What is Girls Girls Girls?

Girls Girls Girls is an all female improv comedy troupe. We perform full length improvised musicals based on audience suggestions.

How did GGG start?

Well, all of us had been improvising with a coed troupe and we thought it would make our performances better if we had some all-girl rehearsals.

Men and women have different styles of comedy and often if you’re one of the few girls in the troupe, you end up playing the girlfriend, the mother, the love interest, and things like that. Since we make up all our scenes and stories on the spot, you kind of get typecast into a less important role. But when you play with all women, there’s more space and more choices. Not only did it help our coed improv, which we still love to do, but it was fun enough to do on its own.

Also, you know, there’s that stigma that women just aren’t as funny as men. And we wanted to be funny people who happened to be women. It’s not a “women’s issues” show no more than Weekend Update on SNL with Tina Fey is a “women’s issue” segment. She’s just funny, and we hope we are too.

What are your shows like?

We start out with a rehearsed opening number, which parodies popular Broadway hits. Then we get an audience suggestion, usually a location. And we start improvising an opening number set in that location. We’ve done cruise ships, bowling alleys, even the Democratic National Convention. And the show just goes from there. We have a live musical improviser playing and we make up the songs, dances, and storylines on the spot. It has all the things you’d expect from a musical comedy: romance, skits, ballads, and big dance numbers. It just happens that we make it up on the spot, so the comic potential is even greater. There’s that tension—what’s going to happen next? How are they going to make it work? But we usually do. And it’s always exciting to see how it all comes together in the end.

When and where do you perform?

For the past year, we have been performing monthly at Arts on Real 2686 Real Street. We fit in nicely with Naughty Austin’s campy style. We also perform at local festivals such as Out of Bounds Improv Festival and Miniature Golf Tournament, Waffle Fest, and FronteraFest. We’re looking forward to taking our show on the road to other improv festivals and venues around the nation.

Do you rehearse?

Yes. A lot. Try to think about it like jazz improvisation. These musicians don’t just pick up their instrument and jam together for the first time in front of an audience. They have to practice with their instrument and with each other. Learn how to get the best performance out, learn how to work together, learn the underlying structures that make an improvised piece of music satisfying to the audience. We do the same thing. We work on our acting, singing, and dancing skills. On our communication skills. We study musicals to see what makes them work. What are the elements that go in to a successful musical comedy? We work on it a lot. But when you get on stage, all that preparation should be at your fingertips so you can just improvise. You riff off the audience and the other players, come alive, and make it happen.

What makes GGG different from other shows in town?

We’re all women. It’s all improvised. We sing, dance, and act. We’re also extremely good looking. Anything else you’re looking for?

How much is planned before the show?

Aside from our pre-planned opening number, nothing is set. We hope there will be a starting song that will set the tone for the show, there’ll be a hero, a villain, a love interest, some comic relief, fast songs, slow songs. But we don’t know who will play what character, what they will say or even what the story will be about. We don’t know the tunes ahead of time and what the lyrics will be. We’re really just out on a limb. But that’s what’s so exciting about it.

How did you get in to all this?

I saw an improv show at Dad’s Garage Theatre Company in Atlanta when I was in high school. The guys on stage looked like they were having the most fun I’d ever seen anyone have. It made me want to jump up on stage with them. I wanted to be their best friend. So I settled for taking classes there. I was terrible at first. The worst in the class. But I started doing shows and eventually I had a night where I was just in the zone. I knew exactly what to do, what facial expressions to make, how long to pause, everything. And the laughs just started rolling in. It’s a very addictive experience. You feel very alive and very connected with other people.

I just kept doing it. I moved to Austin for school, and when I graduated I started teaching improv. And basically improv has been my life since then. It’s so great to teach improv because I see the fire I have get lit in my students and the cycle continues. Some of my former students are now members of Girls Girls Girls.