It’s no longer a well-kept secret: Portland’s improv and sketch comedy communities are on the verge of something big, and this is nowhere more apparent than at the annual Stumptown Improv Festival, which hits the city this weekend, bringing with it some much needed off-the-cuff levity. After last summer’s sold-out shows, the fest, now in its third year, boasts a new venue and a solid lineup of out-of-town performers (like my favorites from last year, Canadian duo Nicole Passmore and Briana Rayner, who perform together as Virginia Jack) and a variety of local groups, both established (think: institutions like the Liberators) and emerging (like hilarious up-and-comers Tunnel).
Also of note: Bang+Burn’s (Beau Brousseau and John Breen’s) improbably funny improvised action movies; the almost excessively clever, way too sporadically-seen J Names Improv; and North Coast, purveyors of hip-hop improv. Ahead of Thursday’s opening show, here’s what Stumptown co-founders Jed Arkley, Leon Anderson, and Erin Jean O’Regan had to say about this year’s lineup, Portland’s rapidly expanding improv community, and idle gossip.