Last month, wanting to do something different to celebrate Brighter Mechanical Ltd.'s 25th anniversary, executives hired improv comedy organization Vancouver TheatreSports League (VTSL) to entertain at the company's Christmas party.
"It was so funny," said Bob Vincent, a principal at Brighter Mechanical, who asked VTSL's actors to focus on the company's five founding members. "It was the kind of laughing where you get a pain in the back of your head."
Since 1985, VTSL has styled individual shows for business organizations, performing at annual meetings, retirement parties, executive luncheons and staff appreciation nights.
What began as a community outreach and business opportunity has grown to the point where VTSL performs between 100 and 125 corporate shows a year, which generates 20% of the organization's revenue.
"Improv is about making people look good," said Jay Ono, VTSL executive director.
Having improvisers act out episodes from an employee's life at a retirement party can be much more fun than hearing stinging comments at a public roast.
"It's about having fun with people, not about having fun at people's expense," said Ono.
Once a business contracts Vancouver TheatreSports League, its staff researches the company and its corporate culture, interviewing key members and finding out their histories and learning a glossary of terms for that particular industry.
The three or four actors then memorize those details prior to going out to perform a 45- to 60-minute improvised show.
Aside from one-hour improv sketch performances, TheatreSports' improv formats include wandering improvisers and mock awards and game shows. Companies pay VTSL anywhere from $1,400 to $2,600 depending on the number of performers, length of show and use of a sound technician. The benefits to Vancouver TheatreSports include additional revenue outside of the 11 weekly performances at its Granville Island Improv Centre, which attract 55,000 people annually, and the chance to expand that audience with each private performance.
Ono has no statistics on how much of his audience learned of VTSL from a corporate event, but he estimated that of the 10,000 to 15,000 people who attend a corporate show each year, 30% to 40% will attend a later show at the Improv Centre.
"It helps us reach an audience we don't normally reach," says Ono.
Mixing entertainment with business might be catching on.
Making a living from playing music has always been a challenge, but a pop band based in Courtenay takes a new approach. Flat Nine, a quartet of multi-instrumentalists, operates the Downtown Social Club, a cozy, 60-seat Courtenay performance centre owned by bandleader Eirah Unger and partner Kim Tymkow.
Unger, a lifelong musician who also works in financial services, decided that rather than go the usual pay-your-dues band route of jumping from bar to legion hall, he would own the performance space and build an audience by making the venue an intimate experience for those attending the 25 to 30 shows the band does annually. For the past six years, the group's distribution list has grown to the point where the club has visitors from all over the world.
Many on the list live in Vancouver, so Flat Nine will play a show at the Orpheum Annex on Saturday, January 25.
Band members Unger, Siobhan Walsh, Graham Shonwise and Michael Nye will be joined by four guest musicians.
When asked if the band could follow the Vancouver TheatreSports example of reaching out to businesses, Unger said, "If that's a market that makes business sense, then certainly we will pursue it."
