BATS Improv
Last night we went to see the BATS Improv show at Fort Mason. The tickets were one of my two anniversary gifts to RF. Since the 1st anniversary is symbolized by paper, my paper gift to him was the tickets to the Improv show.

RF had told me about BATS Improv a long time ago. He had watched it once before many years ago and he really enjoyed it. We’ve been talking about catching a show for quite some time now. At one point we even asked our friends if anyone was interested. But we didn’t have any takers. I figured we would go on our own this time on a date.

BATS has been performing in SF since 1986. Besides improvised performances, they also offer improv workshops training improvisational performance to individual or groups. The current run is from January through February and have performances every Friday and Saturday nights. Called the Rock & Roll Theatresports, it divides the BATS cast into six Rock & Roll-themed teams to compete for the Theatresports championship. Each night, two teams compete in performing improvised games, songs, and scenes inspired by audience suggestions. At the end of each challenge, judges award points to each team and the audience screams out the name of the team they think did better in that challenge. That team gets to throw a big dice for extra points. The team with the most points wins and moves on to the championship round at the end of the run. The teams lastnight were Rockness Monster and The Swensen 5. The winning team was Rockness Monster, who won by a score of 100 to 83.

We both really enjoyed the show. It was very much like “Whose Line Is It Anyway” but a tad bit more amateurish. But that’s exactly what we expected. These are local actors doing a small intimate show for the local audience. The theater itself is small, which was perfect for the small audience of about 50. But the atmosphere was intimate, as if everyone knew everyone else. The cast asked members of the audience to participate on stage in a couple of skits and people were eager to volunteer. At $15 per ticket, this is an affordable show for two hours of fun and laughs. I will definitely be back for more. I highly recommend it to others as well.

Their website is www.improv.org