That burning sensation in your brain? That’s just us. Come watch three pairs of improvisers take the stage each night with only your suggestions and each other to lean on. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll ask for water. Because this is high-risk improv at its spiciest.

Performer Schedule:

5/11 & 5/12

The Trifecta (Andy Sarouhan, Jerry Ruoti)
Andy and Jerry are the improv trio, The Trifecta, who are forever looking for a third member. For tonight's performance, they have completely given up and will perform as a duo.

The Right Now (Fontana Butterfield, Claire Slattery)
The Right Now is a long form comedy improv troupe celebrated for their intuitive style of play featuring truthful characters, freedom in physicality, and just the right amount of mischief. Their performance uniquely blends fast paced wit with a commitment to emotion and genre. The Right Now plays across gender, genre, and form and are known for their instinctive “internal edits.” Fontana and Claire have over 30 years of collective improv experience and are serious about their funny. The troupe has performed in comedy and improv festivals across the United States including Femprov Fest (2014), San Francisco Improv Fest (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), Seattle Festival of Improv Theater (2015), SF Sketchfest (2015, 2017), Out of Bounds Comedy Festival (2015, 2017), Cake Batter's Funny Women Festival (2015) in Los Angeles, Alaska State Improv Festival (headliner, 2016), Sonoma Laughfest (2016), and Stumptown Improv Festival 201 since forming in 2013. In addition, members of the The Right Now have trained, taught, and performed at top Bay Area training centers.

5/11 only

Liss n’ Sams (Joe Liss, Marcus Sams)
Joe and Marcus first performed together in a Leela show and they instantly felt the improv Karma that transformed into Liss n’ Sams! Since then they have improvised all over the country. Joe is a Second City alumnus and has appeared on TV in Hidden America with Jonah Ray, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Strangers With Candy. Film roles include God Bless America, Wayne’s World II, Home Alone 2, and Major League. Among his writing credits are Third Rock From the Sun, SpongeBob Squarepants, and Drawn Together. Marcus is the Artistic Director of Moment Improv Theatre, the co-founder of the Bay Area Film Mixer and a working actor. He has performed in 60+ national improv festival shows, was a member of the critically-acclaimed group, Oui Be Negroes, and has performed with Leela for over decade.

5/12 only

Sean (Peter Chapman, Anton Shuster)
Anton + Peter = Sean, a duo named after their teammate who's currently on hiatus. While Sean's away, Anton and Peter have bonded over their love of dance music.

Anton has been performing since 5th grade when his parents bought a cassette-tape karaoke machine. He loves to learn new skills and is currently working on ASL, vocal techniques, and freestyle rapping. Peter crunches numbers by day and is an avid improviser by night. When he's not improvising, he can be found somewhere on the Californian coastline or cooking with a lot of butter. To see more of their work, check out Un-Scripted's Intimacy Issues.

5/18 only

Curlz (Erin Daruszka, Marcus Sams)
Erin and Marcus have been working together for over 4 years and recently combined forces to become Curlz. Using their superpowers of listening and world building they create relatable characters that make you feel part of their journey. Marcus was originally trained as a stage actor and brings this respect for stagecraft and training to the improv world. Marcus is the Artistic Director, Teacher and Producer of Moment Improv Theatre and has taught hundreds of students and performed at over 60+ national festivals. Erin is an avid learner and part of the Camp Improv Utopia community, serves as the Artistic Director of The San Francisco Improv Festival, is a board member of BATS, and teaches for Moment Improv. Erin has also performed at numerous festivals in the U.S. and Ireland.

5/19 only

POP ROCKS! (Diana Brown, Marcus Sams))
Marcus and Diana have known each other for over 12 years and are professional actors, improvisers and teaching artists. He is the artistic director and dean of the training program at Moment Improv Theatre in SF. Diana teaches with Leela SF and is an independent communications consultant and performance coach. Performing improv together, they are POP ROCKS! Effervescent, surprising and a little sweet.

5/18 & 5/19

Karen Sandvoss & Susie Sargent
Karen got her improv start with Pan Theater, Oakland, in 2013 and has been a musician most of her life, playing drums, keys, guitar and singing with various bands from synth pop to 60’s go-go to prog rock. She’s a member of the indie troupe Jurassic Pope and coaches and facilitates corporate improv gigs throughout Bay Area. Karen is also an associate producer for both the San Francisco Improv Festival and West Coast Musical Improv Fest and can sometimes be seen performing with the stand-up/improv combo YES, stAND Up! In her free time, Karen is honing her musical chops to become an improv accompanist — super fun!

Susie discovered and fell in love with improv over 20 years ago and enjoys sharing her passion through training, teaching and performing. She has taught the skills of improvisation to students aged 3 – 80. Susie is an ensemble and staff member of Un-Scripted Theater Company and loves surprising the audience and creating rich and diverse characters. Her ideal evening at home is a dinner party with improvisors who are likely to break into interpretative dance at any moment.

TUB (Jocelyn Alive, Bennett Chabot)
Jocelyn and improv partner Bennett perform all over the Bay Area with their duo Tub.

Jocelyn’s love of performing can be traced to her upbringing. Born to performing-artist parents, her home-found attachment to being onstage was inevitable. At 10 she began teaching her mother’s choreography in community musical theatre. By 13 she was a scholarship ballet student at the University of North Carolina’s School of the Arts, coming home in summer to indulge in her first love, theatre. Jocelyn began writing songs as a teen, and when she moved to New York City, became a regular performer at legendary Lower East Side venue the Sidewalk Café. There she was touted for her raw honesty in performance, and ability to bring the house down with her spirited, original a cappella songs. Her love of improv came at Leela’s Monday night drop in class in 2012; she has since drunk the Kool-Aid. Jocelyn joined Leela’s Performing Improv Ensemble (P.I.E.) Program in 2013, learning and performing for three terms in troupes Robots to Rebels and the all-women True Medusa. Jocelyn emerged from the audience at the San Francisco Improv Festival in 2014’s Speechless show, and won over the audience with her self-help presentation on public flatulence. She was the opening night FemmeC for 2015’s Femprovisor Fest. She works brings social justice work to her profession as a copywriter and editor. In 2017, she happily let go of her long hair.

Bennett is a graduate of Olin College of Engineering with a varied background in the performing arts. He was an original member of The Options, backing band of the nationally touring singer-songwriter Jamie Kent. On the stage, Bennett has played lead roles ranging from Winston Smith in George Orwell's "1984" to Algernon Moncrieff in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." Bennett's delivery of a college commencement speech is now used as a model for his alma mater's introductory public speaking course. His screen credits include "Yellow Lights," an award-winning independent feature film, along with shorts in drama, comedy and horror. He began zealously studying improv in August of 2012 at Leela SF, where he met Jocelyn by introducing her as a rockstar. Going on to be a founding member of boisterous San Francisco improv troupe The Drop-Ins, Bennett has since performed in venues around the Bay Area.