It’s not necessarily a case of saving the best for last, but Day 4 of the four-day Milwaukee Comedy Festival is Teen Comedy Day. Founder Matt Kemple told the Shepherd Express some of the best laughs of past fests have been for the youngest participants. And as an instructor at First Stage Children’s Theater, Matt’s co-producer of the festival, Patrick Schmitz has personally observed the development of some of the teen comedians.
“These are not kids just wanting to get up in front of people and get attention – these are mature and brilliant young adults sharing their talents with the city of Milwaukee,” Patrick says.
One of the groups appearing at Teen Comedy Day – which starts at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7, at 420 S. 1st St. – is called Organized Chaos. It’s an improv team Patrick started at First Stage with 12 students six years ago. Now the group is pushing 100 members in four age groups from 7th to 12th grade.
“I had been introduced to long-form improv in Chicago through Second City and I noticed it was nowhere to be seen in Milwaukee,” Patrick says. “A comedy group I used to be a part of (The Gentlemen’s Hour) would do long-form improv here and there, but there wasn’t really a scene for it. We had short-form improv at ComedySportz and that was about it. The main difference between the two forms is short-form includes games and long-form focuses more on scene work built off of one word from the audience. So I started Organized Chaos, and it took off from there.”
Meanwhile, Alex Grindeland had begun teaching long-form improv at Brown Deer High School and Joel Boyd formed the troupe Scoot’s Schticks Teen Comedy Club. Four of Patrick’s students started another group, After School Special, which has earned standing ovations two years standing at the Milwaukee Comedy Festival.
“I wanted there to be a teen day for the fest mainly because we had the talent for it,” Patrick says. “The audiences have been a bit lighter for the teen day, but the talent is up there with most of the adults.”