The LA Indian Proud Festival is 13 hours of improv from your local LA community.
So it's 13 hours of straight laughs.
I'm the worst salesman.
You are not going to leave this lot with a car.
It's going to be left alone.
It is everywhere.
A ton of teams.
Crazy and fun.
There's like a buzz about it.
Everyone is talking about it.
Funny and like awesome.
There's so many great teams.
13 hours.
150 teams.
It's just so much fun.
I love being part of it.
I think it's my favorite day of the year.
It's just the most fun.
I see so many people that I sometimes haven't seen for years come out to this.
So it's really just like a big party and one of my favorite times.
The Indian Proud Festival is one day, 13 hours, over 150 teams spread across four stages.
And it's open to all improv teams, long form improv teams.
Just like a fun event for so many people who had so much interest to do that could be more than just like hitting up a different show each night.
And it's been really great to watch it grow.
The festival is my yearly reminder of how cool and big the improv scene in Los Angeles has gotten.
You can go to a show, any show, and there's going to be people there that just want to laugh and be around other people.
We all agree we're going to sit like this.
When I explain improv to people, it's usually I tell them I go on stage and I just riff and I just bullshit.
But really that's not the essence of improv.
We get one word and then we create a bunch of ideas out of that one word.
And then we go ahead and show stories.
Improv is the idea of being able to keep playing with your friends when you become adults.
Short form improv is what you're probably most familiar with which is the who's line is it anyway.
Where before the scene even starts you know what the unusual thing is.
You're going to be the world's worst blank or you're going to be the arms for this guy or whatever it is.
Long form improv is where you start the scene and find what's unusual as the scene goes on.
It's one of those things that you just have to come and see.
You can describe it all you want but it's not until you see it, until you really get it.
It's not just about who can be the funniest for one second or who can have the funniest character in a second.
You're creating something with long form improv.
It's really hard to hear a girl scout because I'm very tall.
And girl scouts are like your big fun writers are just like cookies.
And people want to buy cookies from like real cute girl scouts.
And then like I walk up like cookies and they're like...
Why is improv fun?
Well I started doing improv because it scared me.
And I keep doing improv because I like that it scares other people.
Why do I keep doing improv? Because I have nothing else in my life.
Which I think is the way I made it so I keep doing improv.
My own personal goal is like I do want to be on stage as an African-American doing improv
so that more people outside of that culture can see it and feel like they can do it too.
It's the only thing I love.
I think improv makes me more confident. I know that it did for me.
When I started doing it I think I was unemployed and then I ended up, I had a job interview and just nailed it.
Well I have a goal for life and that's to enjoy it as much as possible and to have as much fun as possible.
And improv helps me with that.
It's a very gratifying art form and it's immediate gratification.
It tones your skills not just as a performer but as a writer, as just a confident human being.
I think it helps every aspect of life.
I think improv feeds into all creative pursuits and also I think it just makes me a better person.
Well during the day I work in an office and so it's time for me to get out and play with a lot of friends and be creative.
Whether you're a lawyer, businessman or just an artist it just allows you to just not worry about what the results are, those happy mistakes.
Right now I'm just having a lot of fun. I get to perform almost three times a week some weeks and that's just fun to me.
To me being on stage is like my training and every time I get to be in front of an audience it builds my performance confidence.
I feel like it's like pop-eye a little bit, like it's like spinach you know what I'm saying. So I feel like once I stop doing improv I'll just stop growing as a performer completely.
Oh God I'm such low self esteem I never knew anyone was talking.
Oh my God like after a good show you feel like a fucking queen.
Having a good improv show I imagine feels like winning a sports game if I had ever won a sports game I would, I think that's what it would feel like.
Good shows is like oh my God I feel like you're like made out of glitter.
It is as good a rush as anything.
I feel like king comedy or queen comedy. You feel like the ruler of comedy in some way.
People just really enjoy love and laugh out of thin air and like when you do that you just feel so good.
You just feel unstoppable for that moment right after a show.
I made it up!
Not only are people impressed with the performance of it but people are impressed with the fact that you created that out of nothing.
And so there's a special type of like applause and sound you get from an audience when you impress them on both levels and when you achieve that.
There's nothing like the huge laugh you get from an improv show.
You can't plan it out. So I think when you get a laugh in an improv it feels better than something that you may have rehearsed.
Bad shows suck ass.
Doing a bad show does suck.
When I first started doing a bad show was heartbreaking.
It was just like you're stupid. You don't know how to function in front of other adults.
You know your friends always say hey when am I going to see you doing improv?
You're like oh yeah I'll let you know, let you know and then you finally let everyone know.
You actually promote it and then if that show sucks that's when you really feel bad.
And now usually if I have a bad show it's because I've learned something really important.
Bad shows? You're just like you just want to go home and eat pizza and ice cream.
It's like a breakup. You're like oh my god.
But then like you get over it after like you eat the pizza.
Early on in like the indie improv scene there were maybe like four or five shows and we were all friends with one another.
And it was interesting because a lot of people thought that there was like tension and animosity between us.
And so one of the things we talked about was to kind of just like pool all of our resources and do something together.
In order to put on a festival like this it takes a lot of volunteers.
So it's all like getting a website to put up, taking submissions, paying rent, getting insurance.
All that fun stuff that goes into making a festival.
We've continued to do it and it's continued to grow because we all really believe in serving and celebrating that indie community.
And if you want to have an indie festival you got to do it yourself, right?
There are house teams which are put together from they usually have like a committee at a theater which goes through classes.
And these there's no qualifications. It's just people who self-assemble and want to do and want to put on shows together.
There are some big theaters in town like UCB, iOS, Grounding, Second City, etc.
And if people perform there regularly they tend to be considered a house team at that theater.
LA Indie Improv is some of those teams as well as anyone else.
Teams that maybe just meet once a week with a coach in their living room for two hours.
I think Indie Improv is a little bit freer.
To me like the indie scene is a little more vibrant.
Indie Improv is like the renegade. I'd like to say it's a little messier.
I think it may have something to do with that no one's getting paid.
You know I want to be around people like that. That would do it anyway.
Our job is to say hey if you think you're an improviser you are.
Here's a place for you and you can perform at the LA Indie Improv Festival.
This year we had I think 300 teams submit which was up almost 100 from the year before.
We put in I think around 160.
I'm on a bunch of teams.
I'm on a bunch of different teams.
I'm on Shake Down.
I'm on the Improv teams Crash Bar.
Bruiser Willis.
Secrets.
Preview.
Charm School.
The local.
The big.
Do I say big?
I'm on an indie team called Cryclops.
Kid Grifts.
Geraldo.
Hip Hop Penguin.
Count Gumdrop.
Kanye West.
Argonaves.
Jetso.
Dad's Mostash.
Casey and Jojo present Frangel S.B.
White Women.
Beach Ghost.
The Companions.
Thrashtown.
That's it.
That's a good way of place to stop.
I'll stop there.
I think that's a good amount of teams to talk about.
The indie community has become so huge.
I feel like in the last year the Improv scene, the indie Improv scene has exploded.
Like last year it exploded and it just keeps multiplying.
My favorite part about Improv is camaraderie and like working as a team.
There's nothing else like this where you can just come and be accepted.
Yeah, a lot of people probably don't realize there is this whole underground community of
improvisers in L.A.
And it's a fun group of people.
There's all different walks of life and all these different people who have come and found
these little shows all around town.
You're doing this thing together.
You're, for 15 minutes you're on stage.
You're being vulnerable as fucking acting like kids and fucking having to do it together.
We're a bunch of weirdos.
We're a bunch of fun weirdos who like to make things up and have more fun acting than watching TV or anything.
And I think that's something I can relate with.
I came out here to be an actor and I don't know what it would be like for other people who didn't have this community.
I can go out to a show.
I can see a bunch of people that I think are so funny and so kind and they embrace me and lift me up.
I haven't been in a community where everyone has been just so good and it just feels like your home.
I started doing improv and I just felt like it was the most warm, welcoming community of people.
I see so many talented people of so many different types of backgrounds all doing improv.
And it's not weird and it's not awkward.
People would go into an improv show, see all white people and think of me like oh this isn't a black thing.
But that's definitely changed.
A real community of people who aren't judging each other and going out to make and create something.
New friend, new friend, new, new friend.
Oh and I love you guys so much.
Now it is eight o'clock hour. We're going to come back strong for the next couple of minute break and we're going to look at this fucking weird air conditioner.
All of us together did our best to create a very diverse and interesting lineup that was a balance between people's first shows maybe,
people who are just getting started in the community and people who've been around for a very long time.
They promoted it so well and there's so many great teams.
I think it's going to be nuts. I think every year this thing gets bigger and bigger.
I don't know where the end mark is. I don't know when it's going to stop.
The biggest complaint we got the day of was just from people saying is there a theater that doesn't pack.
So that's a good problem as far as problems to have at the festival.
Getting to the end of the day and realizing that there are people who've been there for all 12 or 13 hours
and are still pumped at the end of the day going oh my god I can't wait for next year.
It feels great. It feels like you have just given something to everybody.
The reason we all do it is that we love it and so we want to give more of what we love to everyone.
I feel like we're just getting better and it'll be exciting to see what happens next year too.
I really like the food trucks. There's this one sandwich they have called like Nutella grilled cheese.
There's cheese in it but I'm going to try it. It's swiss cheese, Nutella, jam, peanut butter, crunch.
That's why we're really here. Let's be honest.
I was going to explain the festival especially to someone who doesn't really know long for me and proud.
I'd say if you want a collection of mentally like you know me straight over.
Helicopters in here.
I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.
Well it's good. Great.
Great guys.
My name is Ishmael Saheed and I'm a white man.
The best improv team in Los Angeles, New York and Miami.
Perfect.
I've been on the board of the LA Indian Pro Fest since it's conception, inception.
Since it's conception. Since it's inception.
I'm going to just say that whole sentence.
