Upbeat, fresh-faced, and brimming with youthful enthusiasm: These are phrases you will never, ever hear applied to Austin's You're Not My Real Dad. These guys are never going to see thirty again, and they're pissed about it. Embittered by experience, railroaded by relationships, and down by law, YNMRD perform improv the same way they walk into the kitchen in the morning: balls out. YNMRD are four of the oldest members of the Austin improv community and have about a million years of improv experience. They've dedicated their lives to the Art of Improvisation and have the tiny bank accounts and failed relationships to prove it. (Except for Dave. He's happily married and is employed semi-regularly.) They like to spend their time together complaining, eating bad for you foods and dropping names.

From an audeince chosen iPod selection a long-form of character based group scenes are spun off of the memories of lost opprtunities evoked by the playing of John's playlist.

Splendid Things does long form improv, with an emphasis on storytelling through cinematic and literary genres. Their shows usually include one complete narrative arc, as well as glimpses of several other stories that are tied together thematically. In past shows, for example, they’ve meshed together John Ford westerns with 80’s family dramas, Bronte-style gothic romance, sci-fi horror and Tennessee Williams. The tone of the show fluctuates, with a base of precise, committed, emotionally grounded genre work… punctuated by bursts of creepy, lunatic-style absurdism.

The members of Splendid Things come from backgrounds in filmmaking, scripted theater and cultural studies academia, have spent years working together in short form improv, honing their reflexes and storytelling skills and being ridiculous together.

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Splendid Things also has another show Friday at 9:30pm with The Frank Mills at Salvage Vanguard.