Customer Reviews

25 Years of Improv Comedy: Live From the Chicago Theatre

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This DVD didn't even have a chance to be good. It was recorded at a large theater with a massive audience instead of at the two stages at iO. Instead of mic-ing the stage... they've decided to litter the stage with stand up microphones and mic stands. That leads to scenes where acting/stagework isn't even attempted, or it leads to scenes where people run around in the background until they have a funny thing to say, which they do by walking up towards the front of the stage and saying it into the mic like some weird spelling bee. It's not very condusive for the stage or improv. And its perplexing seeing as this is a night that is supposed to be celebrating and demonstrating improv from people who are masters at the craft.

It's a trainwreck of an evening with maybe a handful of amusing moments. If you want to see improv on DVD, this isn't it, I think the only thing available is ASSSSCAT. If you're a huge fan of improv and are absolutely too curious to stay away, please do yourself a favor and netflix it... and even then you'll be disappointed with how the evening went and how there are zero special features, no bonus performances set in the actual io theater, no small documentary about iO, how it was formed or anything. There's some fluff interviews with the stars interspersed throughout the evenings footage, but its more of a wedding video like montage with no real information, just people saying 'congrats' into the camera.

Seriously, don't be tricked into thinking this is even close to what it should be.

I was looking for good comedy and thought " Mike Myers, Andy Richter, Andy Dick" don't think I can go wrong with this one. Well, I did. It was very boring. Maybe 5 minutes of funny and two chuckles in the whole thing. Having watched plenty of "Who's line" with it's semi-improv stuff and always laughing, I guess I was expecting too much. Don't waste your time or money on this one if what you want is real entertainment.

This DVD wasnt as enjoyable as I thought it would be, throwing a lot of people together who dont normally work together was bad. If you have to choose between this DVD and ASSSSCAT! then go with asssscat. I think the shining stars of this DVD were the UCB guys and with asssscat you get all of them all the time. Ill admit that Im biased because Im with UCB but we have a lot of respect for IO and they are the only school we let cross over into UCB for classes. Like I said if you are going to choose go with asssscat, the commentary is also great for small little tips in asssscat. This wasnt terrible but it was a let down.

If anyone wants to learn more about longform improv, and watch the professionals do it, this is worth watching. There are some extremely brilliant moments throughout the film, which is broken down my longform style. It is basically a highlight film of the 25th anniversery. I thought it could have been a little longer, and I wish Mike Meyers was in it a little more, because he is genious. However, you do get to see his supporting role as an improv actor, which he has been known to be one of the best. The Upright Citizens Brigade gets in a nice groove at the end as well. All in all it was good to see people that have gone through the Improv Olympic jump right back in, and not miss a beat.

this show is alot of great people who couldn't get insync at all. The scenes were all pretty terrible. Andy Richter, god bless him, even admitted how painful the show was at the end of the show.