Get Up

Get Up
Years Active	2005-Present
Cast	Shana Merlin Shannon McCormick Sara Farr

Get Up is an improv duo.

Summary

Get Up members Shana Merlin and Shannon McCormick have been working together in different improv troupes, such as The Heroes of Comedy, and performances, such as No Shame Theatre, since 2002. In 2005, they decided to get rid of all the dead weight and form a two-person improv troupe. In their debut show at FronteraFest 2005, they won Best of the Week with their original format "24 (minutes)," an improvised parody of the hit show "24," where they solve a matter of national security in exactly 24 minutes while the clock is ticking onstage. Later that year in "The Giants of Austin Improv Show", they debuted their format "Fast Forward," where they interview an audience member and turn his life into an action adventure thriller. In 2006 they added sound improviser Sara Farr to their ensemble to provide a live soundtrack and scoring to Shannon and Shana's improvised stories. Get Up's latest format begins with the audience randomly selecting the theme music for the show, listening to it, offering ideas as to what images the music suggests and the performers use that as inspiration for a improvised comedic one act play.

History

Here is Shannon McCormick's explanation of the name's origin:

No one knows this, but Get Up got on our list of possible names when Shana and I were riffing because it was an acronym, kinda, for GTP, Gnap! Theater Projects. GTP=Get Up. Of all our ideas we liked that one the best because of the multiple colloquial meanings of 'get up'--costume, dance, what you say to someone after you've punched them in the face.

Media

Videos

• Video of their 8/29/08 show at The 2008 Out of Bounds Comedy Festival.
• Video of their 9/6/09 show at The 2009 Out of Bounds Comedy Festival.
• Video of their performance in The 2011 Improvised Play Festival.

Photos

• Photoset by Michael Yew that includes their 6/18/10 performance.
• Photoset by Roy Moore that includes their 8/14/10 performance at The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Roy Moore that includes their 8/21/10 performance at The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Roy Moore of their 9/2/10 performance at The 2010 Out of Bounds Comedy Festival.
• Photoset by Roy Moore that includes their 2/19/11 performance at the 2011 Gnap! Homecoming Party.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers of their 4/9/11 show.
• Photoset by Roy Moore that includes their 6/11/11 show at The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Michael Yew that includes their 7/1/11 show at The 2011 Improvised Play Festival.
• Photoset by Roy Moore that includes their 9/10/11 show at The Saturday Night Special.
  • Another photoset by Michael Yew that includes that same performance.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers of their 10/8/11 show at The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Michael Yew that includes their 1/8/12 performance at the "Five Families" night at The Institution Theater.
• Photoset by Roy Moore that includes their performance in the 2012 WaffleFest.
  • Photoset by Heidi Rogers that includes the same show.
• Photoset by Michael Yew which includes their 12/8/12 performance in The Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers of their 12/22/12 show at the last Saturday Night Special.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers of their 4/12/13 show at The 2013 Improvised Play Festival.
• Photoset by Claudio Fox that includes their performance in The 2013 Out of Bounds Comedy Festival.
• Photoset by Claudio Fox that includes their performance in WaffleFest 2013.
• Photoset by Chris Curl of their perfromance at The 2014 Out of Bounds Comedy Festival.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers that includes their 11/21/14 performance in WaffleFest 2014.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers which includes their 9/2/15 performance in The 2015 Out of Bounds Comedy Festival.

More Info

• Get Up's website