by Ken Williams | Editor
Finest City Improv wades into the pseudo-“War on Christmas” waters with an irreverent show that resembles a spoof of “The Office,” combined with a comedic slam on far-right conservatives who have convinced their followers that Starbucks’ red coffee cup takes Christ out of Christmas.
The 90-minute show, “It’s F**king Christmas,” is playing Saturdays through Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. in the Improv club located at 4250 Louisiana St., on the east end of the historic Lafayette Hotel in North Park.
“We’re hosting another f**king holiday party, and the employees are forced to do the unthinkable — work on Christmas,” Improv founder and CEO Amy Lisewski said in a statement. “The best part about the show? We don’t have a script. The audience directs where our performance goes while we act out everyone’s holiday nightmare.”
Not only do audience members participate, but they are encouraged to wear their ugly Christmas sweaters or other items common to the holidays. On opening night, Nov. 14, many audience members were indeed dressed appropriately.
The moment you arrive at the club, improv performers mingling in the tiny bar are already in character. Guests are greeted and handed a nametag with a phony name listing the department of employment at America’s Finest Ad Agency. I became Derrick Staub from Information Technology, and my companion became Adela McPhail from Business Development.
Upon entering the performance space, guests — er, company employees — are invited to take a photograph with Santa and write down on a piece of paper the worst Christmas gift ever received. That will become part of an improv skit played out throughout the show. Since this is improv, any further description of what happens is surely to be irrelevant at future shows. Suffice to say, it’s full of corny jokes, bawdy humor, silly songs and faux dancing.
For tickets to this “blasphemous” Christmas show, visit bit.ly/1QHtKN0
—Ken Williams is editor of Uptown News and Mission Valley News and can be reached at [email protected] or at 619-961-1952. Follow him on Twitter at KenSanDiego, Instagram account at KenSD or Facebook at KenWilliamsSanDiego.
