Local improv troupe, Damaged Goods, to host Louisville’s first ever Improv Comedy Festival at The Bard’s Town at 1801 Bardstown Rd. Metro Louisville will welcome some of the nation’s best improv comedy acts. 5 improv troupes from Louisville as well as 7 troupes from places including Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville, Detroit, and Cincinnati. This year’s Festival theme is, “If you’re alive…then you’re livin’.”

Festival performances will take place in Louisville’s best improv comedy venue, The Bard’s Town. The theater upstairs will play host to 5 shows and 2 improv workshops over 2 days.

The Dam Good Improv Festival will feature workshops for anyone interested in learning the art of improvisation, actors, non actors, inexperienced, and advance improvisers looking to hone their skills. Workshops will cover a variety of topics and be taught by the very best in the industry and are good for any experience level. Workshops will be held at The Bard’s Town upstairs theater on Sept. 30th at 11am and 1:30pm. Workshops will be $40 per person per workshop. Will last 2 to 2.5 hours a piece. Tickets are available now at www.damgoodfestival.com/workshops

Workshops include:

Laser Focus by Chris Fair (Laser Comedy Show – Chicago, IL) 11am

Chris Fair's "Laser Focus" workshop concentrates on multi-tasking and visualizing choices. What details that object work represents past the "labels" and how to be more purposeful and expressive emotionally during scenes. That's A LOT to focus on!

Why should you take this workshop though? LASERS, that's why!!! Participants will eventually be drawing their choices of characters, objects and scenery on the laser reactive screen like a futuristic puppet while acting the scene as their creations and that's where focussing on details and emotional purpose really comes in handy.

It doesn't matter if you are a good artist or not, but once you see how funny everything is drawn in cartoon like fashion, you'll see the same choices are just as funny when used in "traditional" improv if you are putting in the focus. Again, artistic talent is not a pre-requisite. Even a squiggly line drawing is worth a thousand words.

Chris Fair has been a visual artist all of his life, studied art and film at Northern Illinois University and has been performing stand up, improv and sketch comedy since 2004. He has been developing the Laser Comedy Show since early 2011 when his brother introduced him to the technology with his laser reactive Clothing Company, Hyphy Color. Chris has studied at Chicago’s Notorious Second City, iO, Annoyance, ComedySportz theaters and has performed his signature show coast to coast at improv and comedy festivals.