Friday Night Live at Lynn Valley United Church, weekly starting at 7:30 p.m. January 17. For more information visit fnlnorthvan.com.
Live professional improv comedy and music. A lot of laughter, followed by refreshments and chatting with performers and audience members. Sounds like a pricey evening out downtown, doesn't it? Would you believe that this takes place every week in a Lynn Valley church - all for just a ten dollar admission fee? Now in its third season, Friday Night Live is a secular event and a creative way for Lynn Valley United Church to welcome a wider audience, including nonchurchgoers, through its doors.
"The church's job is to gather the folks, break the bread, and tell the story," says Lynn Valley United Church minister
Blair Odney. "We all have the same goal, which is to build community and get to know one another. Friday Night Live became an opportunity for people to do these things without the trappings of a church."
When Odney first came to Lynn Valley United five years ago, he was asked to lead the church into a new relationship with the community, including an alternative to the usual Sunday morning service. He came up with the idea of having a weekly familyfriendly entertainment event that would be accessible to everyone.
"I think the most important thing about Friday Night Live is that it's NOT a church service, it's a performance. We do hit transcendence, but it's not 'church'," says Friday Night Live Artistic Director Alan Marriott. "It's a uniquely North Van experience. You see extraordinary things at Friday Night Live, unexpected delightful things."
That sense of the unexpected comes largely from the improv skits that open and close the show, performed by the professional group Ad Libretto. Not only is the comedy in Friday Night Live improvised, but so are the frequent outbursts of song. The performers and their pianist, Matt Grinke, find ways to create entire songs together on the spot. The improv is based on suggestions from the audience, but this is not the type of comedy that involves hauling audience members up on stage or making them squirm in embarrassment.
"We're never insulting the audience; we don't make people feel humiliated. For me it's about inclusion," says Marriott, who is also host and co-performer for Friday Night Live. "I like to use the audience's ideas. The stories they tell us are just gold and they go straight into the show. ... then the audience has some ownership of the show."
Each Friday Night Live also includes a local guest artist who brings a unique talent to the evening. Upcoming guests include musical theatre icon Jeff Hyslop, world-renowned magician Shawn Farquhar, and composer-pianist Simon Kendall.
"I think Friday Night Live has a lot more depth to it than most improv," says Marriott, who has performed and taught improv both in Canada and for 20 years in London, England.
For Odney, the magic connection that occurs between audience and performer is spiritual in itself, regardless of where it takes place. "I believe that when our breath is taken away by what just happened, that's a spiritual experience. I don't have to pile religious dogma on it. Your whole life is an improv, because you're called to be present in the moment. What are we going to do right here, right now? And every moment of our life is different. That's improv!"
