LOL WITH IT: Iron Lung birthday show @ Arts Parlor, tonight!

Tonight, Philly improve troupe Iron Lung celebrates its one-year birthday show at the Arts Parlor.

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LOL WITH IT: Iron Lung birthday show @ Arts Parlor, tonight!

POSTED: Friday, January 27, 2012, 1:00 PM

Filed Under: Comedy LOL With It

Every Friday, Ryan Carey covers the people and events that are giving Philly the giggles.

Tonight, Philly improv troupe Iron Lung celebrates its one-year birthday show at the Arts Parlor. Says founding member Maureen Costello, "It's hard to believe that one year ago we were standing in a back alley behind Tabu warming up for our inaugural show. We had this certain air of naiveté to performing where there were no bad shows, no critics, and no doubt about what we were doing. Nothing deterred us that night, not even the passerby who gawked at us playing an imaginary knife game ... in an alley ... in the Gayborhood. We were Philadelphia's own West Side Story!"

In a short amount of time, the members of Iron Lung seem to have coalesced a legendary rapport. Corin Wells claims, "I feel like I've known these crazy kids since the womb ... a very large, multi-ethnic womb." Kevin Pettit boasts, "We are friends first and improv teammates second."

In the style of long-form improv, known as Evente, they take a suggestion from the audience (start thinking, folks!) and act out a scene on the spot. The group chooses one character to be fleshed-out with a series of three mini-scenes, and the whole process is repeated twice. Once the three main characters have been developed, we see a large scene three times from each character's point-of-view — we learn how the event affects their future. (Yes, there's quite a bit of time travel involved!)

The troupe is currently under the direction of Amie Roe (of the Amie and Kristen Show, who will also be performing tonight.) "They asked me if I wanted to work with the group, because Evente is a signature piece of the Magnet Theater in New York where … I perform regularly," says Amie. "Iron lung are a bunch of smarties — they have good improv instincts, which is something that's hard to teach. Evente` shows off their ability to create and develop very engaging characters."

Fri., Jan. 27, 8 p.m., $5, Arts Parlor, 1170 S. Broad St., ironlungimprov.com.

(ryan.carey@citypaper.net) (@slackerDIYtoday)

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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