Shopping centers like Fashion Square and Seminole Towne Center are swiftly falling by the wayside, but you can recapture the days of hanging out in the food court with your side-splitting smartass friends at Orlando Fringe thanks to MallRatz, a Whose Line Is It Anyway?-esque troupe of sharp short-form improvisers.
After an awkward “open rehearsal” introduction, the six-member team — led by director Darnell Kreuzer and MC Julia Famiglietti — quickly launches into a series of gamified skits fueled by audience suggestions, several of which will be familiar to Sak Comedy Lab attendees.
The energetically paced segments are wisely never allowed to outstay their welcomes, and these impressive improvisers are adept at both verbal and physical comedy, as well as freestyle rap battling (dominated by Franco Laboy) and death metal scatting (ably accompanied by keyboardist Anthony Riley). At the press preview they made a few questionable choices — a room full of white people laughing at misunderstood Spanish translations is a bit sus, if not cancellation-worthy — but good improv comedy always treads a fine line between delight and disaster, and the MallRatz manage to land on the funny side of it more often than not.
MallRatz Improv: Laughter on the Fringe
Blue Venue, Lowndes Shakespeare Center
60 minutes; all ages
$10
Get tickets
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This article appears in May 14-20, 2025.