Warning: Rant ahead.

I have a good friend who has recently posted a blog saying some very nice things about me and my theater. I’m very appreciative for that, as I’ve worked very hard to try to make my theater a safe, fun place for performers of all ilk.

However, he’s dead wrong about one thing, and he’s not the first one to make that wrong statement: It’s not close enough.

Is Bonner Springs centrally located to Kansas City? Of course not. If you live in Kansas City, MO, or any other location in Missouri, other theaters are going to be closer to where you live. That’s fine. If this is you, feel free to skip past the next couple paragraphs.

If you live in Kansas, I’m betting the Roving Imp is closer than you think it is. Let’s take a hypothetical location near where you might live… say 75th and Metcalf- a nice part of northern Johnson County. From this location, according to Yahoo Maps, here’s how long it takes to get to the three main locations for improv comedy in town:

To Comedy City: 14 minutes

To W. Coffee House: 16 minutes

To Roving Imp: 20 minutes

Some improvisers I know live in Olathe. For them, it takes nearly the same amount of time to get to each location - there’s a two-minute spread amongst travel times. If you live anywhere else in Johnson County, the chances are that the Roving Imp is going to be just as close - if not closer - than the KCMo improv theaters.

OK, so for the person at 75th and Metcalf, the Kansas City theaters are four to six minutes closer than the Bonner Springs one. I really love Indian food… if there were two Indian restaurants, and the really good one was six minutes farther away, I would never ever be seen at the one that was closer to me. I would never recommend the closer one to my friends. When I took people out to lunch, it would be there.

Welcome back, Missouri folks. So, a little theater in Bonner Springs is farther away for you than those downtown locations. The question then is “What is important to you?” Is proximity the most important thing? If so, then you’ll do what you’ve always done - find free places to rehearse and/or perform, taking your audiences along with you, sharing space with others, finding that your space is no longer available, dealing with shows being canceled, paying rent, etc. That works fine - as evidenced by the many success stories in KC improv.

But, if proximity is really that important, then you truly don’t mind eating at that crappy Indian restaurant, and you are perfectly happy going home with whatever girl or guy that happened to be sitting next to you at the club.

Is quality the most important thing? Then ask anyone that’s been there… the Roving Imp is the place for your troupe to perform - alone, or jointly with other teams. It’s the place for you to join a new improvisation team. It’s the place for you to take a class. It’s the place for you to attend Improv Fight Club. It’s the place to establish a brand new audience - a largely untapped audience that’s just waiting for your talent and energy. It’s the place to bring the audience you’ve already got… or are you worried that your audience doesn’t like you that much? Even when I lived in North Kansas City, I’d regularly go to Lawrence to eat at the India Palace, quite simply because it’s my very favorite place. When I met my wife, she lived in Independence, and I lived in Bonner Springs. Some things are worth passing by those inferior, yet closer, things. I have people come once or twice a week from as far away as Liberty, the stadium area, and Lawrence, because they know the value.

But when it comes to improv theaters, it seems that there’s a bit of a mental block. If there are two improv theaters in town, and the owner of one “is a jerk,” but the owner of the other one welcomes all performers gladly, without even charging rent, it seems like a really easy problem.

It’s a great idea to have a great theater with great management somewhere in the middle. I would love it. I think there’s plenty of talent and audience to support it.

But I’m telling you right now, there will be things you don’t like about it. There are already tons of places to perform right now in town, and every single one of them has a drawback. Maybe the owner won’t let outside groups in. Maybe it’s a little farther away than you like. Maybe it’s in the basement of a noisy bar. Maybe you get charged $150 for the three or four hours you’re there. Why do we think that a new space would be different? There will be drawbacks with any new space as well… we just don’t know what they are yet.

Also, it doesn’t yet exist. There aren’t many folks around here that could tell you exactly how tough it is to get an improv theater opened and running, even semi-successfully. In the meantime, let’s get that cool, fun, open theater really hopping every weekend. (For the record, we’re really hopping about every other weekend right now.) Bring your shows. Bring your new ideas. Bring your tired, your poor, improv yearning to be free. The Israelites had to wander 40 years in the desert to reach the Promised Land. Your improv promised land is only half an hour away, even to those of you over in Missouri.

And once we’re rockin’ every weekend, having to turn people away, I will open that new, centrally located venue myself, with the same performer-friendly values. Who’s in?