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Featured Band & Video
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Featured Band & Video
Jimmy George
Austin's Pennybacker Bridge, commonly called the 360 Bridge, is an extraordinary site. Standing atop one of the highest points in Austin, the bridge resembles a ladder which houses Highway 360 beneath it without ever touching the water below. The rust colored steel bridge folds over Lake Austin, which feeds off the Colorado River and is widely considered one of the most scenic urban drives in Central Texas. ...
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| The Out of Bounds Comedy Festival |
| Written by Laura Romer | |
 Buddy Daddy improv duo The last thing we need this summer is another un-funny Adam Sandler comedy where all the mediocre jokes are in the trailer. Oh, wait. We did. Sorry, Sandman you lost your funny bone (and also our money) with You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. We want a little more ballyhoo for our buck. A lot less “eh” and a little more “ha” to go with our over-priced popcorn and soda. It’s time to bring on the laughs. So once again, the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival is here. And it brought friends. The Out of Bounds Improv Festival (August 26 through September 1) first burst onto the Austin scene in 2002 with the aim of spreading the news that Texas, and specifically, Austin can do comedy. And darn good comedy, at that. Founder Jeremy Lamb and co-producers Mike D’Alonzo and Shannon McCormick have certainly hit their mark, creating a nationally praised improv bonanza so good that performance comedy hotbed Los Angeles is following Austin’s lead. (Out of Bounds stretched, well, out of bounds with a spinoff version landing in the City of Angels this year.) The Austin festival itself is stretching out, adding stand-up comedians and short films to the sketch comedy and improv foundation. (Hence name-change from Improv Festival, to Comedy Festival.) Lamb’s brainchild was born as the longtime, red-bearded Austinite performed at improv festivals across the country (with the troupe he founded in high school, Well Hung Jury). The experiences snowballed into an idea: why not put on one of their own, and a better one at that. The concept was simple—pick from the best and leave out the worst. It proved successful in its first try as the three-day festival of sketch improv, with a mere eight shows, sold out all of its weekend performances. Now in its seventh year, Out of Bounds has truly arrived. Growing every year, the weeklong event will host more than 50 performances at five venues, as well as workshops and seminars. It will feature not only the best of Austin and Texas-based performers, but talents from the East Coast, West Coast, and Chi-town.  The Groundlings This year’s headlining show at Esther’s Pool is some group calling itself The Groundlings, whose notable alumni so happens to include Will Ferrell (back when he was still funny), Kathy Griffin (back when she still was on the D-list) and Paul Reubens (back when he wasn’t creepy, well, then again). The Sunday night show also features Lamb’s current troupe, Available Cupholders, and the Austin-based Girls Girls Girls, creating long-form, improvised musicals (with live band) from a single audience suggestion. GGG founding member Shana Merlin has traveled to different festivals across the country and believes some of their best work comes from Out of Bounds. “Austin is really a well tamed place to do improv. There [are] a lot of towns that are much more competitive, much more cut throat, much more exclusive, and Austin is a very friendly town.” If musicals that could possibly feature a narwhal (that’s an aquatic Arctic mammal with essentially a unicorn horn, duh) and Bob Fosse jazz-hands might not tickle your fancy, then maybe some old-school culture in the shape of Improvised Shakespeare might do the trick. As the name implies, the troupe take an audience suggestion and then acts out what could be a lost Shakespearean play, or…maybe not. In keeping with tradition, the festival concludes with a miniature golf contest, offering the enviable prize of “The Ridiculous Jacket.” The winning score is awarded said jacket (vintage denim, no less!), compliments of Goodwill. But more important than being the temporary owner of a permanent fashion travesty, is the chance for social networking among the performers. Though the improv community is constantly growing, it is still relatively small; making contacts and supporting each other is key for survival. The performers know what they’re doing, but aside from knowing when to laugh (hint: when it’s funny), does the audience? What does improv exactly entail? So to backtrack a little, it’s time for some Improv 101. For the folks at home whose only readily available reference point is “Whose Line Is It Anyway?,” the improv gods would like to have a word with you (and Drew Carey, for that matter). For starters, two schools of thought exist. On one side is an approach developed by Keith Johnstone focusing on games and numerous audience interactions à la “Whose Line.” On the other hand is Del Close’s “Harold style,” which focuses on long form improvisation. Generally, with this type only one suggestion is taken from the audience and the performers run with it for the entire sketch. Each form has spawned successful troupes, although when it’s all said and done, no matter the style it just has to be engaging and, most importantly, entertaining.  Austin's Girls Girls Girls In theory, it can seem all fine and dandy, but what actually translates into successful improv is a whole other story. “The thing that makes improv funny is not just trying to be funny, because the audience can totally smell when you’re trying to be funny,” explains Lamb. Essentially, having fun and staying committed is all you really need, because the payoff can be “enriching, and spontaneous, and gripping, and funny.” Lamb is not alone in his quest for global comedic domination. He and his fellow comic in crime and co-executive producer, Shannon McCormick, have beefed up this year’s schedule yet again. The decision to include stand-up and short film has cast a wider net, landing talents like Comedy Central’s Maria Bamford and North Carolina’s funniest man, John Loftin. Careful not to bite off more than can be chewed while keeping their bank account out of the red, Lamb believes the staying power of Out of Bounds can be attributed to its slow and manageable growth, along with high quality entertainment year after year that keeps people coming back. And some people, not necessarily audience members, but performers end up taking residence in Austin.  Jeremy Lamb The name itself, Out of Bounds, comes from the festival’s encouragement of the experimental, and taking place in a city typically viewed as outside the major market for these sorts of things. Yep, that sounds a whole lot like Austin right there. Looking forward, Lamb hopes Out of Bounds can grow to an international gathering of comedic proportions and rank among Austin’s already premiere entertainment festivals (SXSW, Austin City Limits, Austin Film Festival) in terms of success, variety, and worldwide attention. Yet, to Lamb, the bottom ultimately remains the same: “We’re just there to do good characters, tell good stories, and make everyone laugh.” Lamb says. Is it really that simple? Well, you just have to experience Out of Bounds to really find out. But hurry, the shows sell out every year. Tickets can be bought for individual shows ($8-$18) or festival passes ($55-$70) More info and tickets can be found at the Out of Bounds website. |
