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Mojo Dojo members performing earlier this month
Since its beginnings in 2015, Mojo Dojo Comedy has established an effervescent presence in Milwaukee’s comedy scene. Offering a wide range of comedy entertainment, the group specializes in longform improv. Unlike short-form improv where scenarios and games continually change, in longform performers draw inspiration from a concept and play with it for either the entirety or majority of the show.
“The goal of longform improv is not to see who can get the most laughs,” Creative Director, Joel Zawada explains. “It's to work together to tell a collective story. We're serious about comedy, and about playing each character honestly, because honest interactions usually get the biggest laughs.” Everything in improvisational comedy is made up on the spot, which evokes a palpable energy because even the performers don’t know what will happen.
Mojo Dojo will present two separate longform improv shows next weekend at Urban Harvest Brewing Company (1024 South 5th St.): “First Five” (Friday, July 27) and “The Journal” (Saturday, July 28).
Created by regular Mojo Dojo player David Ryan Lane, performers will play the “First Five” minutes of a movie on VHS, and then immediately improvise the rest. The movies range from well-known blockbuster hits to completely obscure titles that went straight to video release. Forewarning that every show is not guaranteed to be family friendly, but Lane, who has been performing improv comedy for nearly 15 years, credits his fellow performers as “some of the sharpest improvisors I've ever worked with.”
“First Five” has been performed monthly or bi-monthly for the past two years. Lane was originally inspired by movies with larger-than-life opening scenes that hardly contribute to the overall plot, such as Blue Velvet and Jurassic Park . He received ample support when he introduced the show. “I pitched it to the Mojo Dojo staff hoping they'd take it and just do it, but a member of their board (and longtime co-conspirator of mine) James Boland insisted I come on and steer the ship myself.”
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“That's what Mojo Dojo has always been about,” says Zawada, “building the comedy community, and community through comedy.” Mojo Dojo offers lessons in longform improv and sketch comedy, as well as “Open Dojo” where anybody can try improv for free. Zawada credits the city as an open canvas for comedy and new ideas: “The beautiful thing about Milwaukee is there are a lot of opportunities to try new things. If you have a great idea and are passionate about it, you can make things happen.”
In “The Journal”, the performers will ask an audience volunteer to share some personal information, and one of the improvisors will act as a narrator to his or her journal. As the narrator describes the journal’s events, the other comedians will act out scenes while additional plotlines, characters, and themes are spontaneously thrown into the mix along the way. Mojo Dojo Comedy players will be joined by Hasenpfeffer group, who Zawada applauds for playing “a fun, fast-paced form unique to Milwaukee” where new characters are continually added to the show.
Zawada describes “The Journal” as “a great chance to see different varieties of improv in one show.”
You can purchase tickets for both shows through Brown Paper Tickets or Mojo Dojo’s website: www.mojodojocomedy.com.
