Improv comedy has been much maligned of late. There's something about jokey, cute, "totally wacky" actors playing short, occasionally obnoxious games that gets under a person's skin. But the sort of improv popularized by the show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" is just one aspect of what is regarded in some circles as a sort of idiosyncratic art.
A+B, a long-form duo composed of UA alumni Brett Christensen and Arnie Niekamp, wants to bring the pride back to improvisational comedy.
"I'll laugh my ass off at a Cheech and Chong or Jim Carrey movie," said Christensen, "but it's a different kind of laughter than when I watch a Coen Brothers movie. (Long-form improv) is just satisfying on a different level. I know that sounds totally lofty, but that's the kind of comedy I find appealing."
Long-form improv, as opposed to the short-form practiced by the cast of "Whose Line," emphasizes more than just getting a laugh. The goal in a long-form game is to create multiple storylines out of a single idea from the audience. A good improv game weaves those storylines in and out of one another until they converge at the end. All of this is done on the fly by the actors, always without any kind of script and usually without any discussion during the performance.
Watching a troupe of experienced improvisers tackle long-form is, at best, like watching a surreal, hilarious and sometimes ingenious one-act play. The members of A+B are two such experienced improvisers.
"A lot of the humor and commentary (of long form), whether social commentary or otherwise, has less filtering than short-form improv," said Christensen, who performs regularly with his troupe Dillinger at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York. "The humor and emotions are more readily accessible because they're spontaneous."
Christensen would know about short form. While they were at the UA, both he and Niekamp directed Comedy Corner, a campus sketch and short-form improv troupe.
Niekamp and Christensen met when Christensen returned to the UA to host the annual S.I.C.K. festival.
"I thought, ÎWho is this guy? I don't care who this person is,'" Niekamp said, "but we really hit it off. After (Christensen) moved to New York, I encouraged him to take classes at UCB."
Niekamp himself has performed extensively with other improv troupes. After leaving Comedy Corner and the UA, Niekamp moved to Chicago, where he took classes at Annoyance Theater, Second City and Improv Olympics, some of the biggest names in long-form and sketch comedy.
"I went to the Chicago Improv Festival while I was still living in Arizona. After that, I just found long form more interesting than short form," Niekamp said.
While in Chicago, Niekamp helped form the troupe James Jackson, which performed regularly at the Improv Olympics Theater and won the Del Award for best new long-form troupe.
Usually, though, both Christensen and Niekamp perform with larger troupes.
"There are definite plusses and minuses to there only being two people," Niekamp said. "If we want to do a scene involving more than two people, it's a little harder, but also a lot more fun. Ultimately, the most important things are funny scenes and making connections."
A+B will perform at the Wilde Playhouse, 135 E. Congress St., tomorrow at 8 p.m. Admission is $2.