By Geoffrey Lee
Ottawa’s newest institution is cranking out laughs instead of red tape and paper.
The Institution, a new comedy club in Centretown which specializes in improv comedy, opened Jan. 28.
Located at 390 Bank St., underneath the James Street Feed Co. eatery, the club features Laff Lines, a sendup of televison’s Whose Line is it Anyway?, every Friday and Saturday.
On Thursdays, it has On the Spot, which showcases buskers, comedy sketches, music and videos.
The cozy atmosphere in the dimly-lit underground venue, and the cool jazz sounds from the three-piece band, belie what is to follow for each evening’s fare.
The high-energy antics and tomfoolery of producer/director Ken Godmere’s motley cast of talented performers are streams of split-second reactions and imaginative uses of wordplay, all designed to make fun of everyday life.
Godmere, who has worked with Second City in Toronto, is delighted his improv troupe has finally found a permanent home at the corner of James and Bank streets.
Having used a variety of venues in the east end and the downtown area for his production, he isn’t “leaving his scent all around town like a dog,” anymore, as one cast member put it.
Combining theme suggestions from the audience and adding them to various situations, Godmere barks out instructions to his actors from a podium beside the stage.
He then lets the improvisational abilities of his cast take over.
And that’s when some of the oddest and funniest scenes unfold on the small stage, a hair’s breadth from the audience.
Godmere says improv theatre is very different from stand-up comedy, and he credits the success of his club to the spontaneous nature of improv and the interplay between the actors on stage.
“Stand-up comedy is very hit and miss,” he says. “You’re either going to like the comedian or you’re not. In an improv sketch, instead of hit and miss, out of 100 laughs (in a night) you’re going to get a good 75 to 80 for any audience member.”
Godmere says “improv is like playing volleyball (for actors). You have no idea what ball is coming to you. How fast is it coming? Where is it going? High. Low.”
One recent show included two characters trying to break out of their imaginary jail cell with the help of wombats that came from a Winnebago parked behind the jail.
As the make believe wombats pulled on the cell bars, one cast member blurted to the other, “Have you got a tampon that I can borrow?” a line fed to the character on a piece of paper by an audience member.
Garnering some of the biggest laughs was the improvised dialogue voice-over of a scene from the movie October Sky, which was shown on the two overhead televisions.
The contrast between the serious demeanor of the movie actors and the inane dialogue provided by the two actors talking about buying a Valentine’s present for a girlfriend had the audience in stitches.
The group also had more edgy material that pushed the limits of taste.
One scene had military porno as its theme and another scene had a thalidomide-baby kleptomaniac.
With his arms stuck inside his shirt, the actor/kleptomaniac in the scene flapped his hands (that were left protruding from the arm holes) and ran around stealing objects from the audience and band members. He then stuffed them down the front of his shirt.
Rudolph Joly, an audience member and a participant in one of the scenes, says he enjoys both stand-up comedy and improv theatre.
“I can’t compare them. I enjoy them both,” he says.
“They’re different. Improv puts the audience on edge. I found it very entertaining and I was on the edge of my seat all night long.”
Marion Joly, who accompanied her husband Rudolph, said she thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
“My face hurts from laughing and smiling so much,” she says.
As well as being humorous, each of the four cast members showed great versatility and talent, as well as a wide range of abilities. At the drop of a hat a character would reel off Shakespearean verse and, in the next breath, dance a jig or sing opera.
Cast member Catriona Leger, in one scene, performed an impromptu operatic solo with ad lib words that complemented the sketch she was in. A classically trained actor from Vancouver, she thinks comedy is good for people.
“People spend so much time being tense and angry and worried in life,” she says. “It’s good to come and have a good time and let go.”