That's a match!

Oh, Arrested Development. Your star burned far too brightly to last forever. You will be missed.

So I haven't talked much about my other sweet improv gig that I've been rocking for the last few weeks. It's a show called The Improv Match Game (Mondays at 10:30 - iO) and boy, is it a lot of fun.

If any of you are old or have the Game Show Network, you may be familiar with the original game show Match Game. The concept is that two contestants are asked a series of questions and attempt to answer in such a way as to match a panel of celebrities - people like William Shatner, Ethel Merman, Nipsey Russel, Joey Bishop, and everyone's favorite, Charles Nelson Reilly.

The Improv Match Game is much the same, only instead of actual celebrities, we have improv "celebrities," which really works just as well. The show is the brainchild of Rich Prouty and has been running over a year in its current time slot. He's also the host and does an amazing job.

My role in the show is to sit in the tech booth and push the button that makes the music play. Because this is not the most intellectually taxing role, I'm allowed to have a mike and do a certain number of mike bits with Rich and the panelists, which is fun. I'm also the final judge on whether or not an panelist's answer is a match. I'd like to think I'm tough but fair, and also occasionally downright frivolous with my judging.

Anyway, the last couple weeks, we've been really spoiled by huge crowds of Spring Break-ers, which was pretty hilarious and fun. Last night, we did the show for about 15 people, 12 of whom were from Delaware. This is a very small crowd for us, but despite the circumstances, it actually ended up being pretty fun. I did some mike flirting with the cute female contestant and Jeff (the guest host) interviewed a guy in the bathroom (who turned out to be her boyfriend. Yowch.)

So you Chicago kids should come by and check it out sometime. The contestants can actually win prizes and it's a good time for everyone.

Those of you reading from out of state, I think a special trip made simply to view the Improv Match Game should not be out of the question whatsoever.