ARCHIVES: CIF 3

The Funniest Week in Chicago!

The 3rd annual Chicago Improv Festival
April 25-30, 2000

Performance Schedule
(Note: Headliners are bolded)

CIF MAINSTAGE @ Athenaeum Theatre

Tuesday, April 25, 8:00pm
SNL's Dratch & Fey (New York)
J.T.S. Brown (Chicago)
The Impromptones (Los Angeles)

Wednesday, April 26, 8:00pm / Gay & Lesbian Night
Emcee Alexandra Billings
GayCo Productions (Chicago)
Flaming Dykasauras (Madison)
The Subverters (Chicago)

Thursday, April 27, 8:00pm
The Groundlings (with MAD-TV's Phil LaMarr) (Los Angeles)
Brave New Workshop (Minneapolis)
ComedySportz (Chicago)

Friday, April 28, 8:00pm / Second City Night
The Second City - Chicago Alumni (with SNL's Horatio Sanz)
Special Alumni Performance with Scott Adsit, Tina Fey, Mina Kolb, & Avery Schreiber
The Second City - Toronto Alumni

Friday, April 28, 10:00pm / Chicago Night
Schadenfruede (Chicago)
The Annoyance Theater (Chicago)

Saturday, April 29, 8:00pm / ImprovOlympic Night
Emcee Will Clinger
Comedy Central's Upright Citizens Brigade (New York)
iO Road Show (Chicago)
Baby Wants Candy (Chicago)

Saturday, April 29, 10:00pm
Emcee Bob Zmuda
Bang Studio (Los Angeles)
The Transformers (with Fraiser's Jay Kogen) (Los Angeles)
The Noble Fool Theater Company (Chicago)

Sunday, April 30, 7:00pm
Emcee WXRT's Lin Brehmer
The Simpson's Dan Castellaneta (Los Angeles)
Opening Nights:The Improvised Musical! (Los Angeles)

CIF SHOWCASE @ Annoyance Theater

Thursday, April 27, 10:30 / Improv Dinner & A Movie Night
Taint (with The Food Channel's Frank Janisch) (Chicago)
Crushed (a fully improvised movie) (Chicago)

Friday, April 29, 8:00pm
Shelia (Chicago)
The Real, Real World (New York)
Yellow Man Group (Tokyo)

Friday, April 28, 10:00pm
The Playground (Chicago)
Brody Theater (Portland)
The Improv Asylum (Boston)

Saturday, April 29, 7:00pm
MTV's Matt Price & Mike Blieden (Los Angeles)
Ectomorph (Chicago)
The Perks(Los Angeles)

Saturday, April 29, 9:00pm
2 White Guys (Chicago)
The G.T.O.'s (Toronto)
The Improv Bandits (Auckland)

Saturday, April 29, 11:00pm
WNEP Theater (Chicago)
Four Day Weekend (Dallas)
Slap Happy (Toronto)

Sunday, April 30, 11:00pm
Quartet (Chicago)

CIF IMPROV 'TIL DAWN @ ComedySportz

Friday, April 28, 10:00pm
With 18 ensembles from USA & Canada

Saturday, April 29, 10:00pm
With 18 ensembles from USA & Canada

Greetings from the improv global village! The world is coming to Chicago for the 3rd Annual Chicago Improv Festival. CIF 2000 promises to be bigger, better, and funnier than ever before! 75 different improv-comedy ensembles, from 20 different cities, and 4 different countries (America, Canada, Japan, & New Zeland) will perform at 3 different venues over one week. Ticket prices range from $20 to $5, and discounted multi-show and all-show passes are available.

CIF 2000 will present performances by the funniest ensembles in the world! Scheduled performances include a special opening night show featuring Saturday Night Live's Rachel Dratch & Tina Fey; a closing night show with Fox-TV's Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson); the exciting return of Comedy Central's Upright Citizen's Brigade; celebrating 25 years in Los Angeles, F/X's The Groundlings (with MAD-TV's Phil LaMarr); a tribute to the 40th Anniversarty of The Second City with performances by Avery Schreiber ('61), Mina Kolb ('59), and other Chicago & Toronto alumni; a show highlighting Chicago's ImprovOlympic; and international performances by Canada's The GTOs, New Zealand's Improv Bandits, and Japan's Yellow Man Group.

CIF 2000/Main Stage features 24 different ensembles scheduled to perform at the 900 seat Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport. These ensembles include Saturday Night Live's Dratch & Fey, Dan Castellaneta, Upright Citizens Brigade, The Groundlings, The Second City Alumni, ImprovOlympic, The Annoyance Theatre, Minneapolis' Brave New Workshop, L.A.'s The Transformers (with 4 time Emmy-award winner Jay Kogen, the Co-Executive Producer of NBC's "Frasier"), and L.A.'s Bang Studio. CIF 2000/Main Stage shows run Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. There are also shows on Friday and Saturday at 10:00 p.m. Each show will feature three different ensembles per show. CIF 2000/Main Stage tickets are $20.

CIF Main Stage single show tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster (312/902-1500 or www.ticketmaster.com) or purchased at the box office of the Anthenaeum Theatre. This year marks the debut of CIF multi-show passes. A 3 Show Pass ($50) and all All Show Pass ($75) can be purchased only through CIF's hotline: (773) 394-3540, or through CIF's website: www.cif.com

The CIF 2000/Showcase features 16 different ensembles scheduled to perform at the 200 seat Annoyance Theatre, 3747 N. Clark. These shows are Thursday @10:30, Friday @8:00 & 10:00 p.m., Saturday @ 7:00, 9:00, & 11:00 p.m., and Sunday @11:00 p.m. Each show will feature three different ensembles. Of the CIF 2000/ Showcase ensembles, 5 are from Chicago, 2 from Canada, 1 from Japan, 1 from New Zealand, and 6 are from all over the USA. CIF 2000/Showcase tickets are $10 and can only be purchased at the Annoyance Theatre on the day of the show.

CIF 2000/Improv 'Til Dawn features 36 different collegiate and semi-pro ensembles from all over America, scheduled to perform at the 100 seat ComedySportz, 3209 N. Halsted. Performances will be Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29, with shows starting at 10:00 p.m. and running non-stop until 4:00 a.m. 18 different ensembles per night are each given one 15-minute slot. CIF 2000/Improv 'Til Dawn tickets are $5 and can only be purchased at ComedySportz on the day of the performances.

CIF 2000/Weekend Workshops (April 29-30) feature the opportunity to learn from Chicago's finest improv instructors (Dr. Martin deMaat, Charna Halpern, Mick Napier, etc.); a Master Class with improv legend Avery Schreiber (Second City, '61), and a special Question & Answer session with Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey (Second City, '96). Over 225 students have registered for the workshops, and it is sold-out. There are students coming to Chicago from all over the USA and Canada!