Fallback Festival-Incredible Improv & Stand Up Fest!

This past weekend, I had the great opportunity to be part of the College Showcase on the Fallback Festival at the Space Theater in Rochester NY. The Space Theater is a small black box theater with a gallery connected. As you walk in you can see the walls covered with photos and the staff couldn’t have been nicer! The stage is fairly large, enough to accommodate a large Improv Troupe. For me I got to see some college improv teams that were hilarious that really got the crowd rolling. I’m only familiar with the Improv scene in Pittsburgh, but this was nice to see that the scene up in Rochester was just as strong.

Law Tarello, the organizer of the Festival and a very nice man in general, gave a great introduction of “I pissed myself watching this guy’s video”. This always worries me, and I set myself into a panic. But I took a few moments and calmed down and had a minute or gather myself as they got the mic out and I walked on stage. As I did, a flood of people started entering the venue. I wasn’t aware of this. I mixed in a some newer material in my rotation with some older ones and wound up with 2 long form stories that I’ve started to tell. The audience was incredibly receptive and I had a blast.

I loved this room. I loved the crowd. And I loved the Improv. There were a group of elderly folks, Left 4 Dead, that were incredible. They made some bold choices and created some very real and grounded moments that had me rolling! All the teams played really well. One of the formats done by Geva Comedy Improv was very interesting. It was called Stalker, were when one person leaves a scenes the audiences gets to choose whether the scene stays or we follow the person that left. It was super fun, even when you didn’t get what you want.

So definitely check out the Fallback Festival in Rochester next weekend and the following years to come. I really hope to come back to the Space Theater and perform there again. I feel way more rejuvenated to keep going forward in writing new material and performing more!