Chicago Improv Festival Treats Audience to "Southpaw Sam" at Fringe MadTV Star Joins Cast

The Chicago Improv Festival features Fringe acts in addition to Mainstage headliners. Mo Collins of MADTV joins "The Southpaw Sam McClowski Show" at Fring venue.

CHICAGO, IL (PRWEB) April 18, 2004 ---The improvised talk show The Southpaw Sam McClowski Show will be among the shows performed at the Seventh Annual Chicago Improv Festival (CIF). This years festival will take place April 30-May 9. CIF Fringe features shows with unusual improvisational techniques and experimental hybrids.

The Southpaw Sam McClowski Show performs on the Fringe Stage at Midnight on Friday, May 7 and Saturday, May 8. Tickets are $10 and are only available at the Fringe box office at the New Playground Theater, 3209 N. Halsted St., on the date of the performance

Mo Collins from Fox Televisions MADTv will make a special guest for the first night of The Southpaw Sam McClowski Show". The show includes offbeat guests like the Worlds Oldest dirtiest stand-up comic Ben Alterman (Andrew Daily/Madtv), celebrity Interviews with Gary Busey (Steve Agee/Jimmy Kimmel Live), and Gary Nelson (Ike Barinholtz/Madtv) a Telethon Fundraiser from Tijuana. The show also includes Street Video Interviews with Southpaw and musical guests.

This talk-show meets improv is hardly your standard improvisation fare. It consists of improvisation, deep-rooted characters, multimedia comedy, and a broken theatrical fourth wall. The host, Southpaw Sam McClowski (portrayed by creator/director Samson Crouppen) is a sassy southern gentlemen, has a no-holds barred policy. Crouppen has been running the Southpaw show for two consecutive years.

I describe the show as Peewees playhouse on crack, everything is very cartoonish with a raw element combined with a musical and audience interactions. Its a little bit of everything with a very diverse cast," says Crouppen.

He has taken the show from New York, to Chicago, and Los Angeles where he pursues work in the film and television industry. The Southpaw Sam McClowski Show began its run in Chicago at Frankie J's Methadome Theater in 2001 and later decided to take the show to Los Angeles, where it was a pick of the week by LA Weekly.

The most prestigious improv and sketch festival dedicated to this Chicago-bred art form, CIF 7 will feature an amazing lineup, bringing comedy standouts from silver screen and TV hits together for live improv.

Pick of the Week
"Letterman, Kimmel, and Leno are a snooze-fest in comparison". . -LA Weekly