Yeeeeah!
Here's an article that was in the Carol County paper after our first Pigs Show in Frederick a few weeks ago.....(p.s...check out a silly pic of Jiggy in this week's Gazette!)
The Comedy Pigs: Unexpected antics of troupe comes to Arts Center
They've skewered society. They've played hookers.
They've even had to trample through 100 loaded mousetraps barefoot and blindfolded. (YAY! That was me & Denny!)
And it's done all in the name of improvisational comedy.
"We call it the most dangerous game," said Denny Grizzle, of the mousetrap experiment. "I had them dangling off my pinkie toes."
Such is the life of the members of Comedy Pigs, a hybrid of sketch and improv think "Saturday Night Live" mixed with "Whose Line is it Anyway?") based in Frederick.
Formed under the umbrella of the acclaimed Maryland Ensemble Theatre, Comedy Pigs is the longest continuously running improvisational comedy troupe in the state (Going on 14 years!). The troupe performs at Westminster's Carroll Arts Center at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Comedy Pigs was first developed in 1991 By Tad Janes, the troupe's director and MET's founding director. Janes first did improv back in college (the troupe's name comes from the title of the drama student's informal fraternity, the Pleasure Pigs) and later was exposed to improv techniques from Chicago's famed Second City ensemble.
"You walk in the door as either an audience member or a performer and you never know what's going to happen," Janes said.
The Comedy Pigs, which performs at least once a month throughout the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore area, has gone through several cast incarnations over the years.
Paul Pitts, who joined in November, is one of its newest members. Pitts said it frequently forces her out of her comfort zone. A stay-at-home mom who lives in Frederick, Pitts had to play a hooker in a sketch during Comedy Pig's last performance.
"It's an amazing experience," Pitts said. "You get this wonderful opportunity to step outside of yourself and be whomever and whatever you want to be."
Well, you often get to be whatever the audience wants you to be. Improv relies heavily on audience interaction and participation. It's the audience that gives topic or situation suggestions. The audience dictates what kind of performance they will receive, Janes said, whether it's dark or whether it's blue (in improv parlance, that means dirty).
That means improv actors must always be quick witted and fast on their feet, said troupe member Denny Grizzle.
"You have to be kind of fearless," said Grizzle, who has been with Comedy Pigs for six years. "You don't have to be the funniest person in the world. You just can't have any fear or inhibitions."
And you have to have a lot of trust in your fellow actors. Improv actors have to rely on other actors to keep the action moving and to provide words or actions to play off of.
"Trust is vital, extremely important," Pitts said. "You get on stage and you've got to feel the action, feel the movement. It's all very fast paced. It's very draining but in a very good way."
And Pitts and Grizzle said improv has helped them develop as actors.
"It definitely lets you grow as a performer," said Grizzle who performs with another improv group and is now on stage in "The Threepenny Opera." "Improv lets you tap into an area of creativity and into your own self."
(http://www.carrollcounty.com/articles/2007/03/10/features/encore/encore5-03.txt)
The Comedy Pigs: Unexpected antics of troupe comes to Arts Center
They've skewered society. They've played hookers.
They've even had to trample through 100 loaded mousetraps barefoot and blindfolded. (YAY! That was me & Denny!)
And it's done all in the name of improvisational comedy.
"We call it the most dangerous game," said Denny Grizzle, of the mousetrap experiment. "I had them dangling off my pinkie toes."
Such is the life of the members of Comedy Pigs, a hybrid of sketch and improv think "Saturday Night Live" mixed with "Whose Line is it Anyway?") based in Frederick.
Formed under the umbrella of the acclaimed Maryland Ensemble Theatre, Comedy Pigs is the longest continuously running improvisational comedy troupe in the state (Going on 14 years!). The troupe performs at Westminster's Carroll Arts Center at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Comedy Pigs was first developed in 1991 By Tad Janes, the troupe's director and MET's founding director. Janes first did improv back in college (the troupe's name comes from the title of the drama student's informal fraternity, the Pleasure Pigs) and later was exposed to improv techniques from Chicago's famed Second City ensemble.
"You walk in the door as either an audience member or a performer and you never know what's going to happen," Janes said.
The Comedy Pigs, which performs at least once a month throughout the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore area, has gone through several cast incarnations over the years.
Paul Pitts, who joined in November, is one of its newest members. Pitts said it frequently forces her out of her comfort zone. A stay-at-home mom who lives in Frederick, Pitts had to play a hooker in a sketch during Comedy Pig's last performance.
"It's an amazing experience," Pitts said. "You get this wonderful opportunity to step outside of yourself and be whomever and whatever you want to be."
Well, you often get to be whatever the audience wants you to be. Improv relies heavily on audience interaction and participation. It's the audience that gives topic or situation suggestions. The audience dictates what kind of performance they will receive, Janes said, whether it's dark or whether it's blue (in improv parlance, that means dirty).
That means improv actors must always be quick witted and fast on their feet, said troupe member Denny Grizzle.
"You have to be kind of fearless," said Grizzle, who has been with Comedy Pigs for six years. "You don't have to be the funniest person in the world. You just can't have any fear or inhibitions."
And you have to have a lot of trust in your fellow actors. Improv actors have to rely on other actors to keep the action moving and to provide words or actions to play off of.
"Trust is vital, extremely important," Pitts said. "You get on stage and you've got to feel the action, feel the movement. It's all very fast paced. It's very draining but in a very good way."
And Pitts and Grizzle said improv has helped them develop as actors.
"It definitely lets you grow as a performer," said Grizzle who performs with another improv group and is now on stage in "The Threepenny Opera." "Improv lets you tap into an area of creativity and into your own self."
(http://www.carrollcounty.com/articles/2007/03/10/features/encore/encore5-03.txt)