Improv fest continues to amplify Black comedic talent 

The Black and Funny Improv Festival, once a small, one-day workshop and panel discussion event, now spans five days of live shows featuring Black talent and performers of color locally and from across the country. The festival runs from March 22-26 at HUGE Improv Theatre in South Minneapolis. 

The festival grew out of a smaller project conceived by Minneapolis improv artist Jill Bernard, who helped start the all-Black improv group Marcus Garvey Experiment. She then invited John Gebretatose to join. Gebretatose was inspired and asked Bernard to help him teach improv workshops to inner-city kids. 

Eventually, Gebretatose, who once trained and worked at Brave New Workshop, was asked to join an all-Black improv group called Blackout, where he met Alsa Bruno, a Black stand-up comic and actor from Texas. The two became fast friends.

The two men went on to create the Black and Funny Improv Festival in 2016, and according to festival director Jada Pulley, it has grown ever since, save for 2020 when the pandemic forced the festival to go virtual.

“I call him my improv father,” said Pulley of Gebretatose, a veteran of Twin Cities stand-up, improv, and sketch comedy. Gebretatose is also a founding member of Late Nights Minneapolis, a sketch comedy show.  

Breaking the mold 

Improvisation, or improv, is a form of live theater in which the plot, characters, and dialogue of a game, scene, or story are made up in the moment, in front of an audience.  It is “typically a White-dominated art form,” said Pulley, who goes by they/them/their pronouns.

Groups like Second City in Chicago and The Groundlings in Los Angeles soon became the two top improv sites, but most major U.S. cities have some sort of improv theater offerings—Brave New Workshop is a local example.

In recent years, Blacks have made strides in the comedic art form. In 1993, Shawn Landry co-founded the nation’s first Black improv troupe, Oui Be Negroes, in Chicago after co-founder Hans Simmons founded The Underground Theatre Conspiracy, also in Chicago, in 1985.

According to its website, the goal of the Black and Funny Improv Festival is to create awareness within the Twin Cities Black community that improv is an art form that they can perform and benefit from. 

It’s an annual opportunity to “showcase [Black] talent and has grown into a five-day extravaganza” like similar Black improv events held in Florida and Rhode Island, added Pulley.  “It has just really grown.” 

They credit Bernard for their vision: “Jill is a great ally, too,” noted Pulley. “She was really involved in starting the first all-Black improv group. She’s like a ‘down’ White woman.”

Black people are indeed funny, and not just in classic stand-up routines, stressed Pulley. “The great thing about improv is that it’s different. You’re not necessarily going for the laugh, not necessarily just sitting there telling jokes.” 

There is also a distinct difference between traditional White improv and Black improv, they pointed out.

“I can’t say that all of our shows are clean,” Pulley admitted. “Our vibe is not to have things be dirty just for the sake of being dirty. But it’s also like, we’re not a G-rated thing. It’s kind of just in the middle. We tried to be a little bit more thoughtful with our comedies.”

In addition to the local group Blackout, national performers are also expected to perform.

“We want people to see people who are Black,” concluded Pulley.

The Black and Funny Improv Festival takes place at the HUGE Improv Theatre, located at 3037 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis. Shows will begin on Wed., March 22 at 7 pm and programming will be held each night until the festival wraps up on Sun., March 26 at 11 pm. 

The public can also sign up for Sat. improv workshops. Go to www.blackandfunny.com for the schedule, tickets, and workshop information.