Bring the Comedy of Improv to West Chester
“It’s always fun to relax and see the lighter side of life” – Sharon Gabor, marketing associate at Uptown!
On Friday evenings in alternating months, you may see listings for performances by the Better than Bacon Improv group at Uptown! Knauer and Performing Arts Center. This suburban Philly group never performs the same show twice as they play unscripted improvisational games by relying on their own comedy talent and the audience’s participation and suggestions throughout each show. Better than Bacon performed at Uptown this past Friday and was a major success as usual.
“Viewers should expect the unexpected,” says Marketing Associate Sharon Gabor. “Each show is unique and is sprinkled with current events. And it wouldn’t be possible without constant audience participation.”
Every word and every action is completely improvised on-the-spot: the only part of the show that’s scripted are the rules to play each game. By the end of the night, Uptown’s audience is crying with laughter. Sharon Gabor was able to sit in on one of their sold-out shows in November on Uptown’s main stage as a staff member, but can’t wait to see them perform on Uptown’s upstairs stage as a patron.
“When I lived and worked in Chicago, I was a huge fan of Second City, a local improv group,” Sharon says. “But now that I’m in West Chester, I love Better than Bacon. They blew me away with their timing and imagination.”
And imagination is a necessary ingredient to making each improv performance a success. You have to make the audience believe in the setting and the actions you’re doing with limited (if any) use of props to fall back on. No matter what kind of work week you had, it’s safe to say we all need a little bit of laughter in our lives.
“It’s always fun to relax, let your shoulders down and see the lighter side of life,” Sharon says. “Better Than Bacon makes that possible right here in our own theater in West Chester, PA. Having that caliber of talent available, at a bargain price, without having to go to a big city is remarkable.”
Tickets for the Better than Bacon Improv shows costs $17.