ComedySportz New Year’s Improvin’ Eve
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
[Dec. 31] Philadelphia's ComedySportz finishes its 20th year with two celebratory shows, featuring rarely played games and a midnight countdown.
Philadelphia’s ComedySportz finishes its 20th year with two celebratory shows, featuring rarely played games, a Baby New Year appearance and a midnight countdown. (The early show’s countdown is for midnight in Brazil.) Executive director Don Montrey promises “the secret games we keep locked away for special shows,” like Spit Take, Game-o-matic, and “the exciting Oxygen Deprivation, where a player has to keep their head underwater while their teammates do a scene!” He might be kidding about that last one, but that’s what ComedySportz does so well. In the guise of competing sports teams with a referee (who calls fouls not only on the players, but audience members), performers — many of them prominent stage actors — play improv games similar to what’s done on Whose Line Is It Anyway? (minus TV editing tricks, of course). ComedySportz is the real deal: improv without a net. “Or Annette,” I’m sure they’d say.
Tue., Dec. 31, 7:30 (all ages) and 10:30 p.m., $30-$35, Playground at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 877-985-2844, comedysportzphilly.com.
