This is part of the annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe 2026, held Aug. 13-23 in venues around downtown Massachusetts Ave. Information at indyfringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Reviews of: “Ad Libs: The Show: The Experience!” by Cryptid Entertainment; “Improvised Stephen King,” by Mark Cashwell; “Welcome to Nowhere,” by Shelf Sabotage Improv. 

There are performers in central Indiana with a particular set of skills: they will find you; they will get words from you; and they will make you laugh. (Hope you read that in Liam Neeson voice.)

Every Fringe festival has its Improv acts, which are tricky for reviewers like me to write up. By the nature of the show, no two performances are alike, and can have vastly different “plots.” Also, audience participation and energy are vital to an enjoyable show. Skillful performers can salvage reluctant suggestions or feedback, but to really bring the funny, an engaged crowd (the bigger, the better) is a must.  

Ad Libs

The popularity of Cryptid Entertainment and the talents of its actors made this a promising selection for your Fringe ticket. Tony Schaab is a natural as our smarmy host of a long-form improv involving a number of “Who’s Line” style games. There are a few things to help guide the made-up-on-the-spot story his fellow local performers will present. On the way in, there’s a choice of three exotic animals for which audience members can vote. We later find the winner fills in the blank in “The Case of the Missing [blank].” Audience members are also given envelopes, most containing options to choose among to guide the narrative.

The story progresses through games including “Sound Effects,” “Props” (bringing an audience member on stage to select), “Party Quirks,” “Alphabet,” and finally “Survivor,” in which the final scene is reenacted again and again, with fewer actors each time.

In the end, at least at the performance I attended, the platypus from the mall with the J.C. Penney was recovered safely, and in entertaining fashion.

The Cryptids have shown themselves to be excellent at both scripted material and wild improvisation. Weeks earlier, they performed a role-playing-game themed improv (featuring Schaab as Bigfoot) at GenCon.  

Improvised Stephen King

Mark Cashwell is both a great actor and an improviser with a gift for brilliantly playing the host of a game or talk show. This time, he combines these skills to give a deadpan presentation of the Master of Horror himself, complete with dark wig and darker attitude.

Mr. King needs to write another bestseller, and is out of ideas, so he will revisit one of his hits. Using audience response, he chooses among “It,” “The Shining,” “Carrie,” and “Misery.” The rest of the show is a suggestion-guided re-enactment of the selected novel/movie.

The performance I attended did “Carrie.” It turned out very well, in part because the highly talented actor and improvisor Frankie Bolda took on the title role. No pigs were harmed, though some chairs were endangered by bouts of hilarious telekinesis, and Carrie even got to live – at least until the clown with the balloon showed up.

Cashwell has given us a wide variety of improvised adventures over the last several years; this makes an excellent addition, especially for those in a macabre mood.

Welcome to Nowhere

Newer addition to the local comedy scene, Shelf Sabotage Improv, presents a long-form improvisation with plenty of audience input for their several-member troupe. The story involves a quirky small town with a weird name, a unique annual festival, an unusual teen fad, an unconventional varsity sport at the high school, and perhaps an exotic animal on the loose.

Just a normal day in [blank].

The performers did well on picking up on all the often bizarre things we shouted to them, crafting a surprisingly cohesive narrative, complete with occasional callbacks and a satisfying conclusion.  Even when we set up a juxtaposition too weird for the player who had been offstage when we set it up to guess, the results were still funny.

Here’s hoping we see more of Shelf Sabotage.

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All three of these shows were held in the Arabian Room of the Murat Shrine Club, a regular supporter of the IndyFringe festival.