Once upon a time in the year 2015, three comedians came up with the idea to apply to a nearby Midwest convention as panelists to perform nerdy stand up comedy. For whatever reason (most likely poor judgement from the programming department), the panel was accepted, and its name was Show Us Your Pokeballs: A Nerdy Comedy Show.
The three comedians traveled to this convention and ran their show. Much to their shock and surprise, it went over pretty well and a lot of people laughed. So, they decided to apply as panelists at another Midwest anime convention and give it a second go. To their even bigger surprise, the show went well a second time. It wasn't a fluke! They were, in fact, actually funny.
Back at their home base known as the Quad Cities, the comedienne of the trio, Nikki Gillette, had greater dreams for their show. She reached out to a local venue booker/manager - Brett - and the two discussed producing the show locally on a grander scale at the Circa 21 Speakeasy in Rock Island, IL. Brett loved the idea and gave Nikki the green light. After reaching out to her dear friend and comedy mentor Josh Kahn, Show Us Your Pokeballs was officially produced as a large scale nerdy stand up comedy show, encompassing different geek culture themes, and ran productions throughout 2016. Nikki and Josh hosted, wrote, and produced the shows together.
As with all things, life happened, and eventually Josh and the original other two comedians moved on to other projects. 2017 was around the corner, and Nikki and Brett sat down to discuss the future of Show Us Your Pokeballs. Brett suggested the show take a different direction and become more of a variety show, encompassing the stand up, but also sketch and improv comedy. Not one to turn a grandiose idea down, Nikki went and recruited several of her comedically talented friends (many whom had never done ACTUAL comedy in their lives and were frankly terrified by Nikki's risk-taking), and together they wrote sketches and learned enough of the basics of improv to power through a show.
Then they did the show a second time, and decided variety shows were a nightmare to produce with a small group. But at least they tried.
From April 2017 - mid 2018, the band of young improvisers were without a home front. Not wanting to give up on what they created, they booked and performed their shows in bars and even guest performed at a few more anime conventions (they really, really loved doing the conventions by the way), all while honing their improv skills weekly under Nikki's instruction. While stand up remained a part of the troupe for a time, eventually Nikki realized that the true face of the brand had become her improv crew, and the decision was made to make Show Us Your Pokeballs exclusively an improv troupe. The acronym of SUYP (pronounced "soup") also became the more common way to refer to themselves.
Then, in June 2018, the group rented and performed at the Village Theatre in Davenport, IA. Their show went incredibly well, and caught the attention of the Theatre's owner, who then asked the troupe to perform more shows and make the Theatre their main performance space.
Finally, SUYP had a home again, and it has been their home base ever since.
In 2020, SUYP has made massive growth in directions Nikki never thought it would go. The troupe now performs shows for adult audiences and caters to family-friendly entertainment, and still travels around the nation performing at anime and comic conventions. In February 2020, the troupe will live to see its 5th birthday.
Nikki and her troupe hold nothing but gratitude in their hearts. Without those who came before the ones you might see on stage today, the path would never have been paved to where they are now.
The three comedians traveled to this convention and ran their show. Much to their shock and surprise, it went over pretty well and a lot of people laughed. So, they decided to apply as panelists at another Midwest anime convention and give it a second go. To their even bigger surprise, the show went well a second time. It wasn't a fluke! They were, in fact, actually funny.
Back at their home base known as the Quad Cities, the comedienne of the trio, Nikki Gillette, had greater dreams for their show. She reached out to a local venue booker/manager - Brett - and the two discussed producing the show locally on a grander scale at the Circa 21 Speakeasy in Rock Island, IL. Brett loved the idea and gave Nikki the green light. After reaching out to her dear friend and comedy mentor Josh Kahn, Show Us Your Pokeballs was officially produced as a large scale nerdy stand up comedy show, encompassing different geek culture themes, and ran productions throughout 2016. Nikki and Josh hosted, wrote, and produced the shows together.
As with all things, life happened, and eventually Josh and the original other two comedians moved on to other projects. 2017 was around the corner, and Nikki and Brett sat down to discuss the future of Show Us Your Pokeballs. Brett suggested the show take a different direction and become more of a variety show, encompassing the stand up, but also sketch and improv comedy. Not one to turn a grandiose idea down, Nikki went and recruited several of her comedically talented friends (many whom had never done ACTUAL comedy in their lives and were frankly terrified by Nikki's risk-taking), and together they wrote sketches and learned enough of the basics of improv to power through a show.
Then they did the show a second time, and decided variety shows were a nightmare to produce with a small group. But at least they tried.
From April 2017 - mid 2018, the band of young improvisers were without a home front. Not wanting to give up on what they created, they booked and performed their shows in bars and even guest performed at a few more anime conventions (they really, really loved doing the conventions by the way), all while honing their improv skills weekly under Nikki's instruction. While stand up remained a part of the troupe for a time, eventually Nikki realized that the true face of the brand had become her improv crew, and the decision was made to make Show Us Your Pokeballs exclusively an improv troupe. The acronym of SUYP (pronounced "soup") also became the more common way to refer to themselves.
Then, in June 2018, the group rented and performed at the Village Theatre in Davenport, IA. Their show went incredibly well, and caught the attention of the Theatre's owner, who then asked the troupe to perform more shows and make the Theatre their main performance space.
Finally, SUYP had a home again, and it has been their home base ever since.
In 2020, SUYP has made massive growth in directions Nikki never thought it would go. The troupe now performs shows for adult audiences and caters to family-friendly entertainment, and still travels around the nation performing at anime and comic conventions. In February 2020, the troupe will live to see its 5th birthday.
Nikki and her troupe hold nothing but gratitude in their hearts. Without those who came before the ones you might see on stage today, the path would never have been paved to where they are now.