With a Name Like Femprov… It Has to Be Good

An informational booklet created to educate those less familiar with our history & accomplishments. 

Initially distributed to attendees of the Femproviser Festival’s Femprov panel at the Tides Theatre, SF - Saturday, April 26, 2014. 

This Special Edition slideshow is re-imagined by Jeannene Hansen & dedicated to the memory of Denise Schultz… who did not suffer fools gladly.
Use your left and right arrow keys to page through the slideshow, preferably full screen.

Download a printable PDF of the Enlightening Coloring Book and get your crayons out.

What Killed S.F.’s Biggest Improv Groups

January 18, 1987 • SF Datebook

More elusive than Giants’ running back Joe Morris! More difficult than getting a straight answer from Oliver North! It’s — making a living doing improv! 

The latest evidence in support of this truism is the official demise of San Francisco‘s longest running and most critically acclaimed groups: Femprov and Faultline respectively. 

Femprov, which began at the Holy City Zoo seven years ago, inaugurated comedy at Cobb‘s Pub in 1982, and incubated such talents as Linda Hill, Susan Healy and Debi Durst, is disbanding this month.

Faultline, which opened it Lipp’s two years ago and won instant raves for having the audacity and the talent to stage fully improvised minimusicals, called it a day in October. But founder Reed Kirk Rahlmann is forming a new non-improv Faultline with new players. 

Each group ultimately fell victim to some combination of the four basic forces that have raised tombstone‘s over every local improv group from the Pitschel Players to Papaya Juice to the Screaming Memes: money, location, group dynamics and careers. Regardless of energy or ability, if one of them doesn’t nail you, the other will. 

Money. Both groups have avid, paying followings. But even with consistently healthy turnouts, says Femprov Jeannene Hansen, “it’s just not financially feasible when you’re splitting the money 48 ways.“ 

“We had 10 people on the payroll [six players, four support troops,]“ adds Faultline’s Gregg Proops. And while the group “did really well financially for a while,“ allows Brian Lohmann. “The audiences dried up for part of the summer, and the inability to make consistent living was frustrating.“

In fact, that both groups survived as long as they did was probably only due to outside income – “We were all doing TV or radio commercials or bits in movies,“ says Proops. This also explains the survival of groups like Comedy Underground and Theater of the Deranged. “They have real jobs. Real cash.“ says Durst. “They all do voice work and things. Improv is just a hobby for them; it gets them out of the house.” “Kind of like a garage band.” adds colleague Denise Schultz. 

Location. Femprov had abundant talent and fans, probably enough to survive fiscally. What they crucially lacked was their own room, with 100+ seats, five nights a week. As Lohmann admits “If Faultline hadn’t had a regular venue [Lipps, Thursdays and Saturdays], we wouldn’t have lasted as long as we did. It gave us the opportunity to build a following.“ 

Obliged to work various comedy clubs. Femprov lacked the fixed site advantage of, as Proops says “audience who came to see us.“

Ironically, though it was one of local comedy’s pioneers, Femprov was hurt by the ensuing popularity of stand-up. For one thing, improv works best by itself, in a theatrical setting and not as part of a stand up bill in a bar. For another says Pat Daniels, “Club owners get nervous about booking improv because their schedules just got too full.“ she says with a smile. 

The folk of Femprov and Faultline may be committed to new performing directions, but all are emphatic in their affection for improvisation and their eagerness to work together again, however sporadically. And their advice to anyone contemplating the art is simple. Do it. 

“It was the best theatrical experience I’ve ever had.“ McShane says flatly. “Once you’ve done improv, you’re hooked.” adds Schultz. “Old improvisers never die, they just ask for another suggestion.“

~Robert Weider • SF Datebook

San Francisco's Femprov plays O.T. Price's Sunday night.

Femprov Comedy troupe relies on improvisation 

by Jamie S. Cackler • Santa Cruz Sentinel

"We very seldom let the audience get the best of us," says Jeannene Hansen of Femprov. The six-member, all-female improvisational comedy troupe plays the dangerous improv game of letting the audience call the shots.

They get a skit going then ask the audience to name a situation, an emotion or some unlikely twist for the plot to take. "We ask them to name a position, and there's always some bozo who thinks he's really funny and yells out 'missionary,'" Hansen said. "So one of us will drop down and start praying." 

After nearly seven years, it's probably as much experience as quick thinking that rescues the band of women from such audience-generated jams.
Femprov, which performs at O.T. Price's Comedy Night Sunday, began in 1979 when San Francisco's Holy City Zoo began its "Women's Comedy Night." The threesome of Susan Healy, Teresa Roberts and Terry Sand soon grew to six. After a few personnel changes the group stabilized with six members, now including cofounder Sand, Pat Daniels, Debi Durst, Hansen, Denise Schultz and Barbara Scott a former member of the popular Screaming Memes.

Though all female, "we never intended to be a feminist or separatist —believe me," Scott said.
"It's female humor just because it's females doing it. It's just an image when we walk on stage," said Hansen adding "We thought about adding a token guy, but then we'd have to change our name."

Still Hansen said, members of the audience see what they want to see. "We get women who want us to be right-on sisters. They take that away from the show. They get what they want out of it." On the other hand, she said, "Some guys come to see T&A, see some girls jumpin' around on the stage. Everyone interprets it differently."
Occasionally, Scott said they run into groups of people who make very wrong assumptions. "For instance, at one show there was this group of men who assumed that we were all lesbians, because we were all women working together," Scott said.
"Which is totally incorrect," chimed in Debi Durst, the wife of SF comic Will Durst.
"We asked the audience to name character relationships for a game and the men called out "Two women loving each other," Scott said. "You can always get a laugh out of a dirty joke or sexual reference, but we try to put ourselves beyond that."

Although there are six of them, a typical show includes only four at a time. "It's better that way, because we can accept more gigs, and each member gets more stage time. And every time you see the show it's different," Scott said.
The women claim there is no real leader among the revolving cast. "It's ensemble work —we each think everyone of us is funny," Scott said.
"That's what's so fun about watching us perform. If you get tired of watching one of us, you can just switch channels," Hansen added.

The flow of the show is influenced as much by who's in it as it is by the collective intellectual makeup of the audience and by what mood the performers are in.
"If the audience gives us dorky suggestions, they get a dorky show," Hansen said. "Sometimes, in a place like Santa Cruz, we get a sophisticated audience that wants a lot of political stuff. Others want a real dorky show. We can go either way."

While the nature of the act is flexible, there are some places it doesn't work as well. Television and northern Germany, for instance. 
Hansen said Femprov has appeared on some local television spots, and on a broadcast benefit telethon. Not a raving success, though. "Improv doesn't translate well on television. You can't see what's really going on. It's like magic —that doesn't work well on TV either," Hansen said.

As for Germany, Scott and Hansen toured Europe last year and managed to book a couple of shows in a Northern German town. "Jeannene and I took a couple of chances. It was very interesting, but we had to talk very slowly, it's slowed us down and that's not the nature of improv," Scott said.
And there were problems other than language. "We do this thing called an emo freeze," Hansen said "We freeze in the middle of a scene and ask the audience for an emotion. We found out that the people in northern Germany don't talk about their emotions, and that part of the act got dropped rather quickly."

O.T, Price's Entertainment roster • August 13, 1986

We opened with LA Tag at O.T. Price's. Watch the show in its entirety.

Femprov, the Bay Area's longest running improvisational comedy group, play tonight in Pleasanton.

Femprov all female all funny 

by Sally Tockey • San Ramon Valley Herald

The jokes are on them. That's what makes Femprov what they are: five funny females who stand up to laughs wherever, whenever, however.

Don't misunderstand. Femprov's hardly a quintet of feminists waiting to snatch a chuckle, a cheer or a crowing with a routine about men. "We're just funny women who are out for the laughs,” says Terry Sand spokesman for the comediennes “Someone else can burn our bras.” Femprov, instead, relies on improvisation — a think-fast act-fast extemporaneous performing art. 

It works this way. 

Someone in the audience yells out a suggestion for a scene: two people meeting at an airport and they're angry or they're depressed or they’re…

"The audience keeps throwing out more emotions and we go from there …well, it's hard to explain the game," says Terry who met her comedic counterparts at an improvisational workshop in the City.

They —Terry, Susan Healy and Teresa Roberts —became Femprov when the Holy City Zoo nightclub started offering Women's Nights for both novice and established laugh collectors.

Now four years old and two members stronger, the quintet book regularly many Wednesdays at Cobb's pub in San Francisco's Marina District. Their resume also shows performances at the Venetian room in the Fairmont Hotel, the Great American Music Hall, the Women's Building, the San Francisco Jewish Community Center, Allen's Alley at the Boarding House.

Such television credits as the KGO Channel 7 Cerebral Palsy Telethon, Cable six presentation of “Women of the 80s" and “Womanvision,” a pilot project filmed by Alan Springer Associates, also greatly please their groupies. "I call them from Femprov junkies," reports Terry. "They've got to get their laughs in." 

She says the female funnies, who all live in the City, always present a family-hour show sans the four-letter words widely practiced by others.

Their props—glasses, hats and facial expressions—simply supplement the routines practiced by the five, who are all close friends as well as coworkers. 

Terry laughs when questioned about their income. 

"Oh sure, we've made enough to put several illegitimate children through college… but we also all have to supplement our income with comedy."

Choosing a comedy career has other drawbacks, too. 

Late nights, shows on the road, the constant demand to "say something funny" may slow Femprov down a titch, but not for long. And there's always something humorous in those situations.

Like the time they played in Ukiah on the promise of room and board plus money. "Well, we thought we were going to be staying at the Holiday Inn or something like that," Terry relates. "But no, they took us to a nice place with an area for meditation and we slept there on couches. 

“The next morning when we walked outside we saw women and kids doing tai chi —naked. The place was a nudist colony."

Luckily, Femprov faces few worries about comedians block, when witty words disappear. They support one another with a line, and expression, something that breaks through the dreaded total blank.

"And will probably be performing till were 90 years old or 70 or 60 with people saying 'poor women! Why don't they stop!"

The goofy gals (from left, top) Jeannene Hansen, Terry Sand, Debi Durst, and Pat Daniels.
Out getting lunch at photo session time: Denise Schultz and pianist Jim Cox

Funny Femprov Forming Fan Following
Richard Friedman • 3rd Annual All-Pro Comedy Show • Pleasanton

Egads, what is this? An all women's improvisational comedy group? Sure, sure. And Nancy Reagan's getting a pink mohawk, the LA Lakers will draft Dudley Moore and former Pleasanton mayor Ed Kinny will arm wrestle Ben Davidson for a Miller Light.

But yes, dear skeptics, it's true. Femprov may sound like a vitamin supplement, but what this group has bottled is laughter. Jeannene Hansen, Debi Durst, Pat Daniels, and Denise Schultz form the area's longest-running improv team.

Don't, however, get the idea they'll be parading the stage with their copies of Ms. Magazine or tossing their bras into the crowd (heaven for bid!).
"We're just women being funny," says Hansen, who started out as the troupe's photographer in 1979. "I don't think it matters that we're all women. We don't try to be feminists."

When Femprov began, other improv groups typically featured women only as tokens. So… a few formed Femprov and fortified the feelings females are funny.
"Someone said, 'Gosh, we should do this ourselves,'" says Hansen. "We thought it's a crazy idea, but it just might work. We called it Femprov and figured, 'That'll keep people away.'"
Hansen and the group pondered other names, Broad Humor and Funny Ladies, but the original tag has become a brand of their type of humor.

Whatever the name, the acid-tongued cynics lined up to criticize the gals. "We got bad-mouthed a lot" recalls Hansen "It was "Women? Doing improv? Hang 'em! Yeah we got badmouthed, usually by men, which, I think is one reason why we stuck together for so long."
If the group broke up after four years, she adds, "there would still be a lot of people saying, 'I knew they wouldn't make it.'" Not that there haven't been moments when Hansen contemplated other lines of employment. "There have been times when we'd be performing for very small audiences and end up getting six bucks apiece and for a moment I'd think "Is it all worth it?" Then we'd have a great show and then I'd think 'Well I'm proud to be in Femprov.'"

Never, she says, has there been a problem being a Group Without Man: "Sometimes, when we bring a male in, they just assume they're going to take over. On our anniversary show, there was a lot of sexist stuff flying around. It was, 'Go to the kitchen and make something'".

People are people, however, and personality conflicts do arise within Femprov.
"If there have been conflicts," says Hansen, "they haven't been on stage. We definitely argue, but it's always been for the good of the group. We definitely listen to each other's problems."
In five years performing, there naturally have been some memorable moments. Few, says Hansen, compare to a Ukiah performance: "We were put up there, woke up the next morning and realized it was a nudist colony." The show (Behind Clothes Drawers?) went on.

Femprov usually performs every other Wednesday at Cobb's Pub in San Francisco's Marina District, every 19th Thursday at The Other Cafe comedy club in the City, and every 31st Sunday at Tony's Muffler Repair in Redwood City. 

And, rain or shine, they'll be singing their way into everyone's heart. Even if, grins Hansen "some people in the group can't sing. We let them anyway. It makes it that much funnier." Is it Memorex or is it Femprov?

Femprov, an all-woman improvisation group consists of Debbie Durst, Terry Sand (with fish)
Pat Daniels (with fan) and Jeannene Hansen (hat). Denise Schultz is not pictured.

A woman's touch: 
all female improvisational group one-of-a-kind 

by Lynn Carey • Contra Costa Times 

It's pathos, compassion and pity. It's joy, sadness and lust. And it's all experienced within a matter of seconds on any stage you find Femprov.

The only all woman improvisational group in Northern California, Femprov began out of frustration in 1979. Very few females were used in comedy groups at the time, and Susan Healy, Teresa Roberts and Terry Sand who met in an improvisational comedy workshop decided to form Femprov after San Francisco's Holy City Zoo began "women's nights".
"Women's Night" didn't last, but Femprov did. Other members joined, some left, and the group now consists of five women in their early 30s who perform weekly together —without problems.

The name of the group was a problem at first. "We always figured people would think we were castrating bitches, or gay women's comedy," said Jeannene Hansen who is a four year veteran of Femprov. "We thought of changing the name to Broad Humor or something, but now we’ve got some momentum with the name so will keep it."

Other current members of the group our founding member Terry Sand, who also teaches improvisational comedy at the Jewish Community Center (she was also the first miss Haight  Ashbury); Pat Daniels, the only member of the group who has a “real” daytime job, as a cytologist (she used to run a joke writing service with then-husband John Cantu); Denise Schultz, who is also a waitress in the Financial District and a member of Comedy Underground, an improv group that performs at the Punchline; and Debi Durst also a member of Comedy Underground. The wife of Will Durst, who won the 1983 San Francisco international Stand-up Comedy Competition, Debi is the only Femprovette who is currently married. 

Since all the women in the group are attractive, witty and obviously extremely intelligent, it would be assumed that man lineup outside the stage door after a performance.
"Would that it were true," sighed Hansen with a chuckle. "Sometimes the guys that do come backstage try to be funnier than us. It isn't effective and I'm sure they feel like jerks."
Hansen got her first taste of comedy when she attended a workshop with a friend. "I was so frightened of performing onstage, though I had a few drama classes in high school. But I got up and said something, it got a laugh and I was hooked."

Hansen supports her Femprov habit with photography and stand-up comedy (she appears solo at the Other Café the Holy City Zoo and the Punchline) "I want to be a really strong standup comic, but from my point of view it's not as rewarding as improv. There's a real bond in creating something out of nothing. You can look at the person who's performing with you in the eye and signal ‘yes, let's go with it.’ There's a real freedom in that."

Femprov does about 10 sketches based on ideas from the audience. For example, at Cobb's Pub in the Marina a few weeks ago, they were asked to be sisters vacationing in Tahiti, and the audience kept suggesting a new emotion for them to play. During another skit, the two characters onstage kept freezing while the audience yelled out another movie director.

"Femprov is the warmest, most personable improv group in the city."

Flashes and flops: improv lives on 

by Steven Winn • SF Chronicle

A Monday night, several weeks later, 9:30 PM. Femprov, the Bay Area's only all-women improv troupe, is doing a set at Cobb's Pub on Chestnut Street. Formed in 1979 out of a frustration with the subservient roles women were assigned in earlier improv troupes, the group was popular initially as a novelty. Now the following is widespread, and deservedly so. Femprov is the warmest, most personable improv group in the city. 

The connection between the members is evident, in the responsiveness to each other's drift —or grammatical miscues —in a bit.  Ego seems to be nonexistent.

A movie trailer parody for "Nice Girls After Dark," is apt and droll. There's a gooey, loopy love-song number addressed to a male member of the audience, rich in a kind of mad cap hyper-sexuality "What I love is that women are supporting each other," one member drawls satirically in another bit. "Sexist" or "feminist" behavior, by conventional definition, is adopted by the members and shrugged off at the same time. Wit fails at times, but the bond to the audience is strong.

"When I did standup," says member Pat Daniels, "I did jokes about not getting dates. A lot of men, and women for that matter, think you have to compromise your femininity in order to be funny. Improv lets you get away from that. We can do a scene where four other women are actually supporting what you're doing instead of competing with each other —and the audience —to run themselves down."

Adds Terry Sand, "What a lot of actors are doing is 'indicating' emotions. In improv, you don't have time to get set to do that. Whatever comes up, that's what you have to go with."

Susan Healy of Femprov directs Les Cafero, left, Rico Ramos, Sandy Van, Nancy MacLean, 
T.C Nurov, and Janice Heiss in a round-robin of Story Story at Femprov's improvisational workshop 
held every Saturday afternoon at Cobb's Pub in the Marina. 

For $4 you, too, and have them rolling in the aisles 

by Ken Wong  • Examiner staff writer

San Francisco is a mecca for comedians. They come from all over the country to a town where comics drive cabs by day and perform in cabarets by night. All dream of being another Robin Williams.
It's a return to the 1950s when the hungry i was incubating newcomers Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl.

And now, for $4, you, too, can learn to be a comedian. Each Saturday afternoon Femprov offers a three-hour improvisational comedy workshop at Cobbs Pub, a saloon at Chestnut and Steiner streets in the Marina.
Femprov is an improvisational comedy group similar to the Screaming Memes and the National Theatre of the Deranged, both entertaining in spots around town. 

To improvise is to invent, compose or recite without preparation. The actors come onstage, ask the audience for suggestions – a profession, situation, emotion, conflict – and wing it from there.

On a recent Saturday, 15 people went through the wringer, in teams of two and three. Two women were to concoct a scene involving a stewardess and tennis. They pantomimed, pretending to bang a wall. They talked the dialogue went nowhere.
Susan Healy, today's leader, signaled them to stop and said "You must be pooped with all that swinging. You really hit the ball that often? And where is the scene? Are you playing tennis inside a plane? You've kept the dialog flowing. But it's not witty and it doesn't develop the characters."
Four other Femprov members also critiqued the neophytes. They told them what they did right and where they went wrong. 

Next, six people trotted onstage to do a spontaneous relay narration, an exercise in which one person picks up where another leaves off. Healy cued the speakers like a choir director.
It was a little like playing push-button on the radio, where by random pushing, you accidentally glue together some funny, incongruous lines.
Such as: "President Reagan said the poor and the hungry should try …" "… compulsive eating and discover alternative ways to nurture yourself and take charge of your life…"

The youngest person at the workshop was Rico Ramos, 21, an usher at Cinema 21. "I've been coming since it started," he said. "It's great. I have a captive audience."
Ramos, who came here from the Philippines when he was three, is all showbiz: "I love to entertain." 
Sometimes he entertains during intermissions at Cinema 21. He was with "Teens in Theater" while in high school and in "California, Can you Beat It?," a Mayor's Youth Program musical.

It was raining that Saturday, but Susan Williams and Diana Aragavritz drove up from Santa Cruz to make a noon workshop. "I've been coming for for four weeks," said Williams. "It's a long drive, but I'm hooked."
Maria Kamiya, 27, a San Francisco State University student, comes to the workshop because "it's fun and it helps to build self-confidence."
Arlene Mellon, 40, a freelance writer, agreed: "I was walking by one Saturday and saw the sign. There must have been a full moon that day. I walked in and found a platform to express myself creatively and humorously."

Of the 15 people attending the workshop, only three were men. Besides Ramos, there were Les Cafero and T. C. Nurov who works with the American Cancer Society.
"Men are welcome … we want more men … we're not just for women … tell them our workshop is a great place to meet women," said various Femprov members.

The group got together in December 1979. "We're just starting our third year," said Terry Sand. "We come from different parts of the country, met in a comedy workshop and it was a magic combination."
They have appeared here, in Los Angeles, at Stanford and in Monterey. 

"Improvisational comedy can be learned," Sand said "There are techniques. It's not that spontaneous."
Like jazz, there's a structure. It's how far out you can stretch before snapping. 
Daniels commented that it would take six months to learn how to be comfortable working together.
The others disagree. "There's no time schedule. It's up to the individuals," said Hansen.
But everyone agreed that it's a coordinated, ensemble effort. "You have to work together as a team," Healy said. "You're all in one boat, pulling together."
If one is stuck the others step in "It's like a rodeo. You fall off and a clown waves to keep the bull away," she added.

Improvisational comedy is risky. When you hit, it's hilarious, but it's a pie in the face if you miss. The measure of quality is longevity. "You don't last if the audiences don't respond," she said. Femprov will be playing at the Great American Music Hall and the Holy City Zoo in April.

They're wacky, dynamic and a guaranteed belly laugh. 
They're Femprov, an all-woman improvisational comedy troupe, who will appear Sunday at The Club inMonterey

That's a Laugh
Night Time • Coasting

After Femprov sings their opening number welcoming you to their show, they will catapult themselves into the audience to find ideas. Because it is based on audience participation, the show can never be the same.
The troupe began in December 1979 when Susan Healy, Teresa Roberts (no longer with them) and Terry Sand met in improvisational workshops. They formed Femprov after the Holy City Zoo started Women's Night. Pat Daniels, Carol Roberts and Jeannene Hansen joined the troupe later.
A reviewer for Metro Magazine said: "All of Femprov's material is extremely creative—from their take off on "Beat Poets" in the North Beach scence to interviewing off-the-wall applicants in an unemployment office to their cable TV show of "The Creative Cook" and "Gay Dating Game" not to forget the ingenious "Alien Fashion Show."

It's Your Choice
Charles Davis • Monterey Peninsula Herald Events Column

Femprov, a Bay Area improvisational comedy troupe, will be this Sunday night's comedy offering at The Club, in Monterey.
Founded in 1979 when San Francisco's Holy City Zoo night club began having Women's Night, Femprov is a five-woman teams that holds nothing—including feminism—sacred.
Improv comedy is seldom seen on the Peninsula. Unlike typical standup humor, improv relies on audience participation: Members of the group will call to to the audience for situations, occupations, et. then improvise an entire skit—hoping it is funny.
That's not to say the group doesn't have rehearsed routines, just that they are likely to alter them at whim. For example, S.F. critics have raved about their "Beat Poets" takeoff, as well as their "Alien Fashion Show," and "Dedication," a satirical Sinatra routine.
Femprov performs regularly in the S.F. Bay Area, The Club date will be the group's first Peninsula gig.

…a magic combination of personalities…

"Femprov simply performs good comedy."

They'll be a Ha time in the old town … 

Lively Arts • July 1981 • by R. L. Paer

It may surprise you, but it is an indisputable fact that San Francisco and it's surrounding areas have the best combination of amateur, semi-professional and professional comedy in the country. There are dozens of cafés to which literally hundreds of young, imaginative comedians from all the United States gravitate to entertain and be discovered. Why San Francisco and not New York or Los Angeles? Mike Pritchard, a well-known face on the San Francisco comedy circuit who has appeared on "Taxi" and "The Tonight Show" explains it this way,  "In San Francisco you can experiment. Anybody can get on stage and test out their material. By the time you reach Los Angeles you have to have a reputation. Somebody has to say 'Oh I heard he's funny." So, San Francisco is great for people just starting out."

The open door policy of the Bay Area comedy circuit all allows for a wide variety of comedy styles and material. Solo acts, teams of two, and entire groups numbering as many as six people perform everything from Chaplinesque slapstick to satires of Shakespeare. Recently, I had the pleasure of tagging along with several comedians. What I encountered were dedicated, hard-working, talented, underpaid individuals presenting some of the finest comedy an audience would ever hope to witness.

[ The longer article featured Barry Sobel—solo act and Fran and Jan—teams of two ]

Improvisation is a very popular form of comedy in the Bay Area. Many groups exist whose members are extremely talented. One of the hottest groups is Femprov.  Femprov is different from other improvisational teams in that it is made up entirely of women. And unlike most female comedians, Femprov's five members, Pat Daniels, Jeannene Hansen, Susan Healy, Carol Roberts and Terry Sand, do not get bogged down with strictly female humor, which inhibits the universality of many comediennes. Femprov simply performs good comedy.

Unlike typical standup comedy, improvisation relies on audience participation. The members of the improvisational group will ask the audience to call out different situations. For example, the audience may be asked to name a place and an occupation, and then the group has to ad lib an entire, hopefully funny, skit based on those suggestions. Yes, Virginia there are easier ways of making a living.

Since improvisation depends so heavily on interaction with the audience it works best in a small, cozy setting. There are a number of clubs in the Bay Area where improvisation goes over well and the Holy City Zoo is one of them. The Zoo offers top-notch comedy, and Femprov appears there often.

Femprov opens with one of the few rehearsed pieces in there act, a song sung to the tune of "Can't Hurry Love," which welcomes you to the show. Upon finishing the song they catapult into the audience for ideas. It boggles the mind as to how these five people can, on the spur of the moment, produce one funny skit after another.

The truly interesting aspect of improvisation is that because it is based on audience suggestion the show can never be the same twice. But there is something that never changes — Femprov is consistently excellent.

So, the next time you're sitting at home complaining that you've done it all, pick yourself up and check out one of the Bay Area comedy houses. Treat yourself to an evening of hilarity that exists in your own backyard.

• • •  • • •  • • •

Note: Imagine our excitement when we were told we were to grace the cover of Lively Arts magazine! The photographer, Bob Oshetsky, took the group photo immediately after an evening's performance at The Other Cafe. High on another successful night, we did not factor in our 'glistening' and adrenaline-pumped look after our 2 hour show. A month or so later when the magazine was published and numerous copies were forwarded to us, our excitement dissolved into horror. The color cast was oddly pink and green, and except for Pat, we all looked as if we had been through the wringer, sweaty, flushed, wild-eyed, and over-mugging for the camera. Absolute.Horror.Show! The apt cover caption: Femprov— One of the hottest improvisational groups in the Bay Area. We were hot alright, Decathlon in Death Valley hot. We decided then and there, we would not include this image in future Press Kits, much less speak of it again. The show was great, as the writer attests, but the cover photo was an anomaly in the catalog of Femprov imagery. After all these years, we still remember it as "That Cover", and shudder a little. It is re-imagined here only to serve as historical proof of our first and only 'cover girl' experience. 

A likely bunch of coconuts

Femprov: A High-Class Act 

by E. J. McLaughlin 

Question: What do you get when you put a dance instructor, a gerontologist, a city planner, a photographer, and a cytologist together on stage?
Answer: A dynamic evening of improvisational comedy by the popular Bay Area group known as Femprov.

Femprov began in December 1979 when Susan Healy, Terry Sand, and Teresa Roberts decided to form an all-woman improvisational comedy troupe. Based wholly on audience suggestion, improvisational theater has a long history in San Francisco, with such groups as the Committee, Spaghetti Jam, and Papaya Juice.

Femprov, becoming well-known in San Francisco because of the publicity given to their unique "all woman " status, prefers not to capitalize on that fact. They deliver a high level of comedy and creativity, attributable to the diverse backgrounds of its members.

All of Femprov’s material is extremely creative. From there take off on “Beat Poets" in the North Beach scene, to interviewing off-the-wall applicants in an unemployment office, to their cable TV shows of “The Creative Cook" and “The Gay Dating Game" not to forget the ingenious "Alien Fashion Show". They also do a scene called “Dedication" in which they very adeptly satirize Frank Sinatra. With overcoats slung casually on their shoulders, they take turns singing seductive goodbyes to an unfortunate(?) male audience member.

Femprov agrees that comedy is on the verge of becoming the rock and roll of the 80s adding “It is also a very good time for women starting out since existing comediennes are being taken out of live performing and placed into more marketable fields such as film television and directing." They offer this advice to aspiring comediennes “…be yourself, don't do self-deprecation material, you'll get laughs but it won't help any of us… the hard way is better."

Femprov has a promising future in the Bay Area and the West Coast. They perform Sunday nights at the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Francisco, with other engagements announced weekly. So for an evening of stimulating musical/comedy improv is truly a high class act.