Some improv groups were added to the wiki this week, Great Heights and Twenty Seven and some updates to Whisker Bliss, UCBW and Un-scripted Theater. We also had some updates to some performer pages including Shannon O’Neil, Julie Klausner, Jodi Skeris, and Rachael Mason.

This week I started pages for the New York groups Centralia and Burn Manhattan. I also started a page for Inside Vladimir, a long running Chicago team that featured Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (I added some info to both of their pages also, but they are still a bit sparse). I also added a little information on a team I was on and coached in NYC called Ice-Nine. There is also a fairly new page for the team Leo Callahan and updates on the pages for the Magnet Theater and New York performer Micheal Short.

There are lots of pages that could use some love. I’m trying to get the guys from Vladimir to add more information about the group to their page. I was a bit surprised that there was not a page for The Real Real World, given it’s long run in New York and the many early UCBT improvisors who were a part of that show. There was also a Chicago version that included many performers from Vladimir. I’d also like to get something up for the Living Room. This was a show created by The Family in the 90s at ImprovOlympic (now iO) and also featured Fey and Poehler. It had a very simple format of creating a fake living room on stage where the performers could discuss issues and tell stories and then jump up and do scenework whenever an idea came to mind. The goal of the original run was to make a TV pilot, which did get shot, but wasn’t sold to my knowledge.

If you have information about any of these items that you would like to add, please start an account there and add it.

There have been several improv wiki’s started in the past. Most notably was the wiki over at the Chicago Improv Network. Unfortunately that wiki got swarmed with spam bots and it ultimately had to be taken down. That shouldn’t be the fate of the new Improv Wiki that I’m hosting at the Improv Resource Center. This new wiki uses mediawiki, the same engine that powers Wikipedia, and it has some nice features which should thwart attempts by spam bots.

So what belongs in this new wiki? I’m hoping it will contain information on all things about long form improv of course. Info on theatres, teachers, groups, performers, books, exercises and forms. I also hope that it branch out into other areas and have information on short form, sketch and related info on comedy. We have a great start so far. A great many of the current groups in New York City have been put up in the last week or so. But there is a lot more to do.

I hope you will join me and make the new IRC Improv Wiki a great depository of improv information. It’s not hard to do. Let’s say you wanted to start a page for your improv group named “My Three Puns”. Here is what you would do:

1. Create a new account for yourself at the new wiki.
2. Go to the browser and type in this URL: http://wiki.improvresourcecenter.com/index.php?title=My_Three_Puns. Notice that the spaces in the name have been replaced by underscores.
3. Start adding content about your group.

There is some good help available to explain the formatting for mediawiki, however, don’t worry too much about it. Get the information up there. Someone will eventually come along, yes and you by formatting it to make it fit better into the overall look of the wiki.