{"id":249828,"date":"2016-02-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/cultivating-their-inner-weirdness\/"},"modified":"2016-02-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T08:00:00","slug":"cultivating-their-inner-weirdness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/cultivating-their-inner-weirdness\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultivating their inner weirdness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Founder dishes about Finest City Improv, its festival and more<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Margie M. Palmer<\/p>\n

Finest City Improv founder Amy Lisewski moved to San Diego with a vision of making America\u2019s Finest City a premier destination for improvisation theater \u2014 and if you take a moment to look at her growing list of accomplishments, it\u2019s clear she\u2019s on the path to making that dream a reality.<\/p>\n

In the three years that she has been here, Lisewski started San Diego\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t until she started to take acting classes that the seeds of improv were planted in her imagination.<\/p>\n

Before she knew it, she was enrolled in a \u201cweekend intensive [workshop] up in Los Angeles,\u201d she said, adding that it didn\u2019t take long for her to fall in love with improv.<\/p>\n

\"Justin<\/a>
Justin Michael Terry and Ryan Marisco of Red Door won \u201cBest of Fest\u201d last year and will return this year (Courtesy of Finest City Improv)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2011, Lisewski completed training with The Second City Conservatory in Hollywood \u2014 or as she affectionately calls it, \u201cThe Harvard of comedy\u201d \u2014 but she was quick to note that San Diego at that time had nothing that compared to the LA scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some people who were doing short-form improv shows, which are comparable to what you\u2019d see on \u2018Who\u2019s Line Is It Anyway?\u2019 at local, rented locations once a month but there weren\u2019t 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\u2019s where the idea for Finest City Improv came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And unlike most other performances, every show at Finest City Improv is different because it\u2019s entirely based on audience participation.<\/p>\n

Once the improv community had a home base, she said, the next step was to start an improv festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think if you\u2019re going to be a great improv community, you need your own festival because it brings dozens of improvisers from all over the U.S.,\u201d Lisewski said. \u201cIt\u2019s a chance to learn from different people who have different perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Amy<\/a>
Amy Lisewski, founder of Finest City Improv (Courtesy of Finest City Improv)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The festival] really gives people an opportunity to learn from some of the best in the business and it\u2019s something we need to really take our community to the next level,\u201d Lisewski said. \u201cThis year we\u2019re bringing in Susan Messing from Chicago; she\u2019s one of the best-known in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another breakout feature of the festival will be the Friday night performance of \u201cThe Boys,\u201d which will feature Susan Messing and Rachel Mason.<\/p>\n

\u201cSusan has been doing this show in Chicago for the past 25 years and it\u2019s great,\u201d Lisewski said. \u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019ve ever seen and attendees can expect a performance that\u2019s bold, brash and unbelievably funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the 2016 San Diego Improv Festival, visit sdimprovfestival.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Margie M. Palmer es una escritora independiente con sede en San Diego que ha estado acumulando art\u00edculos en una gran cantidad de publicaciones de noticias durante los \u00faltimos 10 a\u00f1os. Puedes localizarla en <\/em>margiep@alumni.pitt.edu<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s Finest City a premier destination for improvisation theater \u2014 and if you take a moment to look at her growing list of accomplishments, it\u2019s clear […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":249829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Cultivating their inner weirdness","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}