By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

The only truly predictable thing about Improvaganza, besides laughter (yours), is that it returns, every June — with an international array of improv talent who are all about spontaneity.

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I’m not making this up. Making stuff up is what they do. Yes, Rapid Fire Theatre’s annual international improv and sketch comedy festival is back, with a four-day edition June 20 to 23, at their Exchange Theatre headquarters in Strathcona. Artistic director Matt Schuurman explains that the shortened duration of the festivities from their usual 10 days is a matter of “cash-saving,” and taking a run at a balanced budget in a tough year of post-COVIDian anxiety and stress at every theatre. But, he adds emphatically, “no compromise in quality!”

The opening night headliner is Andrew Phung, best known to television audiences for his starring roles in Kim’s Convenience and Run the Burbs, as well as the “reality comedian” show LOL: Last One Laughing. Improvaganza is a homecoming of sorts for this for the Canadian actor, “a longtime friend of Rapid Fire” with a history that goes back to his Calgary days at RFT’s improv sibling Loose Moose Theatre. The route between Calgary and Edmonton is a familiar one to Phung, often up here for “improv action shows” as Schuurman says. “Actually, it was at the Fringe that he got noticed for Kim’s Convenience.”

On Thursday’s opening night Andrew Phung will be joined by such RFT stars as Mark Meer, Gordie Lucius, and Joleen Ballendine in what Schuurman calls “a big ol’ improv show, one format in the first half, another in the second….”

Second City veteran Ashley Botting, something of a specialist in the virtuoso art of improvised musical theatre (witness Flop!, the show she and Ron Pederson played ht to the Exchange a year ago), is bringing two shows to Improvaganza. As Schuurman describes, Ashley with a Y is a solo improvised cabaret, with songs and stories devised before your very eyes from audience cues. In Botting and McGunnigle she pairs with a best friend and fellow Second City alumni Stacey McGunnigle, to “showcase different styles, on the spectrum of what improv can be….”

The lineup includes Branded Silk, an improv trio from New York (Onyi Okoli, Jeffrey Kitt, and Aaron LaRoche) who “have been generating a lot of excitement from other festivals, like the Black and Funny Improv Festival,” says Schuurman. They explore, through improv comedy, the complicated reality of being Black in the world. “They’re incredibly engaging, warm and welcoming. And they don’t hold back — mostly through the lens of race….”

The inspiration of Black Ground, a comedy troupe from Atlanta based at Dad’s Garage, is to improvise what Black characters might be doing in classic movies like Star Wars or Indiana Jones. The satirical potential is huge. “So funny and so subversive since the Black narrative is not really shown in Hollywood,” as Schuurman says. “One of my favourite concepts!”

The Deconstruction, Improvaganza 2024, Rapid Fire Theatre.

The festival is your chance to see improvisers take on “one of the classic improv forms,” as Schuurman describes The Deconstruction. It was developed by the legendary comedy and improv guru Del Close in Chicago. Brian James O’Connell, “the keeper of that format,” will lead an RFT ensemble of six in this challenging form that starts with a core scene. “It requires experienced players,” says Schuurman.

The Bloody Marys, a duo of Second City alumnae (Kirsten Rasmussen and Leigh Cameron), has a show. And one of Rapid Fire’s own most popular concepts The Maestro, an elimination-type show that Schuurman called The Hunger Games of Improv, will see the hometown talent joined by festival guests.

There’s even a Sunday a.m. show, “an early morning talk show for the Whyte Avenue brunch crowd,” as Schuurman puts it. And there’s an Improvaganza edition of RFT’s Saturday afternoon kids’ show.

Improvaganza runs at Rapid Fire Theatre’s Exchange headquarters (10437 83 Ave. June 20 to 23. For show details, the full schedule of shows and workshops, and tickets, check out rapidfiretheatre.com.