iO West Joins the Fringe

We are most pleased to welcome the funny folks at Hollywood’s iO West to the Fringe Festival!

iO West (formally Improv Olympic West) is a legendary player in the national comedy scene. It has nurtured some of the biggest names in comedy today: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Andy Dick, Chris Farley, Mike Meyers, and Tim Meadows. For many of us working on Fringe, iO West (and its bar) has been a home away from home.

Learn more about iO West at www.iowest.com

Here’s some more information on the theatre, the school, and the mission (stolen directly from their website):

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In 1997 Paul Vaillancourt opened , iO WEST, in Los Angeles, as a companion theater to the original iO in Chicago. Today it is managed by James Grace.

In addition to presenting improv and sketch comedy shows every night, the iO West has improv training classes and is the home for the Los Angeles Improv Comedy Festival. iO West, celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2007 and has been performing in it’s Hollywood location since October 2001.

The iO, or iO Chicago, (formerly known as “ImprovOlympic”) is a theater located at 3541 N. Clark St., in Chicago, Illinois. The theater both has performances of, and teaches improvisational comedy. It was founded in the 1980s by Del Close and Charna Halpern. iO concentrates on “long-form” improvisational structures, in contrast to the “short-form” or “improv game” format of Theatresports or the television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. The iO’s signature piece is the “Harold”.

Who would have ever thought that learning the finer points of improvisation could be such fun? The “Harold,” an innovative improvisational tool, helped Saturday Night Live’s Mike Myers and Chris Farley, George Wendt (Norm on “Cheers”) and many other actors on the road to TV and film stardom. Now it is described fully in this new book for the benefit of other would-be actors and comics. The “Harold” is a form of competitive improv involving six or seven players. They take a theme suggestion from the audience and free-associate on the theme, creating a series of rapid-fire one-liners that build into totally unpredictable skits with hilarious results. The teams compete with scoring based on applause. The “Harold” is a fun way to “loosen up” and learn to think quickly, build continuity, develop characterizations and sharpen humor.