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>>ANCHOR: New on Fox tonight, a brand new festival kicked off this evening in Rochester.
It's bringing talent from all over America the area, and the goal is to keep us laughing.
Mark Gruba went to the first performance, and he's here to tell us all about it. Mark?
>>REPORTER: Well, Kevin, it's called the Fall Back Comedy Festival. It's being held at a
studio called The Space in Rochester. Ninety-six performers from outside our area have been
booked for this festival, which runs through Sunday. But it's really a chance for the Rochester
comedy scene to leave 'em laughing. Roger Dube is an RIT physics professor by day, improv
comedian by night.
>>ROGER DUBE: It's kind of like a palate cleanser. It's like, okay, take your mind out of physics
and now do something entirely different, totally creative, totally spontaneous, no way to rehearse
or practice, you just go do it.
>>REPORTER: Dozens of local improv comedians make up the Rochester comedy scene and call
The Space, located on East Main Street and Goodman Street in the city, home.
>>DEWEY LOVETT: Everyone knows this as the place to come if you want to grow, whether
you're just planting your little improv seed or you've been doing it for a long time.
>>REPORTER: Tonight through Sunday, The Space is hosting the first Fall Back Comedy Festival,
featuring a mix of local talent and improv troupes from New York, Boston, Atlanta and
Toronto.
>>LAW TARELLO: We just reached out to the people that we know and love and said, hey,
you want to come to Rochester for a week and show our city what you've got, and most people
responded really positively.
>>REPORTER: The Festival will showcase long form improv and standup comedy. Saturday and
Sunday instructors from Chicago's famed Second City will be conducting workshops.
>>ROGER DUBE: You get to see them first hand, you get to work with them, you get to talk
to them, you get to see how they handle things, and all of this is inspiration.
>>REPORTER: Most said they take the stage for the sheer joy of performing, and the rush
it provides.
>DEWEY LOVETT: I guess it's a release to just be allowed to be completely goofy and satirical
at the same time.
>>LAW TARELLO: There's no scripting involved in anything that we do.
>>ROGER DUBE: If you go in with a preconceived notion of anything that can actually cripple
you, so it's really much better to just cruise in there, with nothing in mind.
>>REPORTER: And festival producer Law Tarello grew up in Brooklyn by the way and he's performed
professionally for years. He began teaching in Rochester three years ago, and he said
in cities like New York, comedy is about competition, while here in Rochester, he says, it's more
about collaboration. Mark Gruba, Fox First at 10.
>>ANCHOR: Thanks Mark. A lot of laughs all week long.