Founder dishes about Finest City Improv, its festival and more

By Margie M. Palmer

Finest City Improv founder Amy Lisewski moved to San Diego with a vision of making America’s Finest City a premier destination for improvisation theater — and if you take a moment to look at her growing list of accomplishments, it’s clear she’s on the path to making that dream a reality.

In the three years that she has been here, Lisewski started San Diego’s only improv club, which is located in hipster North Park; brought in world-renowned special guests; and founded the San Diego Improv Festival, which continues through Sunday, Feb. 14.

Lisewski said she began her professional career as a librarian consultant, which is about as far as one can get from the live-performance world. It wasn’t until she started to take acting classes that the seeds of improv were planted in her imagination.

Before she knew it, she was enrolled in a “weekend intensive [workshop] up in Los Angeles,” she said, adding that it didn’t take long for her to fall in love with improv.

In 2011, Lisewski completed training with The Second City Conservatory in Hollywood — or as she affectionately calls it, “The Harvard of comedy” — but she was quick to note that San Diego at that time had nothing that compared to the LA scene.

“I was doing so much driving to and from Los Angeles that I had a choice. I could either move to LA like so many people in San Diego had done before me or I could work to create what they have in Hollywood here in San Diego,” she said.

“There were some people who were doing short-form improv shows, which are comparable to what you’d see on ‘Who’s Line Is It Anyway?’ at local, rented locations once a month but there weren’t any full-time improv comedy theaters, like you see in places like Austin or Chicago. The goal was to stop the bleeding and to stop the people who were starting to get good from moving away. That’s where the idea for Finest City Improv came from.”

For those who are unfamiliar, the improv group performs Thursday through Sunday night in a cabaret-style theater, located at 4250 Louisiana St., which is attached to the historical Lafayette Hotel that faces busy El Cajon Boulevard. The idea, she said, was to create a supportive community where people can laugh, learn, perform and cultivate their inner weirdness.

And unlike most other performances, every show at Finest City Improv is different because it’s entirely based on audience participation.

Once the improv community had a home base, she said, the next step was to start an improv festival.

“I do think if you’re going to be a great improv community, you need your own festival because it brings dozens of improvisers from all over the U.S.,” Lisewski said. “It’s a chance to learn from different people who have different perspectives.”

The 2016 San Diego Improv Festival (Feb. 11-14) will feature 35 teams from the U.S. and Canada, she said, and attendees will have the opportunity to register for a myriad of workshops including Playing Across the Gender Spectrum, Character Life Cycle, and How to be a Musical Improv Rockstar.

“[The festival] really gives people an opportunity to learn from some of the best in the business and it’s something we need to really take our community to the next level,” Lisewski said. “This year we’re bringing in Susan Messing from Chicago; she’s one of the best-known in the community.”

Another breakout feature of the festival will be the Friday night performance of “The Boys,” which will feature Susan Messing and Rachel Mason.

“Susan has been doing this show in Chicago for the past 25 years and it’s great,” Lisewski said. “It’s two women who work off a suggestion from the audience who then spend the next 45 minutes matching characters in all these amazing situations. They are definitely two of the most confident, risk-taking women improvisers I’ve ever seen and attendees can expect a performance that’s bold, brash and unbelievably funny.”

For more information on the 2016 San Diego Improv Festival, visit sdimprovfestival.com.

—Margie M. Palmer is a San Diego-based freelance writer who has been racking up bylines in a myriad of news publications for the past 10 years. You can reach her at [email protected].