These Folks Got Jokes?!

My cousin (by marriage) Daniel "Motown Pride" started an improv comedy troupe which plays Saturday nights at Hip Hop Soda Shop. An entertaining & fun show to be sure & they are featured in today's tampa bay times tbt* magazine. As well the article is featured by the St. Petersburg Times.

St. Petersburg Times, "Got Jokes? These guys do" by Dalia Colón, 3/13/09 :

Humor is subjective.

For some, Seinfeld does the trick. Others prefer Chris Rock. And in the right circles, a well-timed fart joke gets the crowd ROTFL.

Last year, Daniel "Motown Pride" Jefferson set out to assemble an improv troupe diverse enough to make anyone laugh. So he visited comedy clubs in Chicago and Orlando. He took notes. He announced a casting call online and in newspaper ads. He held auditions.

Then last February, Jefferson, of South Tampa, launched Got Jokes Improv. Its nine-member cast includes 20- and 30-something folks of various races and professional backgrounds, from actors to musicians to stand-up comedians. The group has performed at Side Splitters Comedy Club and done a few corporate gigs. Since October, they've had a weekly slot at the Hip Hop Soda Shop in Tampa, and they hope to work the college circuit.

"I have to keep us performing in diverse places because if I don't, some of my comics that don't necessarily hit at a Hip Hop Soda Shop, they might not think they're really funny," said Jefferson, 34, who emcees the shows. "But I stick them in Side Splitters and they're cracking up."

Take Mike "Gwiggy" McGuigan, who studied opera at USF and favors the BBC show Little Britain.

"Big white dude. His comedy is very different," Jefferson said. "But he stays in his lane. He does not care where we're at. He does his thing, and people love him."

Doing improv, as opposed to scripted scenes, allows Got Jokes to tailor each show to the audience. At a recent Soda Shop performance, cast member Sharon Gabaree asked the crowd of 50 or so, "How many parents do we have here tonight?" When a fair number of people applauded, Gabaree threw in a joke about mistaking her son's ADHD medicine for heartburn pills and got some chuckles.

The group also uses audience participation to keep certain crowd members from getting marginalized. They invited two kids on stage for a Mad Libs-type game and drafted a white woman to play a quiz show called I Know Black People. She won.

That's not to say they haven't bombed. Last weekend after a paternity joke, the crowd waved the actors off stage, a la Showtime at the Apollo.

Audience member Ricky Sevilla had wandered into the Soda Shop for dinner with his family but wound up participating in several of the sketches. And when the cast broke into an impromptu dance session, Sevilla hopped on stage and swivelled his hips.

"I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to bring a little of the Spanish thing into it," said Sevilla, 37, of Tampa. He said he'll return to Got Jokes, but wishes the cast had done more to include him — namely, spending more time mocking his Latino culture. "I'd pick on the family ... how we act, the things we do — sexual dancing," Sevilla said. "That's how you win the crowd."

Each Got Jokes performance is recorded, and in semiweekly rehearsals the cast studies tape of the show. Was the vagina comment funny? Did the bit about selling ice in Antarctica go over well? Why or why not?

While Jefferson hones his Tampa cast, he's now building Got Jokes troupes in Hudson, Miami and Sacramento.

"My only prerequisite was when you come in the group, you do you. Don't try to do what you think is funny. I don't care what your crowd is," he said. "You do you, and people will appreciate that."

Got Jokes Improv

Got Jokes performs every Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Hip-Hop Soda Shop, 1241 E Fowler Ave., Tampa. $10. On March 14 and 28, the show will be family-friendly. The group will also headline the Comedy from the Road Less Travelled show at 8 p.m. March 19 at Tampa Improv, Centro Ybor, 1600 E Eighth Ave., Ybor City. For more info, call (813) 393-7725 or check out gotjokesimprov.com.