The comedy has been going on ad nauseam. It all stops on Nov. 19 when the longest-serving theatrical comedy group in town bows for its final round of applause. Longtime director/actor/writer Bas Rynsewyn is shutting down the improvisational comedy collective he's been running for the past 15 years. Following that date, Improv Ad Nauseum is no more.
"There will be improvisational comedy in Prince George again, I have my fingers crossed," said Rynsewyn. "I don't have the market cornered on live improv comedy, and the group has many members who will probably want to carry on somehow."
So why not hand them the name and let them carry on under the Ad Nauseum banner?
"That's a good point, a good question," he pondered. "I think I'd like to see people do something on their own, and make it theirs. It might look good on a CV to be able to say 'I was a member of Improv Ad Nauseum' and now there can be a new credit they get to use. Freshness helps. I'm tired and change is necessary."
Many people have indeed included Ad Nauseum on their growing list of credits. More than 30 performers have done at least one show in the group, and some have been mainstays. The popular standup comedy trio The Princes Of George (now defunct) all spun together through the group, and noted performers in the city like Virginia O'Dine, Mark Wheeler, David Quast, Stephen St. Laurent, Teresa DeReis, Kenna Latimer, Christopher Earl, James Cochrane, and many more past and present have been on the bill over the years.
For some, it was a chance to be funny when they typically took on dramatic parts, and for others it was a means to the end of more comedy. In any case, it was good preparation for stage and life.
"People say 'Improv? Isn't that off the top of your head?' Well yes, and no," said Rynsewyn. "What happens in the performance is unscripted, but you have to work on the skills, and you have to work out your boundaries as a group. It's fine among ourselves to go to certain places in our humour, during rehearsal, but never, ever do that in public. In all honesty, it allowed me to keep being a kid, to play, to laugh. The rehearsals and the shows, both, gave me so much to be grateful for and I'll never forget a lot of those experiences as long as I live.
"I've been doing improv since my university days back in the '70s. It's a perfect way to hone your skills for the stage, no matter what kind of performance you're doing," he added. "Unexpected things happen on the stage, things get forgotten or added at the wrong time, and you've got to be able to respond. The audience isn't sitting there with scripts in their hand, so if you can respond to the unexpected, if you have the skills to think on the fly and make snap decisions to get back on track, they will never know it. You learn how to respond to a dynamic moment. That's a good skill to have in life."
Now, Rynsewyn is going to concentrate on other creative endeavours. He also ran Serious Moonlight Productions once upon a time, a dramatic local theatre company, and it too was closed down a few years ago. But he likes to paint, he has several unfinished scripts he's been writing that he might wish to work on, and he would never close the door on directing a play or acting a part in the future.
"I'm going to miss it, but I'm not going to miss it," he said, thinking about the countless hours and significant stress of planning and executing each show, let alone the stage stuff. "If someone else wants to run an improv show, I'll be the first in line to buy a ticket."
The final Impov Ad Nauseum performance is Nov. 19 at the Twisted Cork banquet room at 7 p.m. The shows always sell out, so get tickets while they last at the restaurant and Studio 2880.
Before they fade from the scene, though, Rynsewyn did want to clarify the spelling of the name. Anyone familiar with Latin will know the company's moniker is incorrect (it would, if accurate, be Improv Ad Nauseam).
"I spelled it wrongly as an inside joke," he confessed. "I wanted to see how many people were ever going to pick up on it, and the other reason is, the most frequently heard thing on stage when an improv performer gets stumped or has to think about what to say next is 'um' so I wanted that little crutch to have a place in the name."
