The 3rd annual College Improv Tournament
To look at photos from CIT 2009-2010, please click: Flickr
Update: 2/7/10
In an amazing finals and also the closest match ever in the CIT's 3 year history, The Titanic Player's Daddy Mags from Northwestern University won the title by half a point as they scored 100 points and just barely beat Suffolk University's Seriously Bent who had scored 99.5 points. The 3rd place team was the surprising wild card team Wheaton College's Faux Posse who scored 89.5 points. This is the second CIT title in three years for The Titanic Players, as their team Old Tom Jar won the first ever CIT in 2007. Both title winning teams are coached by Mike Abdelsayed. This is the second year in a row that Seriously Bent came in 2nd place nationally. They also were in the quarter-finals in 2007 and have been coached for all three years by Jeremy Brothers. This year was the first year that Faux Possse competed in the CIT, but there team has been playing together for 4 years and they are coached by Olivia Zimmerman. All four matches were sold-out with standing room only crowds. The audiences were made up of alumni, family and friends of the teams. The matches were for the first time ever in CIT's history webcast on-line. The total viewing audience for the 4 matches was over 3,600 people. Over 2,500 people watched the finals on-line. The webcast also featured a chat-room for the viewers to talk to each other and twitter access to twitter for viewer updates. The CIT Nationals featured Jeff Griggs and Brett Lyons as co-anchors, Sally Anderson, Wendy Mateo and Mart Timms as sideline reporters, and Jeremy Schaefer was the emcee. Jeremy said this about this year's Nationals, "All the teams did a fantastic job and it was great to see!" The partial sponsors for the webcast were Showbizzle.com and Chipotle. In order to assure as artistically diverse a judging panel as possible, the 7 person judges panel included improv and sketch comedy professionals from a variety of Chicago theatres and training centers, as well as the comedy & entertainment writer from the Chicago Sun-Times. The had 8 different improv skills criteria to evaluate, with each criteria worth 0-2 points each. A perfect score would be 16 points per judge and the most any team could get would be 112 points. CIF Productions offers its congrats to The Titanic Players' Daddy Mags on becoming the CIT 2009-2010 National Champions!!! CIF Productions also sends out a big thanks to all 7 Regional winning teams, the 2 Wild Card teams, as well as all 72 teams for participating in this year's tournament! CIF Productions also reminds all the teams that the 4th annual CIT tournament begins in November, 2010. Update: 2/5/10
The time for final preparations and trash talking is over. It's game faces on for all the players in the 9 best college improv teams in America get ready to play for the National Title. All the play-offs and the finals will be webcast and the results will be posted tomorrow on the CIT Nationals page. May the best team win and may everyone have fun, because at the end of tomorrow night, besides there being a new national champion, improv will win the most. The CIT Nationals got covered twice in today's Chicago Sun-Times as they were chosen as one of the Top Five Things To Do for weekend warriors to partake in. To read the press, please click: Top 5
Update: 2/3/10
On Saturday, February 6, the CIT National Championships play-off rounds and title round will all be webcast live. Viewers will be able to chat on-line with each other and make comments on their twitter page while watching all the improv matches. To watch the free webcast, please click: Webcast Update: 2/1/10
There are only five days remaining before the CIT Nationals and all 9 teams are getting ready to bring their best for the play-offs. Already throwing down in the preparation department is CIT Northwest Regional winners Improvolution from Cornish College for the Arts, as is seen in their recently released training video. To watch Improvolution's video, please click: An Improv Team Prepares Update: 1/26/10
The Titanic Players' Northwestern University team Daddy Mags's recent victory at the CIT Chicago Regional was written about in today's Daily Northwestern. To read the article, please click: Daily Northwestern Update: 1/25/10
The schedule for the CIT Nationals play-offs is now available. All 9 teams have been seeded and ranked for the title chase. The CIT Nationals will take place in Chicago on February 6. For more information, please click: CIT Nationals Update: 1/24/10
Congrats to The Titanic Players' Daddy Mags from Northwestern University for winning the 2009-2010 Chicago Regional. This is the second regional victory for a Titanic Players team in three years under the direction of the Titanic coach Mike Abdelsayed. The 2nd place team and Chicago Wild Card winner is Wheaton Improv's Faux Posse from Wheaton College. The Chicago Regionals were the first time in their team's history that an improv team from Wheaton College performed somewhere else than Wheaton's campus. Update: 1/22/10
Tomorrow's Chicago Regional got some on-line press today at the fun Chicago-centric website Gaper's Block. To read the blurb, please click: Gaper's Block
Update: 1/18/10
This Saturday will be the last of CIT's 7 regionals for this year's tournament and it's the Chicago Regionals. There will be 9 teams from 8 Chicago area colleges and universities competing for local bragging rights and the regional title.
The first and second placed teams will move onto the CIT Nationals. One as the Chicago Regional's title winner and the other as the Chicago Wild Card.
The Chicago Regional preliminary rounds are at 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm. The finals are at 10pm. Who will win? Come to Studio BE at 3110 N. Sheffield Ave and find out. This page will updated throughout Saturday with all match results.
To buy tickets, please click here: Chicago Regionals
Update: 1/4/10
The CIT Nationals' play-off rounds and the title round will be webcast for free by CIF Productions. The webcast link will be posted on this site. The webcast's co-anchors are Jeff Griggs and Brett Lyons. The sideline reporters are Sally Anderson, Wendy Mateo and Marz Timms. The emcee is Jeremy Schaefer.
Update: 12/15/09
After two weeks of on-line voting for the Wild Card slot, in a tight contest with only 250 votes separating the 1st place and 3rd place teams, the winning team is Dangerbox from New York University. As the Wild Card winner, they will come to Chicago to participate in the CIT Nationals on February 6, 2010. Congratulations!
Dangerbox's Wild Card victory means that there will be two teams representing from the East Coast Regional. This also means that there will be a new national champion as this ends the run of last year's defending national champions The Improv Mafia from Illinois State University.
CIF Productions Executive Director Jonathan Pitts says "The Improv Mafia were great champions. They had a great run. Some of the MWR judges thought they were even better this year than they were last year. Most of their team are juniors and sophomores, so they're going to be force to contend with next year."
The final standings and vote totals are as follows: Dangerbox 1,767 votes; The Improv Mafia 1,615 votes; Cooper Street 1,516 votes; Dead Parrots 1,059 votes; Laser Squad Bravo 545 votes; CIA 533 votes
Update: 12/5/09
Cornish College of the Arts' Improvolution, received press about their victory at the CIT Northwest Regional. To read the article, please click: Cornish News
Update: 11/27/09
Oberlin College's The Sunshine Scouts, received press about their victory in the CIT Midwest Regional. To read the article, please click: Oberlin News
Their victory in the Midwest Regional also received coverage in the Oberlin Review. To read this article, please click: Oberlin Review
Update: 11/24/09
Congratulations goes to Second Nature from University of Southern California for defending their West Coast Regional title. This is the second year in a row that they have won the WCR and the second year in a row they will travel to Chicago for the Nationals.
Congratulations also goes to Improvolution from Cornish College of the Arts for winning the first ever Northwest Regional. They were a dark horse team not well known in improv circles outside of their school before their victory. A three-person team, they will be the first three-person team to make it to the Nationals since Old Tom Jar from Northwestern University won the whole tournament in 2007.
Filling out the final two possible Wild Card slots are NWR 2nd place team, Dead Parrots from Western Washington University and WCR 2nd place team, Laser Squad Bravo from Loyola Marymount University.
Update: 11/20/09
Who's got next? Seattle with the Northwest Regionals and Los Angeles with the West Coast Regionals. This will be the first time CIT has done a regional in the northwest area. There are 8 teams participating and the regional matches will take place over Saturday and Sunday at Seattle's Jet City Improv theatre.
This is the second year of having a West Coast Regionals in the Los Angeles area. There are 11 teams participating, including the WCR defending champs, Second Nature from University of Southern California. The regional matches will all take place at MI's Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica.
Update: 11/19/09
Theatre Strike Force's Southeast Regional win got front page coverage in Uinversity of Florida's newspaper. Here's a link to the article: Alligator.
Update: 11/15/09
Congratulations goes to Theatre Strike Force from the University of Florida for winning the first ever Southeast Regional. Theatre Strike Force competed in the 2008 East Coast Regionals and came in 2nd place. This is their first Regional victory.
Congratulations also goes to Scatter! from the University of Houston for winning the first ever Southwest Regional. This is their first year participating in the CIT.
Still in contention for the Wild Card vote is the 2nd place teams from both Regionals. Cooper Street from Southwestern University got 2nd place in the Southwest Regional and CIA from North Carolina State University got 2nd place in the Southeast Regional.
Update: 11/14/09
Get the Flash Player to see this player. Update: 11/13/09
This Saturday, 8 teams from Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina will gather together this weekend at Relapse Theatre in Atlanta to compete for the Southeast Regional title.
At the same time, 815 miles away, 12 teams from Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas will gather together at Salvage-Guard Theatre in Austin to compete for the Southwest Regional title.
Update: 11/11/09
Suffolk University's Seriously Bent's successful defense of their title in the CIT East Coast Regional received coverage in the on-line edition of the Suffolk News. To read the article, please click: Suffolk News
Update: 11/8/09
At the start of Saturday, 25 college teams charged into the field of improv battle in Boston and Chicago. By evening's end two teams were left standing as regional champs, and two other teams still had hopes to continue to the CIT Nationals via a possible wild card slot.
Congratulations to Seriously Bent from Suffolk University for defending their East Coast Regional title, and congratulations to The Sunshine Scouts from Oberlin College for winning their first Midwest Regional title. Both teams will automatically move on to the CIT Nationals, which will be held in Chicago during February 2010.
The 2nd place team in all the regionals are automatically included in an on-line voting process that will happen in December for a Wild Card Team slot to the CIT Nationals. 2nd place in the East Coast Regionals went to DangerBox from New York York University and 2nd place in the Midwest Regionals went to the defending national champs from CIT 2008, The Improv Mafia from Illinois State University.
To see CIT's new page about the Nationals, please click: Nationals.
Update: 11/7/09
All 72 college improv teams in the CIT 2009 are playing for fun, pride and a national title. Many teams will compete but only one team will hoist up the Sheldon Patinkin Trophy Cup as the 2009 National Champions! Which team will it be? The 2009 tournament begins today as 13 teams compete in Boston for the East Coast Regional title and 12 teams compete in Chicago for the Midwest Regional title.
CIT's match page will be updated through out the day to list the scores and winners of the two regionals' preliminary rounds as well as the two regional finals. To see the Match schedule, as well as the scores and winners in the East Coast Regionals and the Midwest Regionals, please click: ECR & MWR Matches
CIT Gets Boston Media Attention:
Update: 11/5/09
CIT's Midwest Regional gains more media coverage in Crain's Chicago "10 Things to do this Weekend". To read the list, please click: Crain's Chicago.
Update: 10/30/09
CIT's upcoming Midwest Regional is written about in today's Chicago Sun-Times' comedy blog. To read the blog, please click: Chicago Sun-Times.
Update: 10/29/09
In the first CIT, there were 16 teams who competed in 1 region. In the second CIT, there 24 teams who competed in 3 regionals. This year, in the third CIT, there are 72 teams competing in 7 regionals. The participating teams represent 66 colleges and universities from 25 states.
Update: 10/19/09
Keith Habersberger, the team captain of the CIT 2008 champions, Illinois State University's The Improv Mafia, has graduated and he is now working full-time as a professional improviser for Mission IMPROVable. Keith is happily touring with Mission IMPROVable and performing at colleges and universities across the country.
Here's what Keith had to say about CIT and his life now: "I don't know where I would be without the Chicago Improv Festival's 'College Improv Tournament.' It provided both my troupe and I with lofty improv goals and the means to achieving those goals. I can honestly say that I would not be as skilled an improviser today and actually have a job improvising had it not been for Chicago Improv Festival's tournament. Plus, it was one of the most fun experiences of my life."
Update: 10/14/09
This year, besides posting photos of the CIT 2009 tournament teams, we're also listing the player's names and whenever possible including links to the teams.
To see the CIT 2009 tournament teams, please click: Teams
Update: 9/12/09
With the field of CIT 2009's Regional competitions expanding to a total of 7 Regionals (Chicago, East Coast, Midwest, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, and West Coast), in order to accomplish producing the tournament on a nation-wide level, CIF Productions has found several partners to co-present the 2009 tournament.
CIF Productions is very excited to be partnered with 6 outstanding professional regional improv-based theater organizations. They are Atlanta's Relapse Theater, Austin's Out of Bounds Improv Fest, Boston's Improv Asylum & Improv Boston, Chicago's pH Productions, Los Angeles' MI's Westside Comedy Theater, and Seattle's Jet City Improv.
CIF Productions' Executive Producer Jonathan Pitts will be the on-site producer for the Regional competitions in Austin, Chicago, and Seattle. CIF Associate Producer Alison Royer will be the on-site producer for the Regional competitions in Atlanta, Boston, and Los Angeles.
Update: 9/11/09
There will be three teams per match. Each team will have 25 minutes to perform. Each team can improvise what ever way they want to (short-form, mid-form, long-form, no form, etc) within that time period.
The three judges will be improv professionals in the city of where the Regional competitions will be held. The judges' criteria will be based on these following improv skills that are common to all styles: Acceptance, Character, Ensemble, Listening, Playfulness, Support, Relationship and Risk. Each criterion is worth up to 2 points.
All regional winners get an automatic invite to the Nationals. The National Finals will be on a Saturday in February, 2010 (TBA) in Chicago. The seven 2nd place finishing regional teams will each be eligible for a possible wild card slot, which will be decided via an on-line voting on CIF's website. All the regional matches will be recorded and then later posted on CIF's site.
Update: 9/10/09
The 2009 College Improv Tournament will have 7 Regional Championships taking place in 6 cities. The official locations for the Regional competitions are Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle. There will be two Regionals taking place in Chicago.
CIF Productions' Executive Director Jonathan Pitts said, "We're very excited to go from 3 Regional competitions in 2008 to 7 Regional competitions in 2009. It's cool to go from having it in 3 cities in 2008 to having it be in 6 cities for 2009. Now, it is really a nationwide tournament."
CIT 2008 & CIT 2007 Tournament Recaps
College Improv Tournament 2008
Congratulations to The Improv Mafia, 2008 CHAMPIONS!
Congratulations to The Improv Mafia from Illinois State University on becoming the National Champions on the 2008 College Improv Tournament! To win in the finals, they beat a very strong squad, Seriously Bent from Boston's Suffolk University. It was a close match as the judges scored it 3-2. To get to the finals, The Improv Mafia was victorious by the judges' score of 4-1 over Second Nature from University of Southern California. Seriously Bent got into the finals by being victorius over The Titanic Player's Matador Now from Northwestern University with a score of 4-1.
CIT 2008's Nationals Opening Video
Get the Flash Player to see this player. College Comedy Championships 2007
Congratulations to Old Tom Jar, 2007 CHAMPIONS!
Old Tom Jar, The Titanic Players Resident Team from Northwestern University, won the 1st annual College Comedy Championship national title, the College Comedy trophy cup, $1,500 from OSTN-TV, and a performance slot in the 2008 Chicago Improv Festival. The three-person team are all seniors and theatre majors at Northwestern University. The champion team members are Dan Foster, Britney Lower, and Katherine Palardy. They have been playing together for the last four years under the guidance of their director/coach Mike Abdelsayed. Palardy said shortly after winning, "This was one of the greatest weekends of my life!"
CCC 2007's Opening Video
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