Politics has been fodder for comedians throughout history, so why not marry the two and add improv to the mix?
On Friday, Nov. 1, audience members can finally have the outsized level of influence they deserve in “Choose Your Own Election,” playing one night only at the Baltimore Improv Group (BIG) Theater! The audience picks the candidates, the political parties (made up by them), the city, and the lowest level of political office they can imagine.
The group of improv actors (most of them from the Baltimore area) act out the path from nomination to ads to debates to scandals. The result is a fair, honest, and most importantly, hilarious election!
Michael Harris, improv actor and director of “Choose Your Own Election” told Fishbowl that the evening takes the audience through an entire (admittedly condensed) election cycle from start to finish. It is not a presidential cycle, and they make that very clear up front.
“So, we get from the audience a small town and a very small stakes office, and then that’s the campaign,” Harris said. “We still have all the campaign tropes. So we have two political parties, and there’s a nominating convention for one of them, and we have acceptance speeches and attack ads and positive ads and, ‘Oh no, there’s been a scandal! What’s the scandal, audience?’”
In the end the audience votes for the winner, and the loser gives a concession speech in which they might (for example) blame their entire staff for their loss. The winner gives a speech where they might unveil a secret surprise, like (for example) diabolical plans for world domination from their new position as Register of Wills in Nebraska. Who knows? It’s improv, after all!
Harris has been acting and doing improv for 20-25 years, and many of the people in this show have performed at improv and comedy festivals in Chicago and New York, but not with “Choose Your Own Election.”
“This show has actually only been done in Baltimore,” Harris said. “I’ve got other shows that we’ve done all over the place, but this one has been a Baltimore special. Actually on Saturday we go to Frederick, [which] will be the first time we’ve done the show not in Baltimore.”
Harris said the first “Choose Your Own Election” show was performed in Baltimore in 2008, and approximately every 2 years since, not counting the interruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first year in five or six years the show is returning to Baltimore, with help from the Baltimore Improv Group (BIG), who is providing the theater space for the show.
The show art is created by Kevin Kallaugher, venerated political cartoonist for The Economist and The Baltimore Sun under the pen name “KAL.” He’s won multiple awards from the National Press Foundation, the Herblock Prize, and was a prize finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning twice.
“Choose Your Own Election” will be in Baltimore for one night only, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, 8 p.m. showtime. Tickets are $10.25 (including service fee) and available by clicking this link.
BIG Theater is located at 1727 N. Charles St, Baltimore, MD.
