Call it iProv Comedy

Improv Asylum works with online screenwriting group

PROFILE. Improv comedy is going high-tech. Well, at least higher tech than drunk people yelling suggestions from the audience. Boston’s Improv Asylum has been working with Zhura, a free screenwriting tool that provides aspiring writers with an online community to share their material. The results will be presented Saturday, with “You Wrote It: Live.”

“We’re taking the strength of the Internet, this massive, global creative community, and we’re pairing it up with the strength of live theater,” says Zhura founder Eric MacDonald.

“You Wrote It” gives writers across the world the never-been-done-before opportunity to see their material performed onstage by professional comedic actors.

Says Improv Asylum founder Norm Laviolette, “It’s a natural extension of what we already do. We’re known for our improvisation, taking suggestions from the audience and creating sketches. But instead of taking it live from the people in our 180-seat theater, we’re taking suggestions from around the world.”

From as far as New Zealand, in fact. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re more refined than the trashier topics that originate from local audiences in IA’s weekly live shows.

“Certain ideas seem to be universal, whether they are shouted at the actors live from the audience or submitted after being thoughtfully considered by the writer,” says Laviolette. “Porn, poop, sex, boobs, gay love and prostitutes: Maybe it is just something that is in the collective consciousness right now, but man, did we get a bunch of sketches that included prostitutes!”

Writers, spurred on by hundreds of other contestants vying for a spot, were given a three-week window during which they could write material, post it to Zhura, rate other peoples’ work and give and receive feedback.

“The best of what’s on the site has bubbled to the top,” says MacDonald, “and now our head writers are tightening up the top 15 to 20 sketches so they’re as close as they can be to stage ready.”

Laviolette says while winners don’t receive a cash prize, what they do get out of the experiment may be more worthwhile. “What we’re providing the writer with is a full, professional experience of what they would actually get if they were a writer here, working at our theater,”
And the audience gets some thoughtfully considered prostitute sketches. 

‘You Wrote It: Live’
Saturday, midnight
Improv Asylum
216 Hanover St., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Haymarket
Free, 617-263-6887
www.improvasylum.com