Theater Review: Sarasota Improv Festival

There was a time when rock was young. Improv comedy still is. And you could feel a rock fest vibe in the air at the 7th annual Sarasota Improv Festival July 9 through July 11, at Florida Studio Theatre. The giddy happy audience spanned the age spectrum. But everybody felt young.

This year’s crowd pleasers included a total of twenty improv groups, including FST Improv, the Available Cupholders out of Austin, Texas. Nashville’s Music City Improv, Chicago’s Baby Wants Candy, Big Bang Improv of Boston, North Coast Improv direct from New York City and ImproMadrid out of, well, Madrid, Spain, giving this year’s festival a truly international feel. Over the three-day event, these characters disinfected clowns, saved the Pope, and skewered Donald Trump and his hairpiece. On multiple occasions.

The controlled insanity closed on a high-wire act without a net, courtesy Baby Wants Candy. Based on an audience suggestion, the troupe created a musical on the spot called “Bed, Bath and Beyond the Universe.” This involved world-destroying aliens in search of better bathroom products, “homelesssexuals,” an alien searching for Mr. or Mrs. Right on the bright blue marble of Planet Earth, and an improbable use of a birdhouse. The performers riffed off a grab-bag of musical tropes from a three piece band — and danged if they didn’t somehow manage to harmonize. It was edgy and entertaining, even if you don’t like musicals.

After that, all the performers from every troupe crowded onto the stage and went to town with a bucket of improv games and audience suggestions.

It was a rocking end to a rocking festival.