1 commentWhen word got out that Mark "Walt" Walters—the hilarious face of the Texas Lottery for a while—snagged a theater job at Tulsa Community College last summer, fans knew that the end of 4 Out of 5 Doctors sketch and improv comedy ensemble would not be far behind. Sure enough, this winter brought the official announcement that after 26 years the Docs were folding, with a promise of one last "Holiday on Thin Ice" show in late 2012.
It's a sea change. The Docs were Dallas' longest-running comedy troupe, and via member Mark Fickert their roots go back to the early '80s Random Scam—Dallas' first comedy group and club. OK, the club was basically the attic of a retail store; you had to enter up a back stairwell that was little more than a glorified fire escape. But it was a real scene.
Old-School Improv
Pocket Sandwich Theatre, which hosted the Docs on the main stage, suspended their late-night comedy last fall, but plan to resume in late January. PST gives a home to sketch and improv ensembles like Pavlov's Dogs and The Victims, but excels with cabaret comedy like Lollie Bombs and varied Steven Crabtree weirdness.
Improv establishment Ad-Libs operated a storefront on Ross Avenue in downtown before jumping Central Expressway to Deep Ellum when the construction for the AT&T Performing Arts Center began. Presenting in a more overtly competitive games format that most other troupes, they offer weekend shows at Mouth. Early-evening and off-night slots go to ensembles spinning out of their prodigious improv school like the all-female Heroine Addiction. A 25th anniversary show Jan. 13 and 14 will bring back notable former students and instructors.
And you can't talk about local improv without mentioning Fort Worth's long-running and popular Four Day Weekend, which does four shows each weekend in a theater in downtown Cowtown next to Reata Restaurant, in the spot where Caravan of Dreams once lived.
Enter the Comedy House
Inspired by the New Movement Theater in Austin, the Dallas Comedy House improv palace opened in Deep Ellum a couple years ago, spearheaded by Amanda and Kyle Austin. Comedy House is a creative comedy engine, fueling comedy practitioners through weekly improv classes and oodles of performance opportunities. The spunky enterprise resurrected the Dallas Comedy Festival that reigned at the West End Marketplace for a short glorious period. The fest returns March 27-April 1 with the lineup to be announced on Jan. 25.
While the Docs' brand of improvisational comedy was rooted in the theater games and acting exercises of Viola Spolin—and indeed Docs' Vince Davis and Mark Fickert are now known more as actors—The Comedy House gang takes a spunky, less linear approach, extolling the quirky and edging into the uncomfortable. Long-form improv styles like The Harold flourishes here, but so does comedy done almost entirely in song and even puppet-based improv.
Docs may be down for the count, and Pocket's late-night comedy punting for a comeback, but with an annual festival and two comedy enterprises going strong—with both busy stages and schools—Deep Ellum comedy is on the ascent. 
