As a professional funny man, Roman Danylo has been in plenty of television shows across the country.
So he knows what can go right and wrong.
"I've learned a lot of the common mistakes that people do in TV tapings," the Vancouver TheatreSports League regular said last week. "One of the big ones is making it stressful for the performers. If people think, 'This is my only shot at a TV taping, there's so much money going into this' then everybody tightens up.
"I say to everybody, 'Keep it loose.'"
That's the premise behind Danylo's latest enterprise, The Roman Improv Games, a new web series and TV pilot that'll be filmed at Coquitlam's Evergreen Cultural Centre on Saturday night.
And Danylo will have some heavyweights with him to make filming fun for the audience and cast. Danylo has teamed up the producers of Convos With My 2 Year Old, an ongoing YouTube web series created by Mathew Clarke and featuring David Milchard - a fellow TheatreSports player - as the daughter, Coco; the first episode currently has more than eight million views.
Danylo said he hopes to corral that series' popularity with the help of Clarke and Milchard, who will be on stage for The Roman Improv Games (also appearing will be Ken Lawson, Denise Jones and Chris Casillan with TheatreSports).
He wants a repeat of their show last month at The ACT in Maple Ridge, which Danylo described as "so awesome" that he's already got dozen clips that will make it into his web series, due out this spring.
For his Coquitlam show, Danylo plans to turn the facility into the Evergreen Colosseum, with improv gladiators waiting in the pit. Improvisers will battle it out in the games arena while Danylo and a judge sit in the emperor's box. "We're bringing the comments on YouTube to life," he said. "All that talking that happens behind friends' backs? We're just putting that out front so the friends can hear it."
At the end, the audience chooses the winner; applause determines if the improv gladiator gets a thumbs up or down.
Meanwhile, Danylo said he's just firmed up a date at Evergreen for his Comic Strippers' next show. The half-naked boys with their black tights and bow ties will be in town on May 16.
For tickets at $35/$30/$15 to The Roman Improv Games web and TV taping on Saturday, call the box office at 604-927-6555 or visitevergreenculturalcentre.ca.
@jwarrenTC
