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Motor City Improv performed hundreds of shows over several years at the Wunderground Theatre until it closed in February of 2002.

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The Mirror Newspapers – Printed January 25, 2001

Motor City Improv creates zany hometown humor 
by Diana Wing mirror@mirrornews.com

On Friday night, all the characters come out in downtown Royal Oak – especially those on stage at the Wunderground Theatre.  Quirky party guests arrive with cotton eyeballs, itchy feet and bird-like manners.  A terrified Jean Valjean, a whiney Cosette and an angry village whore tackle a scene from Les Miz.  Taxidermy groomers go about their business – from the bottom out.

The talented actors of Motor City Improv provide the laughs, but it’s the audience that fuels the fun.  Their suggestions give the performers a new persona, or change the scene from medieval times to someplace out of a Western novel.

“The longer you improvise with people, the more trust you develop, and then you can do anything on stage.  We’re very strong improvisors,” said James Bonadio of Royal Oak, a former member of the Detroit Second City Touring Company who formed Motor City Improv about a year and a half ago.

“We’ve been trying to do improv one month and scripted comedy the next.  A lot of us wrote shows and performed them on the Second City stage,” he continued.  “I formed Motor City Improv because I wanted creative freedom.  I don’t want to limit what I say or write.”

Sketch Comedy

Bonadio writes most of the troupe’s scripted shows, drawing from improv material the month before.  In “Downtown, Ho Ho, Hoe-Down,” a show that ran during the holidays, Bonadio portrayed the dazed and confused rocker Ozzy Osbourne on a takeoff of the “Dating Game.”  In another sketch, he donned a cowboy hat and mask to play a timid youngster who couldn’t find his name on any family Christmas gifts, suspecting the worst – he’s adopted.  Bonadio’s expressions and body language drew plenty of laughs.

On the night The Mirror watched the troupe’s improv show, Bonadio had a gig at the International Auto Show, and another Motor City Improv member was away playing with his rock band.  Four members of “Your Fat Friend,” an improv troupe that often opens for Motor City, joined the remaining cast members on stage.

The fun began when Motor City Improv regular Michael Lomas of Southgate picked someone from the audience and asked him a string of questions – his name, age, where he went to high school, what his prom was like and so on.  Lomas portrayed the host of an Arts & Entertainment Network “Biography” special about “Adam” as other troupe members acted out silly scenes from the teen’s life.

Lesley Braden or Royal Oak joined Lomas and Matt Gannaway of Shelby Township in an improv scene involving co-workers.  They performed the skit in 60 seconds and then repeated it, several times, decreasing the length of the piece to an eventual one-second gag.

In another sketch, Gannaway and Braden played a husband and wife, cleaning up the house before a visit from “Aunt Bea.”  Lomas played their son, who inadvertently sets his bed on fire.  The audience suggested a number of changes and before the laughs subsided, the threesome played the scene as if it were a silent movie.  Lomas became the village idiot in a medieval version of the sketch.  Their cowpoke accents were charming in the Western novel interpretation.

“Howdy ma, howdy pa.  I set fire to my bunk,” Lomas drawled, trying to keep a straight face.

“Throw it out in the horse trough,” his pa advised.

Improv games

“If you like the TV show Whose Line Is It, Anyway? you’ll like our improv show,” said Braden, an actress and Cleveland native who moved to the Detroit area to learn improvisational techniques at Second City.  “We play improv games where we have to make things up on the spot and play a variety of characters.  It’s different than live theater.  It’s exciting and we’re all having a ball.”

“We really like the Wunderground,” she said of the tiny venue that seats about 100.  “It’s just the right size, the stage and the theater, for what we’re doing.”

Motor City Improv’s audience is mainly 20-somethings who bring their favorite brew to the shows.  Dating and relationships are common sketch themes, but the audience suggestions tweak the comedy and place the actors in absurd situations.  That’s when they shine.

“It’s an ensemble cast.  The group is very talented,” Bonadio said.  “It’s so much fun.  If you come with friends or with a date, you will laugh.  It’s always a great thing to do on a Friday night and it’s cheaper than a movie.”

Motor City Improv will do Friday night improvisation through January and February at the Wunderground, located at 110 S. Main, just south of 11 Mile, above Ace Hardware and next to Memphis Smoke.  Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show starts at 8:30.  Tickets are $7.  Original sketch comedy returns March 9.