Seven years of the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival

Jeremy Lamb answers questions about the nature of sketch and improv comedy

Improv veteran Jeremy Lamb lives in Los Angeles now, but during his all-too-brief layover in Austin, he helped found the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival in 2002. In its seventh year, the festival features a full menu of comedy styles — standup, sketch, improv, short film — along with performances by local favorites ColdTowne and Girls Girls Girls and traveling shows from L.A.'s the Groundlings and the Austin-Chicago-Los Angeles chimera Available Cupholders. Lamb offered his thoughts on comedy and Out of Bounds by e-mail from the West Coast.

XL: Is a lot of improv being performed these days more political than usual?

Jeremy Lamb:Not so much. At least in the Austin scene, things tend to stay apolitical. For me personally, it's hard to make topical jokes without sounding like everyone else doing the same material. McCain is old. Obama is black. Hilarious, right? Even though the graphic design for the festival this year is election themed, we've purposely avoided introducing our own political opinions. The broad mission of the festival is not social change; it's to make people laugh. That being said we don't have any creative control over what groups do, so if they go political, that's their choice. As producers, we can only hope it doesn't (anger) half the audience.

Wow. That's a loaded question for a lot of reasons. Of course, every audience member is going to have different tastes, and there are innumerable approaches for successful improv. The best improv is not afraid of failure. Unlike virtually every other art form, the mistakes and shortcomings are apparent for the observer. Improv is rife with mistakes which is part of what makes it so great, so spontaneous, so dangerous. A poet doesn't have to ever publish his (worst) poem just as a painter can paint out mistakes or entire canvases having never showed a soul. The improviser stands before the audience naked, their brain working at full capacity to make sense and order out of complete chaos and the audience is there to participate in the creation of a unique theater piece that will never be duplicated again. Short version: Bad improv fails and acknowledges the failure. Good improv fails and uses it as an advantage.

I'm going to give you a location, an animal and an object: a classroom, a bullfrog and a golf club. Now improv your own interview question.

In order of preference, list the best places to learn improv.

The Out of Bounds Comedy Festival continues through Monday at Salvage Vanguard Theater, Coldtowne Theater, Esther's Pool, the Hideout and the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz. $8-$26. Check www.outofboundsimprov.com for times and locations.