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Arts & Entertainment

Sketch Comedy Group Sets Up in Nyack

The Antics Roadshow will hold their first shows at the Nyack Village Theater Friday and Saturday

The Antics Roadshow sketch comedy troupe has started a residency at the , which will include their first shows this weekend and feature classes beginning in February.

The shows are Friday and Saturday night, both evenings featuring programs at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tickets are $15, or $12 for seniors and students. They can be purchased online here or by calling (646) 853-1314.

The group first got together last year to put on short imrpov comedy shows at Antrim Playhouse in Suffern.

“We just had so much fun and people liked it,” said Brianne Higgins, a member of the Roadshow. “We just wanted to keep doing it, so a few months later we started calling up everyone in the group to see if they were interested in trying to do more shows, and mostly everyone was.”

The group has 17 members and the show is being put on by Ship of Fools Productions, which is run by Higgins, Dana Duff and Brooke Malloy. Unlike the previous shows, the ones this weekend are sketch comedy opposed to improv. All the sketches are originals written by members of the group.

“We always would come up with these big ideas for sketches, these ‘what if’ scenarios,” said Duff. “So we thought if we actually wrote the sketches this time we could focus in a bit more on each sketch and take it to where we wanted it to go.”

Duff and Higgins took a sketch writing class at Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City, the famed improv and sketch comedy theater/training center started in the 1990s by a group of comedians, including Amy Poehler.

Higgins said they learned a bit more about structure of sketches and decided to just go for it and do an entire show of their own written material.

Malloy and Higgins used to teach improv at the Nyack Center to teens in a class that became an after-school program as well.

Malloy and Higgins, both living in Nyack, met at Cresskill High School in New Jersey. Higgins then met Duff, of Blairstown, N.J., at Centenary College in Hackettstown, N.J. While they’ve performed in plays and other shows, they said went with comedy because of how much they enjoy making each other laugh.

The group will start teaching classes at the theater on Feb. 28. They offer four classes: adult improv, teen improv, adult standup and comedy sketch writing. Each class runs 10 weeks, an hour-and-a-half each week, and costs $150. If you sign up for two classes, you get a $50 discount.

The two imrpov workshops, as well as the standup comedy one, will conclude with a show on May 5. Higgins said they’re hoping to cap the classes at around 12 and they’ve already started filling up a bit. To register call (646-853-1314).

“What we’re hoping for is a roundtable of wackos like ourselves to sign up for the classes,” Higgins said.

Higgins added that the group is planning on holding more sketch comedy shows possibly in July.

Antics Road Show:

Starring
Brooke Malloy
Anne Molloy
Meg Renton
Matt Ortiz
James Goodger
Brianne Higgins
Dana Duff
Jim Todd
Joe DeSpirito
Doreen DiBenedetto
Connie Reiss Taragano
Bil St. George
Eileen Hickey
Conor Gillespie
Dan Carrera
Chris Marth
Steve Becker

Music
David Budway

Lights
Jeff Volkhausen
Rick Klein

Photography
Rick Klein

Production Assistant
Nicole Purwin

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