Masters of Theatresports™ ends in triumph!
What a debut season!
We started the Masters of Theatresports™ tournament to build a new Theatresports™ format for Brisbane performers, and we’re thrilled to say our first competition at Brisbane Arts Theatre was a corker!
Heat 1 was taken out by the very suave The Catfishin’ Beefcakes (Luke, Alex and Coen), with CULT (Brittany, Tom and Natalie) either convincing or hypnotising the judges for Heat 2.
Heat 3 fired up with the conquering young heroes Yellow Slip - Bence, Zeph, Jean-Luc and Quinn were all former pupils of ImproMafia member and high school teacher Alastair Tomkins - and Heat 4 delivered victory for Carla, Leica and Angie as Your Mum’s Favourites.
A big thank you to our other teams: The Holiday Matadors (a very travel friendly Liam and Mark); Drama Squad (Dan and Amy with berets at the ready) and 226 (the pyjama-clad Scott, Bev, Pete and Brad).
The Grand Final was held on Saturday 2 April at a jam-packed Brisbane Arts Theatre. More than 100 people turned out for this big event, with the place buzzing with energy.
MCs Ryan and Siobhan, Images By Anderson
Ryan Goodwin and Siobhan Finniss teamed up to MC the final challenge, which came down to an audience vote between The Catfishin’ Beefcakes and Yellow Slip - and it was the latter team that won the day!
Yellow Slip featured former Youth Theatresports performers, and it was great to help establish a pathway for them should they wish to continue their improv journey (and by the crowd acclaim, they should!).
We’re hoping to continue this as a tournament, and build it in scope to support and showcase ImproMafia’s existing players, while fostering the love and talent of newer ones.
Some shout outs to those who made it happen:
Brisbane Arts Theatre - this truly is a special part of Brisbane’s theatrical tapestry. It’s such an intimate, charming venue, all heart and no pretentiousness. We definitely recommend heading to BAT to see an upcoming show. To Blake, Taylah, Steve, George and Jay - thank you for making our season such a joy!
Thien Pham - our musician for the heats. Thien is a phenomenal keyboardist, and he took to his first impro accompaniment assignment like a duck to water. Thien is the co-host of Brisbaret, a monthly variety night, and he and partner-in-crime Sophie Banister will soon be debuting their first show at the Brisbane Comedy Festival.
Kris Anderson - our musician for the Grand Final. As we discussed in our blog post about our 2022 photography session, Kris is such an incredible supporter of ImproMafia both with his camera and his keyboard. If you’re in need of photographic genius, get in touch with Images by Anderson.
Siobhan Finniss, Ryan Goodwin and Tom Dunstan - thank you for MCing and keeping the audience entertainment and the players whipped into shape.
To all of our performers throughout the season - thank you for your time and energy to create wonderful moments onstage, and a great camaraderie offstage. A special thanks to Scott Driscoll for constructing our Masters of Theatresports™ trophy, and to Amy Driscoll for all her hard work on the project.
And finally, the biggest thanks to our audience - we appreciate you showing your support of Brisbane improvisation, comedy and theatre!
Natalie Bochenski
Show Co-ordinator