Bull Skit Comedy – Improv Fun-Raising

The players of BullSkit are at it again – “it” being a weird, fun fundraising show to support their upcoming season. ‘Torture-Prov’ is the group’s upcoming fundraiser, being held on May 25th at the Scott Block Theatre. Tickets are $15, available online at www.bullskitcomedy.com or at the door on the day of the event.

“The fundraiser is super fun, and this is the third year we’ve done it,” said Artistic Director Jenna Goldade. “We aim for about eight teams of two, and we bring in guest players from Calgary and Edmonton and work with the other improv groups in Red Deer. The audience purchases chips and those go towards the torture methods for the improviser – things like a pie in the face, or a hot sauced- chip, dunking your head in water or walking on Lego,” she explained.

“People come together as a group and put money towards different methods, so it’s not like one person has to put a bunch of money towards it. You could bring like, ten bucks, and help raise funds for a different torture method. Then, our improvisers do a scene and during that scene, the torture is inflicted.”

As the evening moves on, judges will cast out unlucky duos – or lucky, depending on how you look at it – until the final round, where they get what Goldade refers to as the Pie Box. “The audience pools their remaining chips and every $25 raised is a pie. One year, I think we threw probably 20 pies at a group,” she added, saying it’s always a really fun way to end the night.

BullSkit started out as a sketch-comedy focused group, but in recent years the group has grown to encompass a different kind of performance, described by Goldade as improvisational theatre.“In the beginning, we were using improv to create our sketch comedy, so we were aiming more for the jokes and for fast-paced type improv. Once we shifted gears and started separating the two, we started pushing ourselves a bit more.”

“We wanted to create improv that feels more like theatre, and that way, when the laughs come, they hit a lot harder.”
Goldade said the primary goal of BullSkit is to engage the community in the arts and provide new experiences, and the upcoming fundraiser will help them continue to do so. All of the money raised during the event goes to supporting their upcoming season.