James Clark, Rollie Williams, Jason Metter, Asa Erlendson and Max Schwartz are Governor Jack.

Governor Jack -- a group comprising James Clark, Rollie Williams, Jason Metter, Asa Erlendson and Max Schwartz -- is campaigning to make improv a more visible part of Denver's burgeoning comedy scene. The group produces the improv show Governor Jack Watches You Sleep at Voodoo Comedy Playhouse, with material growing out of live interviews with "local celebrities" (think television-friendly lawyer Michael Sawaya.) The goal? To create a stronger presence for improv -- and maybe boost visibility of Governor Jack's own web series, aptly titled How to Make a Web Series.

After the group asked me to be a guest on Governor Jack Watches You Sleep last month, I talked with its longest-running member, about how Governor Jack came together, the status of improv in Denver, and what it plans to do with its web series.

See also:
- The ten best comedy events in May
- The Grawlix's five best comedy shorts
- Michael Sawaya to host reading of his book with flute, interpretive dance

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As we inch our way toward the glory of summer comedy festivals, Denver has already begun heating up with a variety of shows featuring whip-smart young comics and world-wise icons of days past. We've got a DIY music and comedy festival (with a bouncy castle!), two feature players from Chelsea Lately, some foody-humor at Deer Pile, and some Missed Connection weirdness at Voodoo Comedy Playhouse. Click ahead to see what spring has in store for the Denver comedy fans emerging from a six-month hibernation of Kids in the Hall DVD's and classic Nintendo games.

See also:
- Kickstarter campaign for Denver comedy documentary, Joke Life, now live
- Fred Savage: Horrible romantic advice from Wonder Years to Ladies Night
- When Obama appears as Satan, where's Stephen Colbert?

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Sam Tallent and Ben Overzet.

With Joke Life, a documentary film chronicling the career trajectories of three generations of Denver comics, producer/ director Ben Overzet hopes to draw attention to this city's exploding comedy scene, celebrate three of the scene's most original voices, and document the every-day struggles of people trying to eke out a living by performing stand-up.

Overzet, a local filmmaker and self-described comedy nerd who produces Too Much Funcast, a weekly podcast from the Fine Gentleman's Club, has set up a Kickstarter fundraiser to complete his documentary project. We recently talked with Overzet about comedy fandom, his goals for Joke Life's Kickstarter campaign, and where he hopes to take his movie.

See also:
- Everybody Loves Ben Roy: Denver comics weigh in on their longtime colleague
- Five choice moments from Denver's standup comedy scene in 2012
- Sam Tallent talks about his comedy mixtape Joke Life, and his Fine Gentleman's Club

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It's going to be a Gorey October at Bovine Metropolis Theater. Edward Gorey, that is. Every Wednesday this month, the theater company will be performing an improv show based on a peculiar play titled The Helpless Doorknob by the macabre author and illustrator. But unlike a standard theater production with stage directions and dialogue, this play consists only of twenty illustrated cards that the actors will use as a jumping-off point for a Gorey-genre improv show that will be different every week.

We caught up with director Royce Wood to talk about all things Gorey and what it's like to perform a play with few directions.

See also:
- Local actor Royce Wood's campaign to get on Fox's new series, The Magicians
- Tonight: Improv with But, Wait! There's More! at Bovine Metropolis
- Denver's Next Improv Star comes to a close with haggis tacos and matzoh blues

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Natalie Gonzalez

Whirl of Woodwinds in Skyline Park.

The 16th Street Mall was buzzing with music last week as artists of all shapes and sizes filled the air with their collective auditory gifts for Make Music Denver. This was the first time that Denver participated in World Music Day; it joined 450 other cities thanks to the efforts of the Downtown Denver Partnership.

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What's the funniest damn thing you've ever seen on television? The commercials. Specifically, the ones that aren't trying to be funny, but try instead to sell you a load of crap in three easy payments -- the Ginsu knives, slicing-dicing machines and spotless cleaning solutions of the late-night surf. The professional turf pioneered by Ron Popeil and Billy Mays, infomercial smooth-talk and hyperventilation are the very stuff of the unintentional funny.

And that's what's so hilarious about But, Wait! There's More!, a weekly improv showdown featuring a rotation of five different house teams competing at Bovine Metropolis Theater. Just try to walk out of the place afterward without coveting some piece of trash you'll never use.

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Deep in the bowels of the Denver Performing Arts Complex lies the mysterious little Jones Theatre, which sits on the backside of the complex like an afterthought. But what goes on in there? For one, there's Cult Following, a monthly improv-based (but not exactly) performance serial with this motto: "Theater is the New Movies." On the second Thursday of every month through May ("because THURSDAY...it's the new FRIDAY!"), Cult's six-person crew, led by Jessica Robblee and Alison Watrous and sponsored by the theater's Off-Center series, reconstruct five favorite movie moments which are chosen in advance in various ways.

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When local actor Royce Wood saw an announcement last week that Lev Grossman's fantasy novel The Magicians was in development to become a Fox television show, he knew he wanted to be a part of it. "How on earth do I get from here, Denver, Colorado, to you know, the top level casting agency in L.A.?" Wood wondered. "The only thing I could think of was the Internet." That's how Royce Wood is Quentin Coldwater, his blog campaign to get the part as the lead in the show, began.

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"In the end," Charlie Chaplin said once, "everything is a gag." Denver's Next Improv Star's culminating performance proved him right -- predictably, perhaps, considering it was a comedy series, but with a vigor so overwhelming and an artillery of jokes so unbearably funny that, by comparison, the rest of the show seemed a little like an elevator ride. "Gag" is not a strong enough word.

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Reality TV's most impressive characteristic is its ability to find drama in literally everything. Somehow, through some combination of theatrical background music or clever video editing or strategic misuse of footage, it makes even the most insignificant events perilous and thrilling. There are not many similarities between Denver's Next Improv Star and the TV shows that inspired it. Both are funny, but in one this is because its contestants are comedians, and in the other it's because they're idiots. Both move forward through challenges and participant elimination, but the Improv Star cast works well together and seem to genuinely appreciate each others' company; on TV, the dynamic is usually the opposite.

This week, though, Improv Star bore an unnerving resemblance of its origins. The second-to-last episode of Denver's only improv reality show began and ended like something televised -- with suspense.

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