Every two years, improv groups from around the world travel to Manila to perform in the Manila Improv Festival. The Pirates of Tokyo Bay have been lucky enough to attend the festival every time since 2013.
The festival is produced by Third World Improv (TWI). Set up in 2015 by Gabe Mercado and the members of the pioneering improv group SPIT, Third World Improv is the first school in the Philippines dedicated to teaching the art and craft of improvisational theater.. Third World Improv aims to produce improv practitioners who are authentic, innovative, culturally and socially relevant and a lot of fun.
The PETA Theater Center is hosting the 2019 Manila Improv Festival. The festival promises you the best of improvisational comedy with improv groups from all over the Philippines and the globe. Now on its 5th year, the audience can expect unscripted fun and laughter. Don’t miss these five days of improv performances, workshops, and exhibits at Asia’s biggest improv festival on March 27 to 31, 2019!
Our performances will be on Friday, March 29th and Saturday, March 30th at 8pm on the Viola Spolin stage. Get your tickets at Ticket2Me and search “MIF”.
Below is a (shaky) video from our 2017 performance in Manila to get you excited for our 2019 shows. See you in the Philippines!
This year’s Koenji Engei Festival, the sixth of its kind, offers ten days of theatrical performances like rakugo (one-man comic storytelling), manzai stand-up comedic double acts and magic shows at diverse locations in the Koenji district such as shrines and public baths, izakayas, bicycle shops and funeral halls. The number of participating artists, venues and visitors has risen with each festival.
The festival includes “Hajimete no yose” (‘my first yose’) theatrical entertainment with easy-to-follow commentary at a public bath; “Niraku Theater in Koenji,” where the audience can get its fill of the star attraction of yose engei Japanese-style vaudeville entertainment, kamikiri paper cutting craft; and “Nagetsunage: Daikagura Kyokugei,” a traditional performing arts show featuring young members of the Daikagura Kyokugeikai group.
But it’s not all indoor or seated Japanese-style vaudeville. Passers-by in the street will also be able to enjoy festivities — for example Koenji’s Etoile Shopping Street will play host to rakugo performances with a choice of meal included from its row of long-established eating houses offering Edo cuisine like tempura, sushi and soba.
For the first time Koenji’s history, two shows aiming at English speaking audiences will accompany the Koenji Engei Festival. Rakugo — the Ultimate One Man Comedy — is very hard to access without knowledge of Japanese but on February 11th, Tatekawa Shinoharu, a bilingual rakugo-artist will show his art in both Japanese with sur-titles as well as English.
On February 13th we present Tatekawa Koharu — Rakugo with Japanese sur-titles along with the Pirates of Tokyo Bay — Tokyo’s only bilingual comedy group!