A local comedy duo is looking to help Stratford residents get into the holiday spirit with three nights of season-themed improv shows at a local café.

While Rebecca Northan and Kevin Kruchkywich are both Stratford Festival regulars, and work in stage productions across Canada, the friends also have nearly 30 years together in the improv scene.

“We’re both professional actors, but we also have this improv habit that we can’t let go of. And we often, in our careers, go off and do other stuff, but when we’re back together at the same town, we go, ‘Hey, let’s try it out,” Northan said.

The pair first met 28 years ago when Northan saw Kruchkywich performing comedy in Edmonton, and they eventually worked together at two different comedy clubs. They will bring that experience to Brch & Wyn, a Downie Street coffee and wine bar, next week. While their stage careers take up the bulk of their professional time, the “danger” of improv keeps them coming back for more, Kruchkywich said

“You don’t know what you’re about to say generally, and the chances of failing are really high, so when you succeed, it’s really joyous, and everybody loves it. And when you fail, it’s also really joyous, and everybody loves it even more,” he added.

For Northan, improv is the closest thing to hanging out with friends in public and getting to mess with each others’ imaginations.

“I think the addictive part of it is that when it goes well, nobody can believe you’re improvising. And when you’re in the middle of improv, and it’s going well, you actually feel high from it. I do. You get this, like, crazy rush of adrenaline and dopamine,” said Northan, who compared improv to jumping out of an airplane without a parachute.

“You hope, and you hold hands on the way down, and then we built a parachute before we plummeted to our own death, so there’s a great celebration,” the Canadian Comedy Award winner said.

However, the pair does rely on their theatre experience to create longer scenes than most improv fans might be used to. It’s typical of the two to create a one-act play (around 35 minutes), have an intermission, and then resolve the conflict that was set up in the first half. While Northan’s strength is in building a narrative, Kruchkywich is the stronger actor, the pair explained.

“We’re more satisfied with building relationship and character, I think, than a quick joke,” Kruchkywich said.

While the pair will draw on suggestions from the audience, it’s usually the more mundane ideas that go further rather than the more outrageous ideas.

“Usually, the most outrageous doesn’t go anywhere because it’s just outrageous in and of itself, and that kind of gets a laugh, but it’s so outrageous it doesn’t do anything. . . . If you’re standing in the scene and you have guns drawn on each other, and you pick up a slip of paper that says, ‘I love you,’ then it takes us off somewhere,” Kruchkywich said.

While the Stratford audience has not had a lot of exposure to professional improv, there may be a chance to build something more when the Stratford Festival is in its offseason, Northan said.

“So just like through the darkest, coldest, saddest months of winter and into the spring, when the folks who live here maybe really want or need something to do, that’s where we can (come in).”

While Kruchkywich said he’s unsure where it will go, the duo will continue to offer similar improv shows and see where it goes.

“I’m really loving the response from locals, so that’s great if it turns into something more regular. I think that’s fantastic. If it turns into a multinational empire, that’s OK,” he said with a laugh.

The Deck Yer Halls show runs from Dec. 11 to Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the door, Brch & Wyn, 245 Downie Street.

By Bill Atwood for www.stratfordbeaconherald.com.