Relapse Theatre

Lady Parts and Guttersmack

June 28th 2008

SATURDAY AT 8:00 PM

Lady Parts and Guttersmack. Improv comedy at its best.

Come for the 8:00 show and get in free for the 9:30 Harold.

$7 at the door

Boondoggle: The Magic show for People who Can’t Stand Magic

Saturday June 28^th 2008

Show at 8 pm; doors open at 7:30

Mick Stone presents

a magic show for people who can’t stand magic

$10

Relapse Prom 2008

Friday, June 27th, 8:00 pm.

in the cabaret; Doors Open at 7:30 PM

Improv and Stand-up Mixer. Meet and Mingle with the troupes and performers from Relapse Theatre

$10 per person; two for $15

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Mix Tape

June 14th 2008

SATURDAY 8 PM

Premier Solo Improv by Jim Karwisch

Guest mix tape by Pat Young

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Richard Kickers

June 2008

TUESDAYS AT 8:30 PM

Experimental Short-form, Long-form Improv Mixer

Industry Night Stand-up

June 2008

TUESDAYS AT 10:00 PM

Professionally Immature stand-up comedy hosted by Matt Wolff

$5 at the door (comics get in for free)

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Under-promoted Comedy Show

June 2008

THURSDAYS AT 10:30 PM

Stand-up comedy open-mic night

Hear it fresh, hear it raw

$7 ($5 with Student ID)

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Old church a shrine for local comics

Photos and excerpts from Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 26th, 2008. Full text at:

http://www.ajc.com/print/content/printedition/2008/06/26/relapsetheatrecl.html

LAB FOR LAUGHS

Kindness required: Venue owner sets up confab for different kinds of entertainers.

Barry “The Mechanic” Wright entertains between comedians during the weekly Under-Promoted Comedy Show at the Relapse Theatre recently.

Kindness is an underrated virtue, according to Relapse Comedy Theatre owner Bob Wood. But even this easygoing guy’s feathers can get ruffled. A few years ago he scolded a stand-up comic after the performer yelled at the audience when they didn’t laugh at his jokes.

“I found him in the parking lot after the show and I said, ‘That’s your one time [to disrespect the audience]. You’re an entertainer and on stage, you have to handle it,’ ” Wood recalls.

Bob Wood created the Relapse Comedy Theatre, a converted church, to give comics, actors and others a place to perform.

The colorful Bohemian-style theater, located in a converted church on 14th Street, holds improv and stand-up shows several nights a week. In addition to scheduled shows, local comedians drop in to perform impromptu material.

Wood has created a haven for local comics. The former co-artistic director for Whole World Theatre says he wants to support Atlanta’s comedy scene by serving the public and artists.

“The better we each do, then the better we all do,” he says. “I wanted to build a place that was all about being nice to people. It’s been an experiment to see if being nice could be a viable business model.”

On any given day, visitors will see that each area of the multi-level building is akin to a different channel on a TV dial. On the main level, actors rehearse plays in the former sanctuary. Upstairs, improvisational workshops are held in makeshift classrooms. Down in the basement, comics perform for late-night crowds. Others congregate in the lobby lounge, their comfy second home.

The lobby lounge…Relapse has become a second home for some comedians.

MEDIUM IMPROV

Wood says the comedy theater has combined long and short form improvisation to create “medium improv.” During shows troupes of four to eight members feed off each other spontaneously starting with a simple audience suggestion. Purgatory was the theme of a recent fast-paced, zany performance by the Richard Kickers improv show. Set in the “waiting room of the world” the troupe shifted into different storylines and occasionally made each other laugh —- a badge of honor for a comic instigator.

“It’s the underground for comedy,” says Anthony Rice. The improv and stand-up performer with Blacktop Circus occasionally performs during Industry Night stand-up on Tuesday nights.

“Bob is really good with working with artists. His only condition is that when you make it big, just come back and show love,” Rice says.

Jim Karwisch, a performer with JackPie Theatre Workshop, calls Relapse a revolutionary idea.

“There’s nothing like this anywhere,” he says. “It’s a giant beating heart. Relapse is all these different communities of artists working in a way Atlanta has never seen before.”

By Adrianne M. Murchison

Photos by Allen Sullivan

Full text at:

http://www.ajc.com/print/content/printedition/2008/06/26/relapsetheatrecl.html