Detroit may be known more for Impalas than improv, but that’s changing fast thanks to Chris Moody. The 2014 Detroit Improv Festival takes place August 3-10, with 200 improvisers from across North America putting on 20 performances and 15 workshops. We spoke with Chris about the festival, rubbing shoulders with improv royalty, and the importance of giving back.

P&C: Tell us how you came to be involved with the festival, and why?

It just happened that both my wife and I were laid off at the same time, so I was looking for something to take my mind off of job hunting, and improv turned out to be the cure.

My day job is planning trade shows. I’m an Operations Manager, so getting things together, working on timelines and putting an event together was kind of what I’d been doing pretty much my entire professional life.

P&C: And looking at your guests it looks like you’re doing an amazing job, especially for a festival as relatively new as yours.

CM: We’re extremely fortunate with a lot of incredible improvisers who have gone on to film, television, stage careers returning to the city to perform in the festival.

Tim Robinson knows the guys at Go Comedy, so we had a real good base of improvisers from around the country that helped us produce our first couple of festivals, and from there, through friends of friends we’ve been able to add on and increase the talent.

P&C: This year you’re bringing Fred Willard on opening night for a special screening of Best in Show.

CM: Yeah, we’ve always wanted to do something to attract theatre-goers to improv, because like many other cities, not many people really know what improv is. Some people think it’s stand-up comedy, Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a good resource and a good introduction, but we really wanted to introduce the locals to long form improvisation. And we felt by bringing this improvised film to a large theatre – it seats 1,600 people – we think that might be able to attract new audience members.

P&C: That’s a fantastic idea. Cameron and I know it can be like pulling teeth to get people who aren’t familiar to come see improv. Even my family was convinced it was stand-up with hecklers and they didn’t wanna go near it. Using an improvised film is a fantastically creative way to get new people involved.

P&C: That’s very cool. We just saw him on Andy Daly’s new show, Review.

CM: Yeah, he’s everywhere.

P&C: What have been your favourite performers or shows over the last four years?

CM: Well personally, my favourite thing about the festival has been the appearance by TJ and Dave last year. They came out and did two shows during the festival and they’re my all-time favourites. We had TJ come out the past couple of years, and last year we were able to get both TJ and Dave to Detroit. It was both sold-out performances and I marked it on my calendar not to miss those shows.

P&C: Oh yeah, I envy people who can see them regularly, in Chicago or New York.

P&C: Who are some of the other guests you’re bringing to the festival this year?

CM: Well we’d been trying to get John Glaser to come back to Detroit for the festival. He grew up in Southfield, Michigan which is about 10 minutes from Detroit, and he has agreed to come out. He asked if a couple of other performers he regularly performs with could come out as well, so Kevin Dorff will come out, Tim Robinson will be joining him, as well as Mike O’Brien from Saturday Night Live. So the four of them are gonna perform together and we’re extremely excited about that.

P&C: Amazing.

CM: Susan Messing has been to our festival each year, and each year she performs with a different person. This year she’s going to perform with Norm Holly, who is head of the Second City Conservatory. He is from Michigan, right outside of Detroit, so it’s a bit of a welcome home for him as well.

P&C: The festival runs for eight days. That’s long!

P&C: That’s a very full schedule.

CM: It is, and it’s nice because all of the theaters – especially the ones in Ferndale – are just a couple of blocks from each other. So you can go from show to show. You catch the beginning of one show, you can catch the end of another show very easily; it’s very attendee-friendly and performer-friendly.

P&C: That’s terrific. Can you tell us a little about the workshops you’ll be offering?

CM: Sure. Depending on when everybody comes in, we have workshops on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes if a performer can only come on theTuesday or Wednesday we’ll do another workshop during the week for some of our local improvisers, but our main workshops take place during the day.

P&C: Nice. Now, switching gears for a moment, because you’re relatively close to Toronto you’ve had a number of Canadians attend the festival. Do you notice any difference between US and Canadian performers’ styles?

P&C: I think it’s great for Canadians that you have such a rich offering of performers that a lot of us may not get a chance to see very easily or very often, so it’s nice that you also enjoy what Toronto has to offer.

OK, last but not least, DIF is a non-profit. Can you give us a bit of background on that?

Over the past couple years we’ve partnered with Gilda’s Club of Metro Detroit, to help produce the festival; they’re actively involved. We do monthly workshops at Gilda’s Club, and we help out whenever possible.

P&C: That’s fantastic. Well, thanks for your time Chris, and break a leg in August!