Improv helps Langley Fine Arts dry grads

Improv fun appropriate for all ages comes to the Chief Sepass Theatre on Feb. 8 and going for a laugh may save a young person’s life.

The event is a fundraiser for the Langley Fine Arts School Dry Grad, a booze/drug free celebration for Grade 12 students who have completed school.

The Dry Grad Committee has enlisted the Fictionals, an improv group.

“They are funny,” organizer Lesleigh Stanley said.

The Fictionals Improv Comedy Company performs standing gigs in Vancouver and special shows.

At the Langley fundraiser, the group will be doing its Cards Against Humanity evening. Cards Against Humanity is a party game and the Fictionals have put an improv twist on it.

The Fictionals pick several volunteers from the audience to play along. Cards are drawn and audience members each take turn reading a black card, then each player puts their white card into a bowl.

Then each comedian on stage selects a white card at random and reads it in combination with the black card. Once all the choice combinations are read out, the audience member who read the black card chooses they funniest combination (with help from the audience) to then act out the scene.

This is a new fundraiser for the school’s dry grad.

“Being on the fundraising committee we had to come up with ways to raise funds,” she said. “As luck would have it I work with one of the Fictionals and had recently been to their show at the Rio in Vancouver and thought how fun it would be to host an improv night at the school. Being a fine arts school, it was fitting as well.”

The doors open at 6 p.m. with the show at 7 p.m. and an intermission half way through for snacks. There will be 50/50 tickets sold that evening as well.

Tickets are $20 online and get the buyer three 50/50 tickets. Or people can buy tickets for $22 at the door.

The committee is working to raise about $10,000 for the 2014 grad celebration and plans more events before grad rolls around in a few months.

“This is our first event and it will be our main money maker, Stanley said. “We have other fundraisers planned like drive a new car, bottle drives, kickboxing boot camp class and so on. We are hoping this event will sell all 310 tickets, and if so, we may consider hosting another one in April or May.”