Out of Bounds Comedy Festival

Pictures from the Opening Night Party

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Janik) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:28:00 +0000

Check out these pictures from the kick-off party at Momo's

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oob_pics/sets/72157622088501381/

And see ALL the Out of Bounds 2009 (and years past) at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oob_pics/

Out of Bounds Begins Tonight at Momo's

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Janik) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:29:00 +0000

Tonight at 8PM is the opening night party for Out of Bounds 2009!

It's at Momo's, a music venue and bar downtown. Performers will be able to check in, pick up their badges, and get into the festivities for free.

View Larger Map

Come on out and kick off the week of OOB.

Posted via email

Out of Bounds Memories: The Plurals

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:31:00 +0000

The 2009 Out of Bounds Festival starts tonight, and I wanted to take another moment to remember some of the greatness of OoBs past. This time, it's a nugget from 2005, and a sketch trio called The Plurals.
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Adam, Braden and Joel had been coming to Austin from down south for a few months, and doing the occasional bit at No Shame Theater when they were accepted as The Plurals to perform at OoB 2005. We knew they were smart and weird, but had no idea what to expect when they started doing their show.

What we got was a really hilarious, very solid set that featured the three of them doing some of the most memorable sketches ever performed at Out of Bounds. The one that still sticks with me is a video called "Cobbler Dogs," in which the President of Food creates a new edible snack that's half-jelly, half-weiner, all delicious.

The Plurals sadly, aren't around anymore. But these three guys were seriously hilarious, and they took that whole show by storm. They came back and played again in 2006, and were again fantastic, but I will never forget the first time I saw them, and saw the "Cobbler Dogs" video, shown below.

This is a test of the Emergency OOB Broadcasting System.

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Janik) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:15:00 +0000

Through some fancy-schmancy trickery, this here message should be
broadcast to The OOB website, Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. Let's see how
true that is.

Once the festival starts, we'll pass on the keys to the kingdom to the
performers and fans, and let them at it.

Only a few days until the insanity starts up.

Posted via email

One Stage Down...

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:49:00 +0000

Here's an updated look at The Hideout Upstairs theatre that was designed and painted by Kaci Beeler. One stage down just about. Finishing touches tomorrow.

Q: Are we taking this Nintendo thing a little too far?
A: No.

Recession Buster: ColdTowne Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:38:00 +0000

OOB is growing every year with more performers, stages, and overall shows. Well, this year, we've booked the intimate ColdTowne Theatre for a recession buster of a deal. 6 shows each night, Friday and Saturday, all for $5 ea. night. Show up when you want, leave when you want. The improv will just keep on rolling non-stop into the night.
Check out tons of local groups and OOB mainstays like Massive and Galapagos. We're also very excited about welcoming The Daley Reome from Chicago and The Wilhelm Scream from Cinicinnati, who by the way, would win name of the year if there was such an award.
So, if dollars are tight this year, you can still enjoy several hours of improv for just $5 a night, and if you're awesome, hop up on stage for the festival's only open jam on Saturday night at 11 right after the Marathon winds down!

8-11pm Friday and Saturday of the festival.
See the schedules here. Tickets for the Marathon are only available at the door.

Tim League to be Pigeon

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:36:00 +0000

Friday at 11, Out of Bounds is having the second annual all-star casted Stool Pigeon at the Salvage Vanguard Theater. The cast will soon be announced and chock full of ace traveling performers from around the country on top of the scenic prov game.

But the kicker is that Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest founder Tim League will be providing the epic stories needed to fuel those improv inspiration fires. Hear about the time he had to open-hand slap Quentin Tarantino, or the time Bea Arthur told him he was a "pooh-butt" (ok, so neither of these happened) but you get the point, the stories are no doubt going to be awesome.

Get your tickets now!

Congrats to OoB Headliners Dasariski

noreply@blogger.com (Hoju) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Reports out of L.A. (and Facebook) indicate that Dasariski has won the Del Close Award for Best Improvised (Non-Harold) Show for the second year in a row.

The Del Close Awards, named for Del Close, improv pioneer and co-founder of the iO Chicago theater, the Annual iOWest Del Close Awards are given out for achievements - both valid and dubious - in the field of comedic improvization at an irreverent ceremony at the world-famous iOWest theater in Hollywood, CA.

Rich Talarico and Craig Cackowski (2/3 of Dasariski) will be performing their special brand of Improvised (Non-Harold) Shows Sunday an Monday nights to close out the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival.

Don't miss your chance to catch these improv legends!!!!

and for shits and giggles, here's Craig accepting his 2008 award for best Teacher:

Del Close Awards 2008: Craig Cackowski Acceptance Speech from Del Close Awards on Vimeo.

Bobo the Sad Clown

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:44:00 +0000

Be sure to catch a FUCT show while planning out your comedy festival adventure at Out of Bounds. They are definitely R-rated and they were the buzz group of the 2008 festival. Here's one of their more mild bits. Go to their site to see the stuff that will make you throw up.

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Janik) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:45:00 +0000

While you're waiting for Out of Bounds 2009 to start, why not take a journey back to 2008? The majority of last year's shows are archived at http://oob.blip.tv . Embedded below is VAROOM!, comprised of David Razowsky, Dan O'Connor, and Floyd Van Buskirk. But that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Go to http://oob.blip.tv for more.

official stamp

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Janik) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:07:00 +0000

A few days ago I got a package in the mail for Out of Bounds. What could it be? Programs? posters? press photos?

No.

Something far more awesome. Something beyond your wildest dreams.

I got a dinosaur stamp.

A dinosaur stamp!

I could tell you what it's for, but do you really need to know? Just know that this stamp is one of the billion things that makes OOB awesome.

Dinosaur not to scale.

Badges Off to Press!

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:41:00 +0000

The badges have been designed and soon they will be printed and stuffed into little lanyard thingies!

See about getting a festival badge that will give you access to all the shows and parties happening all week long, September 1-7.

Missing Pieces

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:39:00 +0000

Missing Pieces is the crown jewel of our Double Eagle Film Festival show block happening Thursday night at 9:30.

It stars Jordan Belfi and Rainn Wilson as two friends, one of which has decided the best way to avoid contracting testicular cancer is to go to Tijuana to have the ole boys removed. It was directed by Samah Tokmachi and written by friend of the festival Jonathan Goorvich.

You can see the trailer here and get tickets to the Double Eagle Short Films Festival which also includes a lot of other great comedic shorts we've happened across over here.

Catching up with Chris Compton of Nerdvana

noreply@blogger.com (Hoju) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:38:00 +0000

When you've been in the make-em-up business as long as I have, you are bound to see some of your former troupe mates and cast members continue on to do creative projects long after you've played with them. I'm fortunate enough to have worked with some of the truly greats... sometimes in their first improv troupe way back when.

In 1997, Mission:IMPROV-able took Austin's Big Stinkin' Improv Festival by storm. No, not THAT Mission:IMPROV-able. The boys from Amherst? No. Nope, not even the M:I-a from Rhode Island. No, no dear reader. (Something about that name...) No, my Mission:IMPROV-able hailed from Washington, DC, from the great campus of American University. We were a short form (and occasional sketch) team. And in 1997, we rocked the Velveeta Room. Well, kinda. We got through 3 games out of our 10-game set. Thank god all 9 people in our cast were in those first 3 games. It was my last show with this group before I moved to Chicago, and I thought we had stunk it up so badly, my improv career was over. I mean, Fred Willard was in the audience, and he saw what a trainwreck it was. Actually it wasn't all that bad. The following year the Amherst M:I-a boys came down to BSI and got all of our good press from the previous year, so I guess we actually did all right.

Why did I tell you that story? Because within that group were some real powerhouses who are still working on their comedy careers: Dan Shachner (host of HGTV's Curb Appeal), Alex Albrecht (host of diggnation.com and The Totally Rad Show), Karen Graci (iO West's Cog and Baby Wants Candy), Greg Hardigan (Chicago's Hypocrites Theater Company), Chris Wylde ("Space Cowboys", "Coyote Ugly" and infamously "American Idol Season 4"), yours truly -- Dave Buckman (OoB Producer and Boom Chicago/Second City alum) and also, Nerdvana's Chris Compton.

Chris and I haven't really seen each other since that festival---made famous by having that year’s Headliner's The State all get buck naked on the Paramount Theater stage. But we will see each other next month at this years OoB for the first time in 12 years! Ahhh, Austin. Together, we plan on grabbing a Casino El Camino burger and walking next door to take a reunion piss on the Velveeta Room together. Lucky for you, we caught up semi-publicly by phone for you, dear reader:

CC: Hello?

DB: Chris Compton?

CC: Dave?

DB: Yeah. Wow. This is weird.

CC: This is weird. The last I heard you were in Chicago. How did you get to Austin?

DB: I bounced around a bit after BSI. I went from Chicago to Amsterdam to do Boom Chicago and then Second City in Chicago and to Cleveland and then to Austin. I got to Austin almost five years ago. How did you get to L.A.?

CC: After AU, I went to L.A. to write for Midnight with Chris Wylde [a short lived Comedy Central talk show] in 2001. I left town for about two years to go home in South Carolina to take care of my mom for awhile. When I got back to L.A., I hadn't done improv for like two years. So, then I just kind of wound up at Second City L.A.

DB: I stumbled upon your name accidentally just trolling around some improv forums a year or two ago. I saw your profile and thought, "Could that be the same Chris Compton?" And it was! I felt such joy that you were still in the game.

CC: The last I heard of you you were doing Boom Chicago and then recently, maybe last year, someone told me you were in Austin.

DB: Austin has been very good to me.

CC: The scene there is just incredible. We were there last year and I was just blown away by what you guys have going on down there. It's insane.

DB: Yeah, there's so many people doing improv here for the love of the art form. There's no one trying to get famous or noticed by networks or agents... but the impetus seems to be more about how far can we take the art and what other kind of show can we do.

CC: Which is so great to see. It's weird out here. For the most part people are trying to get noticed relatively quickly and seeing if they can build a better Doritos commercial. But in Austin, it feels quite the opposite. The P-graph kids are the ones I hung out with quite a lot while i was down there. And their show was so good. they were doing the show....uhh, I'm drawing a blank... Roy (Janik) was mind-blowingly good.

DB: French Farce?

CC: No. it was, uh... just genius. Not French Farce. It was dark and medieval.

DB: Oh, the Grimm's Fairy Tales?

CC: YES! Roy was some sort of hunchbacked guard character.

DB: They are unbelievable how they can just tackle genres that nobody has thought of yet.

CC: You don't even know that they are genres until you see them do it.

DB: Right! You hear about it and you are, like "Wow!" and then you see their shows and your like "WOW!!! There's no way in hell I can do that."

CC: Yeah, there's no way in hell I can do one of those things, much less several. There was a really good improvised Chekov show out here, but that troupe... that's all they do. P-Graph does several. They’re unreal. They also have the most unsellable name... outside of Mission:Improv-able.

DB: Tell me about Nerdvana.

CC: Stephen [James] and I were in the same Level 1 Second City class back in 2005. We wrote like 6 or 7 scenes together and we were like, "If it was just you and I, then everybody would be showing up to rehearsals." We're both nerdy dudes and we run a weekly night at iO for an eclectic mix of groups that are either having their first show or groups that have been around forever.

DB: What do you have planned for OoB?

CC: We do a mix of monologues and scenes and we're working on a new form. Monologues are really good for sketch writing and finding a strong point of view. We're playing with something now that is a more looser, that allows us to pick up the pace and find more callbacks for the end. We're also going through the UCB program now, so we’re picking up a little bit of that style. Stephen and I work really well together. He's a middle school drama teacher and I have intentionally avoided any kind of career path.

DB: What's something you're looking forward to doing in Austin this year?

CC: Stephen grew up right outside of Houston, so he has his ritual things that he has to do each time he goes there. So last year we had to do get Margaritas at Trudy's. I imagine that will be on the bill again. The house parties were great too. There was one all the way out somewhere last year that was just tremendous fun. Such a great mix of people.

DB: Any shows?

CC: I can't wait to see Get Up again. They had a great show last year. Is You're Not My Real Dad playing?

DB: Yes we are. Thursday.

CC: Crap. We get in on Friday. How about The Frank Mills?

DB: We play Friday and then again on Monday with Cackowski & Talarico.

CC: Wow. That will be like the OK Corral Battle. That name...

DB: Frank Mills?

CC: Yes. That song. It was stuck from Hair in my head for three months after last year's festival and I couldn't figure out why. It took me forever to realize where I had heard it.

DB: I didn't even know the song before we chose the name. I like it because it reminds me of a factory of directness.

CC: Nice. I was in a group out here for a while called Charles Whitman Reilly.

DB: That would go over big here, I think.

CC: I am also looking forward to seeing Tom Booker again too. I haven't seen him in awhile. Tom is one of my favorite human beings. When I found out he was moving to Austin I thought, "Man, that is our loss and Austin's gain."

DB: He has been an amazing resource here in town. He's putting up a show this month called Staged By The Bell. Actual episodes of Saved by the Bell.

CC: That's terrific. It made me so happy to run into him last year and see him doing so well. So, I'm looking forward to seeing him again and also, getting out of Los Angeles for a little bit and getting some of my soul back.

Tickets are LIVE!

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:29:00 +0000

Tickets to the 2009 slate of shows and workshops are now live. Make sure you take a peek at our ticket packages if you're coming to a lot of stuff and want to save a bit of dough.

Tickets can be purchased through the show schedule page or on each group's page.

The Independent at 501 Studios Will be Our Sunday Venue

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:26:00 +0000

The Independent has been booked to be our Big Sunday Headliner venue. It seats about 180 packed tight so expect both of our incredible Sunday shows to sell out soon after tickets go up for sale, which is TOMORROW!

The Independent is at 501 North I-35 in the 501 Studios complex.

Improv Monologue Project Confirmed

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:01:00 +0000

We at OOB Headquarters are superbly jazzed to announce another fantastic act appearing at this year's festival.

Mike Fly, creator of the Improv Monologue Project will be coming all the way from Canada to Austin, shooting new OOB exclusive monologues with local and traveling performers. Each improviser gets a prop and a location and that's it. The rest is improvised. We're super excited to have the I.M.P. and will be posting all of the monologues you can handle and probably even more than that. Here's a taster:

I.M.P. will be featured in the Double Eagle short films showcase show at The Hideout but also sprinkled somewhat randomly throughout the festival's other shows. Pretty freakin' sweet, eh?

Cackowski and Talarico of Dasariski are IN!

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:15:00 +0000

Any of you who were around in 2006 when Dasariski played the Sunday show at Esther's during the festival indubitably remember it as an incredible piece of improv. Well, they're coming back.

Craig Cackowski and Rich Talarico have just confirmed their appearance in the big Sunday Headlining Show for OOB.

The rest of the amazing schedule is virtually TBA free now.

More info about shows on the way soon.

Slow Children Crossing Promo

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:49:00 +0000

I've had this song running through my mind all day.

Be sure not to miss Slow Children Crossing in their Austin sketch debut Saturday, September 5 as part of OOB's fantastic sketch lineup!

SCRAM Officially Booked

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:50:00 +0000

Killer improv duo SCRAM has just officially confirmed their appearance in the 2009 Out of Bounds Big Headliner's Show on Sunday, Sept. 6th.

Joe Bill of Bassprov (Chicago) and Jill Bernard of Resist Butch (Minneapolis) cheat on their respective improv duos to bring you "SCRAM," which blends elements of Joe's signature form, "The Scramble," with Jill's solo show "Drum Machine."

More to come regarding this bucket of awesometacity as developments develop.

Out of Bounds Memories: Punch Drunk Comedy

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:29:00 +0000

In my capacity as Producer for Out of Bounds, I have, since 2002, seen a ton of memorable shows on the OoB stage. Over the next couple of weeks leading up to the 2009 festival, I will recap some of the more memorable (at least for me) performances that I've seen over the years.

The first is Punch Drunk Comedy from 2003.

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Our sketch comedy friends from Dallas, Punch Drunk Comedy first came to my attention when they arrived at my house to stay with Jeremy Lamb, Craig Kotfas, and me when we were living together in North Austin. I had no idea what they would be like when I went to see them the first time, but after one show, I was hooked.

It was a no-brainer to have them at Out of Bounds in 2003, and they were certainly up to the task. Playing on the downstairs stage at The Hideout, I don't think anyone had any idea what they were in for when PDC took the stage, but they were thunder from the outset...gross, completely outside-the-box, 'OMG they didn't just do/say/spray the stage with that' kind of thunder.

Firmly imprinted in my mind is the image of Rasa Hollender chasing her children as a psychopathic mother as they drive away from her house, turning the sweet old woman into a creepy nightmarish vision from hell, and I will never forget the fortune-telling head of Crystal Gayle in a box.

The thing, however, that will forever endear me to Punch Drunk, aside from the fact that I once played a giant slice of pizza in one of their shows, is their spot-on live action recreation of the "Take on Me" video by 80's Scandanavian rock giants A-Ha. Silly, high impact, careening out of control, but faithful as can possibly be, this was the sketch that, to me, said that these guys weren't just surrealists who could gross you out with the craggiest depths of their minds, but that they knew how to craft a sketch that could bring that iconic MTV moment to life.

Punch Drunk haven't, to my knowledge, played together for a while, but Rasa still lives in my old apartment in Austin, where I am glad to know that she's holding down for the kids from Dallas. When I think of the early days of OoB, I always think of them.

Sidecar's Generals Convene

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:11:00 +0000

New York City's own Sidecar is headed to Austin to play Out of Bounds. Get yourself a little sample from their SketchFest NYC show in something they like to call, The Generals Convene.

The New Movement Gets Some Ink

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:44:00 +0000

The New Movement, Austin's newest training center and home to an OOB Saturday 11pm opening duo, Chris and Tami, has gotten some online press and we are obliged to direct you to it now: Austin360.com

Warning: This is a Repost

noreply@blogger.com (Bearded Lamb) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:13:00 +0000

We found Slate.com's in-depth look into the sexuality of a Progressive commercial character too funny to not put in the OOBlog. The taller "Chandler" type is none other than Mitch Baker of Backpack Picnic fame!

Go to the Slate.com article in question HERE.

You also might recognize Flo as Stephanie Courtney who played in last year's Out of Bounds with The Groundlings. And be sure to check out Baker's new live sketch show, The New Mees, playing on Saturday night of the festival, September 5th, with Slow Children Crossing. See the schedule HERE.

Can Word Twiddle for your iPhone Boost Your Power of Suggestions

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Buckman) — Mon, 18 May 2009 05:52:00 +0000

Normally, at the OoB Offices, we get our fair share of all kinds of mails: Snail, fan and e-. So it turned our heads when we were corresponded with through the direct marketing approach. Apparently improvisers are in someone's demographic! So, what do we do as improvisers? We match energy and heighten the game. Meet Word Twiddle, a suggestion generator application for your iPhone. While it's not specifically designed with improvisers in mind, Terry Millard, of Double Dog productions, has designed, developed and sold software, websites and Internet applications for more than 13 years with his brother.

According to their website, Word Twiddle is an iPhone/iTouch app that creates random word stimulus, encouraging you to view a problem from a new direction, fueling the creation of quality ideas. Each new set of words broadens your creativity. Word Twiddle includes over 53,000 words categorized into lists created to compliment each other and stimulate different types of ideas. To use Word Twiddle, select 1 to 3 inspiring word lists and start Twiddling. With the ability to choose up to three word lists, you receive optimum word stimulus. More relevant stimulus means you create more quality ideas.

As improvisers, we never want to run a rehearsal scene again stuck in the same old same old "grandma's kitchen", "office break room" or "backstage at the circus".

OoB: Maybe you can explain a little bit about to in Layman's terms.

Terry Millard: My brother and I have started various internet businesses for the last twenty years. It seems like we were always trying to brainstorm new products, new product names, marketing ideas. And we've done some improv, so we understand how hard it is to just brainstorm off the top of your head. In the past we have used these kinds of websites with random word generators, but they are usually always the same words or you can only-pick-one-category-at-a-time kinds of things. And we were thinking of some ideas for the iPhone. And we said, "Wouldn't it be interesting to have several databases of words, and you can pick the type of word you want?" And you can put them on there and mix them around any way you want. And do more what I call "Targeted Brainstorming" or "Targeted Creative Thinking". So we sat down and created a list of 53,000 words. That you can basically put on these three wheels and choose the order. You can save them. You can email them. But the main goal is to jump-start your brain and jump-start that creative process that will put some words together that you may not have thought up in the past.

OoB: I coach a lot of improv and I can't tell you how often I have to come up with a new suggestions for rehearsals. I am looking through my old notes just looking for interesting words... I ended up using the same ones over and over again.

TM: You get in that rut sometimes and it gets harder and harder to get out of that rut. This helps.

OoB: Do you have a favorite one?

TM: I think my favorite list is odd jobs. Like "Ice Clerk". I gravitate towards the silly ones. And just thinking that that is a real job makes it even funnier.

OoB: How did you and your brother get so interested in words.

TM: I think they convey so much, I mean, the right words in the right fitting can mean so much, and I think we've always been interested in that. And while struggling to create marketing ideas and product names that stand out or are unique or memorable... that process gets you in tune with words and putting words together.

OoB: How does one get the Twiddle on their iPhone.

TM: You can get in one of two different ways. If you have an iPhone or an iTouch, you can go to the internet and download the full version for $1.99 and the light version is free. You can go on the internet to the iTunes Apps store and purchase it and download it directly to you iPhone. The other way is you can go through your computer and into iTunes and into the App Store. The browser looks just like iTunes or Amazon or anything else that you can buy stuff on, and you can download it right to your mac or PC.

OoB: Any new functionality on the boards for Twiddle 2.0?

TM: We want to create an application that will make it so you can enter your own words to our categories. Also we want to allow folks to add words in their own categories that are maybe industry specific or, for you guys, comedy-specific. On the drawing board is something called "Shared Lists" where you can invite people into your group to share words and categories on their iPhones.

OoB: Can we try a quick trial run?

TM: Sure.

OoB: I need a very interesting animal you don't see everyday and throw in an emotional state or feeling with that.

TM: Uhhhh. let's see. Okay. I have a "Tingling Asian Elephant"

OoB: Great!

TM: And I have a "Titillated Aardvark" or an "Easy Vulture", "Disapproving Raccoon"

OoB: How about a profession and a country where they're from?

TM: Let's see...a "Serbian Ruler." A "Cameroon Taster". I guess that would be a "Taster from Cameroon".

OoB: Uh, huh.

TM: A "Pigeon Fancier from Honduras".

OoB: (laughs)

TM: A "Pig's Feet Finisher from Hong Kong". A "Religious Healer from Belize". A "Reptile Farmer from Hungary"

OoB: I think my great grandfather was one of those.

TM: I find myself just doing random ones all the time. Tell me, for improv. Are you dealing most with emotions and occupations. What's typical?

OoB: I think the most typical ones are relationships and locations... and objects. But very often people just come to the audience with "Give me a word." and I try to tell my students to ask the audience for what you want specifically, so that the audience knows what you want. The more specific you can be the better. If you leave it too open you get words like "proctologist". "Vibrator" seems to come up a lot for some reason. I think people just want to to yell the dirtiest word they can summon up the nerve to yell in the dark.

TM: Yeah, I can understand that.

OoB: Like when you were in 3rd grade and you found a new word that you couldn't believe someone had made a word for.

TM: Right . I have two sons that are 25 and 23 and it seems like if you can put "Fart" in a sentence, you can still make them laugh, no matter what the sentence is about...or anything close to that 12-year old humor.

As an added bonus we are giving away 3 free access codes to lucky blog readers. Simply write in to buckprov@yahoo.com with the best improv suggestion you've ever gotten or thought of. Use TWIDDLE CONTEST in the subject line. It's got to be original, unique, and completely helpful to the improvisers. The best three entries to be submitted before July 4th will win a free access code to download Word Twiddle for free on your computer or iPhone.

Or if you can't wait to download Twiddle... check out--> www.wordtwiddle.com/wordtwiddle/