CRUMBS

HELLO

MY NAME IS:

CRUMBS is an internationally renowned improvisational theatre company based out of Winnipeg, Canada. The company is made up of two actors, Stephen Sim and Lee White, they have been working together in theatre and comedy since 1990. They started CRUMBS in 1997, unhappy with the state of comedy in the world. They slowly made a name for themselves improvising shows across Canada and Europe. They currently are working with the amazing DJ Hunnicutt who improvises a live soundtrack, enhancing the whole experience. CRUMBS performs a blend of several improv styles that they have stolen from all their travels and from all the groups and talented players they have worked with. This all mixes together with their own freeform style, so we would like to thank everyone for making us better.

A CRUMBS show can be as short as a 5 minute set, or as long as a 3 hour show. They will usually ask the audience to inspire them with a couple of words at the beginning of the show, and then they use that as a launching pad into their world, taking you along for the ride... or forgetting and ignoring your suggestion and taking you on another ride just for kicks.

A CRUMBS show is both funny and touching, from comedy to tragedy, from realism to the absurd, a CRUMBS show is improvised theatre like you have never seen, unless you have seen them, in which case you are already a fan... "Once again, Winnipeg's perennial improvisational sharpshooters manage to hit the comedic bull's-eye with no target in sight."
**** - Carolin Vesely, Winnipeg Free Press
"-a masterful feat for improv."
***** - Gabrielle Giroday, Winnipeg Free Press
"Stephen Sim and Lee White are at the height of their improv powers" "It's hard to say what makes CRUMBS so good. Maybe it's the zen-like concentration with which they juggle their multiple characters. Or maybe it's their uncanny ability to build ridiculous metaphors on the fly. Or maybe it's the way they make the audience complicit in the process of creating comedy, so even when they step out of character, hilarious things happen. Whatever the reason, the CRUMBS are on fire."
***** - Iris Yudai, CBC
"They've turned down the suck and turned the funny up to 11."
A+ - Brendon Ehinger, Uptown Magazine
" If the banal "Who's Line is it Anyway" is Kenny G., The Crumbs are Charlie Parker."
***** -Al Rea, CBC Radio & Artistic Director of the CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival
www.crumbs.ca
Steve Sim: Stephen Sim has been performing improv and comedy as a coping mechanism all his life. Finally joining an actual troupe in 1992 and performing in actual public shows, he has not looked back since--but he says he mostly does it so as not to see the wasted life behind him. Our Stevie is a very busy Improv man. Some might call him an Improv "maniac" or even a "guru", in the Timothy Leary sense (the clinical term is Obsessive Compulsive Sponteniety Disorder. Steve is currently under court order to recieve treatment and has been on the run from the law since June of 1996.) Along with doing CRUMBS (and various other improv jam shows) he teaches improv at Prairie Theatre Exchange--has taught across Canada and in Europe--started and still runs the Winnipeg Improv Festival, AND runs the Manitoba Improv League in association with the Canadian Improv Games. Jesus eh? Stephen also has been experimenting with stand-up comedy. Which is frightening, but most say he's getting quite good at it. Stephen hopes to one day make something of himself and then look back on his life and smile. Lee White: Lee White started performing on the vaudeville stage at the age of 5, tap dancing and singing Rick Springfield songs, with his partner the late Sheker Migiller. At the age of ten Lee hit the streets of Budapest, basket weaving for tips. But after 3 years and the great Budapest basket fires, he was forced to flee to the sheep fields of Egypt. Hiding as a sheep he fled to his homeland Manitoba where after years of radiation therapy was awarded fanciest pantsed lad in all the land. He then used that fame to launch his acting career. After receiving poor reviews in the starring role at Rainbow Stages production of Fat Albert and the Gang he joined CRUMBS in 1997 to many peoples notice.

CRUMBS

Home: Winnipeg

Performing: Steve Sim & Lee White