IRTE: Chris O’Neill and Tony Bozanich by Jen Bush

The Improvisational Theatre Repertory Ensemble, LLC, is an award-winning group consisting of comedy actors and writers.  They create, produce and perform a season of original themed improvisational shows.  This season they are planning to “wow” you with their newest work entitled Wow Wee! Adventures of a Little Girl Killbot Christmas Special!  It’s a post-apocalyptic 80’s sitcom Christmas special.  Wow wee indeed!  Let’s meet some of the cast members.

Chris O’Neill is IRTE’s newest cast member.  He will be playing Dylan Hoover, the last teenage boy left on earth.  This multi-talented artist is also a personal trainer.  He can simultaneously sing to you and make you laugh while he’s whipping you into shape. 

Chris is a Meisner trained actor who has been doing improv for 15+ years. He’s trained with The Upright Citizen’s Brigade and was a longtime member of the Improvisation News team, where he also taught sketch-writing. A trained singer as well, Chris has performed musical theatre Off-Broadway and across the country in various regional productions and tours. When not on-stage Chris is a personal trainer with a confusing relationship to traffic cones.

Now that we are somewhat emerging from the pandemic, each cast member weighed in on what “funny” looks like in this new paradigm.  Here is what Chris had to say.  “Funny looks like calling it like it is–we have collectively been through some shit and the best way to heal is through humor. Write a Tiger King musical. Write the Omicron-icles of Narnia. Celebrate Britney’s freedom by making an insane Instagram tribute video. Time has no meaning anymore so we might as well embrace this new iteration of the multiverse we find ourselves in.”

Tony Bozanich plays Dr. Larry Truman, the inventor and “father” of Andie the Android.  He’s a dedicated improv artist with solid improv and theatre experience.

Tony Bozanich is an actor, comedian, and improviser living in New York City.  His theater credits include The Court Martial of Admiral Montojo, A Therapy Session With Myself, and Sigh No More as well as four different productions with IRTE.  He trained at the Barrow Group, Annoyance Theater, and Upright Citizens Brigade after dropping out of a PhD program in Italian Renaissance history at the Warburg Institute in London.  He can currently be seen performing improv all around the city.

Here is his answer to what “funny” looks like now.  “Now that the plague is behind us, “funny” means we can stop pretending to like zoom.  Zoom is a very bad app that we’ve been Stockholm Syndromed into appreciating because it gave us an outlet to not go completely psycho during the initial lockdown. But those days are over. So put on your pants and go out to a live show.”