, but I’m never stumped. We basically have to create comedy immediately, and pretty much out of nothing. So in terms of my job, I have to know a little bit about a lot of stuff.”

Skits can be anything from current events to something completely outré and outlandish. According to Laviolette, it all depends on the mood of the audience. That’s where the fun comes in.

“So much of it depends on what the audience wants to see,” Laviolette said. “It can be topical, it can be absurd, it can be dirty or it can be clean. You never know what someone’s going to shout out until you’re up there on stage doing it.”

The brainchild of Laviolette and his partner Chet Harding, the theatre sprang to life in 1998 when the duo, both local standup comedians, looked at the comedy scene and realized that something was missing.

Harding had just returned from a stint in Chicago, where he was involved with the popular Second City theatre, a comedic launching pad for many popular SNL performers and other comedians over the years.

But there was nothing similar in Boston.

“Boston’s a great comedy town,” Harding said. “But they didn’t have anything like Second City at the time, a place where people could see more improvisation and performance-based comedy. We started looking around, and we said to ourselves that if they had something like that it would probably go over well. So we started one ourselves.”

The concept was a hit.

The group has been featured on HBO, performed in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin and other locations around the country, and is currently developing several potential series ideas for network television.

They are even looking at Worcester as a possible place to expand a second location in the future, and plan to use the Hanover performance as a way to gauge the potential of this new market.

Since Laviolette grew up in nearby Grafton, he sees the Hanover performance as something of a homecoming.

“I’m personally excited about the show for two reasons. One, I grew up in Grafton, MA, so it’s great to get the chance to come back to the area and perform here. And second, as I said, Worcester could be a great opportunity for us as a second location if we could potentially develop it.”

Tickets to this event are only $10 and can be purchased at www.thehanovertheatre.com. To learn more about the Improv Asylum, check out their website at www.improvasylum.com.

Photo: Performers from Improv Asylum