Crisis Hopkins & The 2010 San Francisco Improv Festival urge Bay Area improvisers to join us for a special weekend workshop with James Grace, Artistic Director of the legendary training center IO West.

An open stage for actors, improvisers, and players. Games and longform in an improv jam setting. Designed for maximum play, for all skill levels, and hosted by Crisis Hopkins.

Crisis Hopkins’ Improv Soapbox
Tuesday November 10th, 8pm
at The Climate Theater
285 9th Street at Folsom, SF
$5

We cant believe it either – it’s been almost four years and we still haven’t done a proper show in the East Bay. This month we’re changing that, bringing our signature brand of improv comedy to the Town Hall Theater in Lafayette. Joining us will be special guests Rebecca Poretsky (Big City Improv), Sammy Wegent & Allison Page.

Crisis Hopkins: Terror at Town Hall
Friday October 30th, 8pm
Town Hall Theatre
3535 School St.
Lafayette CA
tix: $20.00
www.thtc.org

Crisis off-shoot Tsunami Weinstein is performing at Night of the Living Artist, an evening of underground entertainment to benefit The Climate Theater. The evening includes performances by John Gilkey, Tim Barsky, the Pi Clowns, the return of The Dating Game, living sculptures, a zombie make-up station, tarot card reading and much much more. The money you use to buy a ticket supports the theater Crisis Hopkins has made a home base this last year, an important local fixture San Francisco’s independent theater scene. Check it out!

Tsunami Weinstein
improv comedy with Bryce Byerley, Sam Shaw, Jodi Skeris, & Jamie Wright
at Night of The Living Artist
Climate Theater’s 2nd Annual Fundraiser & Art Event
Saturday October 24th, 9pm
Climate Theater
285 9th St. at Folsom, SF
$20-100

BUY!

We land at Logan International Airport and what should happen as soon as we get out of our cab?  Well, on our way to the smartly appointed Hotel Marlow we passed by the Science Museum and encountered something that only the visionary Steven Spielberg could have conjured up.  Thank god we had all seen the documentary Jurassic Park by Mr. Spielberg and used Jeff Goldblum as bait to lure this giant biped away from our heels.

After this incident things settled down and Crisis Hopkins prepared for the first BIF (Boston Improv Festival) and discovered a beautiful town and a beautiful beginning. 

Chris and Chris find where electricity was invented.

Then enjoy a lovely bike ride through the Boston Commons, the name is a total misnomer – there is nothing common about this park!

What a day!  Hey, what about Newbury Street?!?  Who doesn’t love to shop…

Let’s get out of here…

… and get a drink!

Wait a second?  Did someone slip Chris and Chris a roofie??

Oh no.  It’s that rat poop on that old fire hydrant?

All in all it was a great time, even if both Chris(es) got a good old fashion Boston Tea Bag Party in a back alley!  We can’t wait to host our own festival here in San Francisco in 2010!!!

Big ups to Improv Jones in Watertown!  Thanks for helping us get into shape before our mainstage show at ImprovBoston!!  Cheers.

We’re performing at FRISCO’s Sunday Nite  Improv Jam, alongside special guest Rick Overton & The FRISCO Company All-Stars. Come check it out at the SF Comedy College Clubhouse!

Crisis Hopkins at FRISCO’s Sunday Nite Improv Jam
Sunday September 20th, 7pm
at The Clubhouse
414 Mason Street, 5th Fl., SF
$10

We’re making our second trip to New England to perform at the
Boston Improv Festival. This is a brand new big fest for the city, hosting by one of Boston’s most revered institutions Improv Boston. To make sure we get the local references right, we’re bringing along Maine native, Emerson alum, and newest addition to the Hopkins family Chris Libby. Cannot wait!!

Hopkins Comes to Beantown:
Crisis Hopkins at the Boston Improv Festival
Saturday, September 12th, 1opm
ImprovBoston Mainstage
40 Prospect St., Cambridge MA
$10
BUY!

SFIF 2010 - COMING SOON

Beginning in September 2009, Bay Area improv & sketch comedy troupe Crisis Hopkins will assume full producing responsibilities for the San Francisco Improv Festival, starting with the 2010 production (dates & locations TBD). Festival Producer and Co-Founder Shaun Landry (who is also founder of the newly formed West Coast Improv Alliance and the San Francisco Improv Alliance) offered Crisis Hopkins the producership after Landry’s move to Los Angeles in the Spring.

This transfer of ownership brings the festival full circle, as Crisis Hopkins co-founder Sam Shaw started the festival with Ms. Landry under the auspices of the San Francisco Improv Cooperative in 2004. Mr. Shaw co-produced the festival for its first two years, and left in summer 2005 to form his own company. Under the guidance of Shaun Landry the festival took over multiple stages, attracting stars like Emo Phillips, Todd Stashwick of HBO’s The Riches, Daniel Handler and writers from The Colbert Report and bringing the festival national recognition.

“The San Francisco Improv Festival has become a vital institution to support and advance innovative improvisational theater in the Bay Area. Shaun was and is an incredibly important resource for the city’s improv scene, and we’re honored and touched that she chose Crisis Hopkins to take over this important annual event”, Shaw said.

Landry, who is also part of the theater company Oui Be Negroes and also performs regularly at iO West in Hollywood, is happy with the transfer. “I’m quite pleased with the work that Sam and Crisis Hopkins has done over the years.  It is only fitting for an alternative festival to go not only to an independent theater company that does solid and strong improvisation, but it is very fitting to have Sam take the reigns again. I have always been the big mouth of the SF Improv Scene.  He is a quiet force that deserves as much credit as myself.  I’m pleased to have him and his crew run the festival.”

Crisis Hopkins member & producer Jamie Wright, a Bay Area native who got his start in improv comedy in Amsterdam, promises to keep the best elements of the SF Improv Festival, while widening its net:

“San Francisco is definitely experiencing a renaissance in local improv comedy at the moment and the SF Improv Festival has been a big part of making that happen. We’re really excited to continue that work and add to it in new ways to make The City an international destination for people who love improv – performers and audiences alike.”

Crisis Hopkins is one of the Bay Area’s fastest rising comedy ensembles, playing to sold out houses at the SF Sketchfest as well as to critical acclaim for their sketch and improv hybrid “One Nation Under Crisis” which ran in May at Stage Werx theater in Union Square. Founded in 2006, Crisis Hopkins continues its mission of promoting improvisational theater in its improv jams at the Climate Theater, as well as through its performances and classes.

This August, Crisis Hopkins hosts a special event that occurs but once a generation: The Temporary Improv Festival, a comedy showcase that appears and vanishes as quickly as the fog over Twin Peaks or something. For two days, Crisis Hopkins and friends will take over San Francisco’s famous Eureka Theater with six special performances by some of San Francisco’s most beloved and cutting edge comedy troupes. Don’t miss this special weekend.

The Temporary Improv Festival – a performance showcase that occurs but once a generation. Unless we decide to do it again next year.

Crisis Hopkins’ Temporary Improv Festival
With Revolving Madness & PianoFight (Friday August 14th)
and Sammy Wegent, Big City Improv & Un-Scripted Theater Co. (Saturday August 15th)
at Eureka Theater, 8pm
215 Jackson at Battery, SF
Tickets $10

Just Added: Workshop with Dan Klein of Kasper Hauser! BUY!

First created in San Francisco during the .dot com era by Combined Artform in 2002,  TILTED FRAME examines the world of technology and entertainmen with comedic improv scenes with technology such as video cameras, projectors, and the internet. The SF Bay Guardian wrote that the troupe ’stretches the boundaries of traditional improvisation…They drop the facile and forced wackiness of comedy club improv for a far more daring and difficult form.’

We’re performing second in a double-bill. Check it out!

Improv Double-Bill:
Tilted Frame & Crisis Hopkins
Thursday August 13th, 8pm
Off-Market, Studio 250
965 Mission St. at 5th, SF
$10
BUY!