Interview: Brett Ihler WITH THE JOINT VENTURE at The Joint Comedy Theater in NLR

If you’re looking for a night of laughter, spontaneity, and pure entertainment, The Improv Show featuring The Joint Venture at The Joint Comedy Theater in North Little Rock is the place to be on Wednesday nights! Led by the super funny Brett Ihler, improv is completely unscripted. Every performance is a one-of-a-kind experience that you won’t see anywhere else—or ever again! The performers take suggestions from the audience and turn them into hilarious, unexpected scenes right before your eyes. Not only is it incredibly fun to watch, but it’s also interactive, making you feel like a part of the action.  

This past Wednesday night, Oct. 2, I was entertained by Maddy Meigs, Gordy Brave, Brett Ihler, Ashley Wright-Ihler, Peter Petropoulakos, and RC Ragsdale, who kept the laughs going nonstop for an hour and a half. There was no prior rehearsing. They just show up, got on stage, and went for it. 

For instance, one of their games started with a simple scene and at any given time, one of their mates hit a button and the improviser who just spoke had to change their last line to something completely different. Sometimes they had to change it four times before the button pusher was happy. It was inspiring to see how many ways they could come up with lines. Then, there was a sound effects game where they had an audience member make sound effects for their actions. It was all so very entertaining but also amazing to watch them think fast and create stories and scenarios in a rapid manner. I was in awe with their skills. 

Before the show, I was able to sit with Brett to talk about their 20th Anniversary Improv show that is coming up October 18 and 19.   

BWW: Thank you for talking with me. I see that you have a lot going on.  

Brett: I do have a lot going on. We've got the 20th anniversary of Improv Little Rock coming up on October 19th. We switched over to the name Joint Venture, but we also perform under Improv Little Rock and have professionally for 20 years now.  

BWW: That’s amazing. 

Brett: We're doing two big shows that week. We're doing a late-night show Friday night over at The Public Theater, which was our first home. We used to only do late night shows, because there was nothing going on late night in Little Rock at the time. 

BWW:  Right 

Brett:  So, we're doing one show there and then we're gonna do a big giant show here at The Joint with 23 improvisers as of right now. So, it's going to be fun on October 19th. It's going to be tough, but it's going to be fun. 

BWW: That sounds like a lot of people on one stage. What started all of this?  

Brett: I used to work over at the Arkansas Arts Center, which is now the Museum of Fine Arts. While there, I worked with people that wanted to do improv. We were doing children's theatre there, so we needed another outlet to do something else. We rehearsed for a year and then we opened. We chose late night out of necessity. There was nothing going on late at night, and we decided that there's gotta be something there. We developed a cult following, started getting corporate gigs, and then once The Joint opened, I got the job here with Steve and Vicki. They wanted me to run an improv company out of here, so I just moved this over here.   

BWW: So how long have you been here at The Joint? 

Brett:  We are working on our 13th year. I've been here since before we opened. We've been open for 12 years. Steve and Vicki actually found me over at an Improv Little Rock show. They were just wanting to start back up again, looking around for local town, and found me over there.  

BWW: And y'all work so well together.  

Brett: Thank you. I couldn't ask for better acting partners or business associates. They're the best. They're good friends of mine now. I had to start learning bass with Steve, because I didn't know how to play the bass. He's like, ‘would you be willing to learn?” and I was like, ‘you bet.’ 

BWW: Sure. No problem. 

Brett: Well, you know the old actor saying of even if you can't do it, just say yes.  

BWW: And you play upright too. That's cool.  

Brett: Yeah, it's a lot of fun. So I learned a lot doing this job. But yeah, that's where we've been and that's kind of what we've been doing. We’ve done corporate gigs all over Arkansas and performed at every major university.  

BWW: Ok So what else you got going on?  

Brett: I do improv every Wednesday. I host the Tuesday night open mic for Stand Up here. I have a show on October 24th with Ballet Arkansas called The Seven Deadly Sins Show. That's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm the connective tissue narrator of the whole thing, so it's going to be a blast. I'm excited for that one as well.  

BWW: What about with The Main Thing? 

Brett: We've got Electile Dysfunction that we’re bring back for three shows November 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Then the day after Thanksgiving, we start up A Fertile Holiday, which will be our 12th time doing it here. I can't remember how long Steve and Vicki have been doing it.... I think it's almost 40 years. So, it's been a while.  

BWW: I saw that last year. It’s so funny. 

Brett: It’s fun, and because we've done it so much, we get to play around with it. Sometimes, Steve will start making things up, and then we have to start making things up and just play around with it. It's a lot of fun. You know, we have a really, really good time doing it. I love A Fertile Holiday. That's that whole comfortable jacket you throw on that's always good.  

BWW: I’ll come back and see it again.  

Brett: You should. You absolutely should. We shift and change things every year, though not enough. Unless you've seen it several years, you wouldn't notice.  

BWW: Well, I love you guys, and I look forward to catching the shows. 

For more information and tickets, visit The Joint's website at www.thejointargenta.com.  

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