Dentistry.
There are not many topics that can stump comedian Roman Danylo, and his fellow improvisers – except, perhaps dentistry.
“Dentist scenes don’t usually go well,” laughed Danylo, talking about his upcoming show in Maple Ridge with Chris Casillan and special guest Peter Oldring, where they will be taking on suggestions from the audience and coming up with off-the-cuff sketches that will be sure to make even the most cantankerous codger howl with laughter.
Danylo came up with the idea for the show The Improvisers, during a Just For Laughs tour in 2011. He and Casillan have been performing together for more than a decade. Danylo and Oldring go back to high school.
“We would do comedy shows at lunch on Tuesdays,” laughed Danylo, who has appeared on CTV’s: Comedy Now, Comedy Inc., and Corner Gas. He has also appeared on CBC’s Just For Laughs, The Debaters, The Winnipeg and Halifax comedy festivals, and he is the creator of The Comic Strippers, a show that has previously toured the ACT Arts Centre.
Casillan is a two-time Canadian Comedy Award winner and is currently also an ensemble member of the Tightrope Improv Theatre and The Improv Centre. Oldring is a multi award winning actor and comedian, an alumni of The Second City, and a co-creator of the CBC Radio show This is That – a parody of CBC radio.
“It is really fun to do an unplugged version of everything we’ve learned how to do over the years and just get back to the roots and do what we love best which is just straight up improv,” said Danylo of the upcoming performance.
Danylo described the production as a mini-variety show with a combination of stand-up comedy, live music, and improv based on audience suggestions.
The suggestions, he explained, are just starting off points.
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“You can take any suggestions on any given night, even if it would be the same suggestion, you can spin it off into a bunch of different directions,” he said. “You just follow the wind and just go where ever it takes you.”
Danylo likened improv to a language – a language once learned, can be spoken with anybody who knows that same language, and knows how to communicate with each other about the direction of the narrative.
He is also looking forward to performing at The ACT again, after having performed in more demanding surroundings – once in a field and another time on a fork lift.
Once, in Whistler, there was no lighting system so they used heat lamps from the buffet.
“The red light cooking one side of my face as I did the show,” he laughed.
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Danylo loves the challenge of improv and noted how fun it is to take any theme and roll with it the best you can.
Improv, he continued, lends itself to awkwardness, which adds to the giddiness that happens during the performance, because the audience can tell that they have no idea what they are going to do.
“And we truly, for the most part, have no idea what we are going to do at any moment,” he said.
“You could be doing a scene and just suddenly realize that, oh, you’re kind of all stuck,” he said. “But, in some weird way, by it not going well, makes it all the more funnier.”
The Improvisers is at the ACT for one night only, at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 15, at the ACT Arts Centre, 11944 Haney Place, Maple Ridge. Tickets are $41 plus fees and can be purchased by calling 604-476-2787 or at mract.squarespace.com/the-improvisers.
