ITS Comedy Festival 2021

The ITS House Teams are the cream of the crop to come out of ITS classes, ensembles that have been curated and rehearsed with ITS faculty coaching. The ITS House Teams are managed by Josh Magee.

Flight Mode
coach Edan Lacey
with David Conrad, Emma Leonard, Jacqui Duncan, Rodney Todd, Shane Porter, Simon Arthur, Tat Garwood
Slugboat are performing at 7pm, Friday 17 December. tix below

Slugboat
coach Kate Coates
with Adam Seeney, Alexandra Smith, Bilquis Ghani, Charlotte Grimmer, Chris Burke, Jurgen Shmechel, Tom North & Tresa Ponnor
Slugboat are performing at 7pm, Friday 17 December. tix below

Tetronimo
coach Bridie Connell
with Alex Reynolds, Ben O’Brien, Brendan Byrnes, Maddie Bee, Levi Meltzer, Liam McMahon, Ru Halwala & Steph Ryan
Tetronimo are performing at 7pm, Friday 17 December. tix below

The Robert De Zeros
coach Hayden Wright
with Allana Duncan, Leo Xia, Mark Lymbers, Steve Charlton, Sydney Pead, Tim Dunk
The RdZs are performing 8pm, Saturday 18 December. tix below

Potato Fire
coach Jeeves Verma
with Isabella Hinkel, Jeremy Yao, Karsten Hojberg, Maddie Dockrill & Max Seppelt
Potato Fire are performing 8pm, Saturday 18 December. tix below

A classic improv format done by the ITS ensemble, directed by Clare Cavanagh, ITS Monoscene is one location, one time. Starring Alex Lee, Cale Bain, Clare Cavanagh, Jeeves Verma, Orya Golgowsky, Patrick Lenton, Will Erimya & Susie Youssef.

ITS Monoscene is performing in the 8:10pm set, Friday, 17 December. Tix below.

ITS Smackdown is improv teams against improv teams. Teams competed for the chance to appear in tonight’s grand final over heats in November and tonight someone will be declared grand champion as declared by the audience. Hosted by last year’s winners, Wine Mums Jan & Marie (Maddie Parker & Jen Mackie).

This years grand finalists are:
ASMR – Alex Reynolds, Steph Ryan, Maddy Bee & Ru Halwala
Mug & Mayhem – Hayden Wright & Shane Porter
Underqualified – Jordana Wegman, Lara Newman, Tyler Dias & Georgie Daniels

The Smackdown Grand Finals are on Wednesday night at 9:15pm. Tix below.

A crowd favourite, ITS Soap has always taken cues from the small screen’s most beloved but over the top soapies to deliver plot twists, elaborate back stories and shocking confessions. This year, is no exception, as the ITS Faculty and Special Guests pay tribute to the made-for-streaming small town festive melodrama. It’s The Bold and the Beautiful meets A Christmas Prince meets Hallmark but with Murder!

Starring Anna Renzenbrink, Laura Hart, Eleanor Stankiewicz, Marcel Blanch de-Wilt, Jeeves Verma, Clare Cavanagh plus special guests Alex Lee (The Feed) and Amanda Buckley (Impro Melboune, The Project Sideshow). Directed by Anna Renzenbrink with Edan Lacey on tech and voice.

ITS Soap is the penultimate show in the festival on Saturday night in the 8:10 slot, 18 December. Tix below.

The Amazing Cannonball Flower are 3 artists performing a mix of sketches with a lot of comedy and a lot of heart. Aarti Vincent – The Delhi Theatre Addict; Kru Harale – The Mumbai Drama Queen; James G Warren – The Hobart Golden Boy, come together in the to perform surreal, satirical and heart-warming sketches. Come find out what two Indian girls and a white guy bring to the world of comedy.

TACF are performing in the 7pm slot on Saturday, 18 December. Tix below

It’s been 60 years since the cast of Chef’s Kiss have seen each other. You’re about to witness their reunion. LIVE. ON. STAGE. The best part? None of the cast know about it!
(So please don’t make this public for media purposes or anything, ok? We want them to be really, really surprised.)
Dirt will be dug up, ancient feuds will be sparked and old love will be rekindled. Think the Friends reunion, but less plastic surgery and… funnier. Catch Improv Theatre Sydney’s OG House Team in the flesh in this very spesh show!

Chef’s Kiss is Alex Selby, Bella Scott, Chelsea Zeller, Jasmin Galper, Luke Heywood, Michelle Robin, Patrick Lenton, Sam Kluge.

They’ll be playing in the 8:10 set on Thursday, 16 December. Tix below.

Everyone’s invited around to our place for an improv house party. We’ll explore ideas and scenes from those deep and meaningful party conversations you have at 2am around a table in someone’s backyard.

Starring Orya Golgowsky, Marcel Blanch de-Wilt, Hayden Wright, Eleanor Stankiewicz, Alexandra Smith, Josh Magee, Lauren Hayward and Shane Porter.

Hardbench are performing in the 9:15pm set on Friday night. Tix below.

With warm yet cheeky style, John Glover’s standup comedy is inviting and relatable as he weaves silly tales about family, dating and childhood. Get ready for some queer and offbeat laughs with this Gen Y philosopher.

John’s performing in the 8:10pm set on Friday night. Tix below.

It’s every celebrity’s idea of hell. Trapped in a hotel room with a constant parade of entertainment reporters lobbing boring and bizarre questions at you for hours on end. While it probably won’t do much to promote your crappy project, it might just lead to a great viral video of your meltdown! JunkITS celebrates a curio of the pop culture machine: the Hollywood press junket. Only this time the stars, the “art” and the gossip columnists are all made up for your gawking pleasure.

Starring Levi Meltzer, Anna Rezenbrink, Allana Duncan, Josh Magee, Hayden Wright, Alex Reynolds & Max Seppelt.

JunkITS! are performing in the 9:15pm set on Thursday night. Tix below.

ITS is back from lockdown, and you know what that means: time for a rebrand. ITS have hired Gladys Berejiklian’s estranged daughter (and marketing expert) Sharon to pitch her vision of a cooler, funnier, and totally-not-corrupt ITS.

Starring Max Seppelt.

The Marketing Makeover will take place between House Team sets on Friday, in the 7pm set. Tix below.

Presenting Lines of Best Fit: Hear about exciting new science in a talk from our expert scientist, inspiring never-to-be-seen-again comedy by the improvisers. Featuring Dr Taylor Szyzka from Sydney Chemistry as our guest scientist.

Starring Maddie Houlbrook-Walk, Theo Murray, Olivia McRae & Jeromaia Detto with special guest scientist Dr Taylor Szyszka.

Lines of Best Fit are performing in the 8:10pm set on Thursday night. Tix below.

Inside the mind of Liam McMahon. Stand up comedy. Stories and a tune.

Liam’s performing before ITS Soap in the 8:10pm set on Saturday night. Tix below.

Rosie Piper and Jen Mackie host stand-ups doing new gear with a cast of excellent improvisers performing scenes based off their sets.

Featuring Edan Lacey, Kate Coates, Laura Hart, Maddie Parker, Michael Hing, Mikey Fitz, Ochre Pastro and stand up from Brigitta Brown, Fiona Cox, and more!

New Rope is the closing show of the ITS Comedy Festival at 9:15 on Saturday night. Tix below.

Post-Its, Sydney’s premier, stationery-themed improv troupe! They’re also ITS’s first ever grad class!

Post-ITS are Bec Melrose, Debbie Zukerman, Stephen Meagher, Paul Coulter, Joanna Olivera, Raphael Stephens.

They’re performing in the 9:15pm set on Friday night. Tix below.

Scary Strangers offers a whacky, weird and wonderful look in to the realm of sketch comedy. Take a peek in to the minds of comedians Ru Halwala and Tom Stevenson, if you’re game, as they deep-dive in to the concept of “if this is true, what else is true”?

Ru & Tom are performing in the 8:10 set on Thursday night. Tix below.

The Pigeon Problem is here to solve all your problems! From losing your mouthguard to achieving world peace, there is no problem too big or too small. Also it’s an improv show.

Starring Lauren Donikian, Sophie Long, Andrew Smith, Fernando Polo Valarezo, Nishita Merchant

The Pigeon Problem is playing in the 8:10set on Friday night. Tix below.

Milsey is a woke bloke, played by Billie Miles.

Milsey is in the 8:10pm set on Friday night. Tix below.