When Neutrino's cameras roll anything can happen

With improv you never know. But you do have expectations. Actor/comedians come on stage. They get suggestions about characters and situations from the audience. And they improvise a show right then and there.

COMING UP

SEATTLE FESTIVAL OF IMPROV THEATER

PERFORMERS: Improvisational comedy artists from New York, Chicago, Vancouver, B.C., and Seattle

WHERE: Historic University Theater, 5510 University Way, and the Market Theater, 1428 Post Alley

WHEN: Wednesday through Feb. 22

TICKETS: $10, $30 for festival pass; www.seattleimprov.com or 206-325-6500.

The "then and there" part of the formula took on new meaning some four years ago with the advent in New York of the Neutrino Project. Once the audience has come up with a suggestion, the Neutrino actors dash out of the theater. They are accompanied by videographers. Improvised scenes are filmed at various nearby locations. A runner delivers film to the theater. With three teams and three cameras working simultaneously, the audience watches a more or less continuous hourlong movie.

The Neutrino actors have worked on the street, in restaurants, in a trash bin, in cars, even, once, in an inhospitable supermarket.

"The manager tackled me," says Neutrino co-founder Kurt Braunohler. "Normally, you ask permission to use a location. But you can never get instant permission from a huge corporation. So, we thought maybe we should just chance it. But they called the cops.

"I could see that Ptolemy was unobtrusively taking the film out of the camera. He handed it off to me. And I ran. But the manager -- this guy in a three-piece suit -- actually tackled me."

"And the Ho Hos or Ding Dongs or whatever they were exploded" adds Neutrino co-founder Ptolemy Slocum. "The filling splattered all over Kurt and the manager."

"We apologized," Braunohler says. "But our film was confiscated."

I guess it helps to be young. Braunohler is 27. Slocum is 28. They figure that the median age of their audience members is mid-20s to 30.

The Neutrino pranksters will be part of the second annual Seattle Improv Theater Festival, which begins Wednesday. Neutrino is one of nine participating improv troupes: three from New York, two from Chicago, one from Vancouver, B.C., and three from Seattle.

Indeed, Seattle has its own Neutrino project, as does Chicago. "We franchise," says Braunohler. "A Washington, D.C., Neutrino Project has it first performance tonight (last Friday). We've had discussions with people in Toronto. And we were talking to a guy from England."

Most of the SFIT participants are conventional (non-video) improv comics, although one of the NY companies, Josh and Tamara, use puppets. Josh (Cohen) is a Henson Muppeteers veteran.

In addition to doing shows, the performers will be teaching classes. "That's how we pay for the trip," says Braunohler. "We charge $40 for four hours."

Actually, Neutrino improv is, financially, a losing proposition. "We take money out of our pockets," says Slocum. "We all have day jobs." Braunohler fixes computers. One of Slocum's day jobs is acting in commercials. "I'm the guy on the beach in the Red Lobster ad," he says. "I listen to that seashell."

Joining Slocum and Braunohler in their Neutrino ventures are six other regulars and assorted now-and-then semi-regulars. Slocum and Braunohler met during an improv class. Their teacher saw possibilities and assigned them to a performance team.

The Neutrino troupe grew out of that nucleus.

The company hopes to eventually make the big time. In an improv context, that means getting a TV contract. Next month, the Neutrinos will be performing at the 10th annual Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. "You're performing in front of all sorts of industry people there," says Slocum. "The festival is sponsored by HBO and NBC. I can see the Neutrino technique as the basis for a TV series. Yes, I can easily see that."

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