Punch Club | Like ultimate battles

By creating the concept of the improvisation match in 1977, the National Improvisation League (LNI) was inspired by good old hockey. At Punch Club, it was boxing, even professional wrestling or ultimate fights that served as models, explains one of its co-founders, Dominic Lapointe.

“At St. Lawrence CEGEP, in Quebec, I was Odgen’s improv coach [Ridjanovic, d’Alaclair Ensemble et de Rednext Level]. He came to me to tell me that it would be great to launch a new improv show. But there were two things he didn’t like about the original concept: the fact that there were a lot of players on each team. And the referee, who could expel the most annoying or the most obnoxious after two punishments! »

These “cabochons” who often played a little more aggressively were often his favorite players, the rapper (also known by the stage name Robert Nelson) did not want to exclude them from the game. Instead, he wanted to make them the stars of his new concept where the competition would be fierce, where the winners would win not trophies, but cash. As for the player of the match, he would leave with a bottle of gin as a medal.

No, Punch Club is not a family show. The replies are often crude, even sexual. Which does not prevent the stories told from often being very well put together.

Twelve years later, the figures prove the founders right. To date, the company has produced nearly 255 shows in Quebec, Montreal or during tours organized in Quebec and Europe. The Punch Club also oversees the Quebec Improv Festival, which was created last year.

How did the French, Belgians, Swiss and Luxembourgers react when they saw this new genre of improv league arriving in their country? “They love the rhythm we bring,” says Dominic Lapointe. In Europe, there is a slowness to the game, which is very written. The Punch Club is their rhythm times 10! The spectators are a little unsettled at first in front of Ogden’s very Quebecois animation, but during the match, our players adapt their language a little to be understood. »

In Quebec (as in Reims or Geneva), these matches which also borrow from the atmosphere of rap battles are often full. In Montreal, the show is presented at Sala Rossa – a 250-seat hall located on Saint-Laurent Boulevard. Sometimes you have to book weeks in advance to get tickets. In Quebec, the matches are held at the Imperial, but it only took two days to sell out the 500 tickets for the June 8 match.

It must be said that this will be the opportunity for the almost unbeatable champions LeLouis Courchesne, Virginie Fortin and Arnaud Soly to put their belts on the line against a team solidly made up of Pier-Luc Funk, Corinne Fortin (Virginie’s sister) and Louis- Philippe Desjardins.

Several of these big names in the discipline are (or have been) regular players in the National Improvisation League. Which doesn’t stop them from happily jumping the fence to test the waters at the Punch Club.

Without the kazoo, the happiness of improvisers

This is the case of Fabiola Nyrva Aladin, a regular at the National Improvisation League, who has been participating in Punch Club for 10 years. “What I like here is the total freedom. It strikes a good balance in my practice with the LNI, where there are a lot of instructions. »

The absence of a referee which prevails at Punch Club also pleases Florence Longpré, a former LNI player who had to leave the big league due to lack of time. “I have a problem with dropping out: everything makes me laugh. Here, I’m not afraid of getting kicked out! »

Another factor that delights the improvisers: the Punch Club crowd, always pumped up. In fact, spectators literally surround the players, as in impromptu street dancing competitions. There is an audience on the floor, but also directly on the stage, behind the players who take on the appearance of gladiators in the heart of a noisy arena!

“Four times out of five, the matches are held in front of full houses,” explains Dominic Lapointe. It feels like we’re at the Boston Garden for a Bruins game! It’s enjoyable. We know: the more there are of us, the stupider we are. In front of such a large audience, each little joke becomes the best in the world because the laughter is so contagious. »

This is particularly true at the Sala Rossa, where spectators sit on small folding chairs, when they are not actually standing. “There is nothing like a match in Montreal,” says Fabiola Nyrva Aladin.

However, it is almost exclusively through social networks and word of mouth that the Punch Club has been able to attract this audience who love high-level improvisation. The league’s Facebook page has nearly 15,000 loyal subscribers who rush for tickets as soon as upcoming matches are announced. “At Punch Club, stars or not, the players selected are all excellent and funny as hell,” says Dominic Lapointe.

We have to give him reason. The evening of our visit to the Sala Rossa for the 128^e edition of Punch Club, the six players present were hilarious, crazy and oh so skilled in their jabs, uppercuts and other improvised verbal fights.

Punch Club’s next match is scheduled for April 12 at Sala Rossa.

Visit the Punch Club website