Big Stinkin' International Improv & Sketch Comedy Festival

1996 The festival was launched in 1996 by Marc Pruter and colleagues in Monks’ Night Out. Contemporary coverage later described Pruter and Jon Wiley as seminal forces in turning the idea for the festival into a reality. According to The Austin Chronicle, the inaugural festival featured around 20 improv and sketch troupes from cities including Atlanta, Chicago, and San Jose, presented across eight shows over five nights. The same source reported that talent scouts from Disney, Comedy Central, and Trimark attended the debut festival. The festival also included daytime improv workshops, with The Austin Chronicle identifying Gary Austin, Del Close, Mick Napier, David Koechner, and Adam McKay among the visiting instructors. Koechner and McKay, then associated with Saturday Night Live, also emceed shows. 1997 By 1997, the second festival had expanded into a five-day event running from May 20 to May 24. The Austin American-Statesman described BS2 as offering improvisation and sketch shows, workshops, industry representatives, and discussions on improvisational performance. Co-hosted by Monks’ Night Out and the University of Texas student improv organization Only 90% Effective, the festival featured groups including The State, Monteith and Rand, Mumblypeg, Screw Puppies, The Second City, Fools Play, Theatre Strike Force, Transactors, Recess, MISSION IMPROVable, The Impromptones, and 4 Out of 5 Docs. The 1997 festival also included a substantial workshop program. The Austin American-Statesman reported that Joe Bill led a workshop on Annoyance-style improv, James Bailey led a musical improvisation workshop, Paul Sills taught Spolin Games, Michael Gellman and Martin deMaat guided participants on advanced long-form, John Monteith and Suzanne Rand taught “Doing It With Two,” and Keith Privett led “The Tao of Improv.” Festival artistic director Jon Wiley said attendance had grown from around 100 people in 1996 to at least 275 in 1997, and that industry representatives from HBO, MTV, CBS, NBC, Fox, VH1, and Comedy Central were expected to attend. Accounts from performers have also described the 1997 festival as a point of industry exposure, with comedian Alex Borstein later stating that a MADtv casting agent saw her perform there with Los Angeles–based ACME Comedy Theatre, leading to auditions for the show. 1998 By its third year, the festival was drawing larger crowds and broader notice. A 1999 retrospective in The Austin Chronicle recalled that one of the standout 1998 performances took place at the Dougherty Arts Center and featured Los Angeles troupe Houseful of Honkeys with special guest Fred Willard. An October 1998 article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the 1998 festival had been sponsored in part by Comedy Central and Time Warner Cable. A May 1998 article in The Christian Science Monitor identified Ed Carter as executive producer of the festival and reported that the musical improv group the Impromptones—Jeff Davis, Joe Whyte, James Thomas Bailey, and Michael Pollock—had performed at Carter's April festival, where they received a standing ovation from their peers. 1999 The fourth and final festival, held in 1999, was billed as the '''Big Stinkin' International Improv & Sketch Comedy Festival 4'. The Austin Chronicle'' reported that it ran for six days, featured about 55 comedy troupes, and included gala events at larger venues alongside showcase bills at smaller clubs and theatres. The festival's programming that year included cast members from MADtv and Whose Line Is It Anyway?, as well as Austin's Monks' Night Out and touring improv and sketch groups from outside Texas. The 1999 edition also included tie-in events beyond live stage comedy. The Austin Chronicle reported that "King of the Hill Day" served as the official kickoff to the week-long festival, with a public barbecue at Auditorium Shores and a Paramount Theatre screening connected to the animated television series King of the Hill. == Scale and programming ==

Contemporary coverage of the 1999 festival described Big Stinkin' as the continent's third-largest comedy festival, behind Aspen and Montreal, and reported that the fourth festival drew about 12,000 attendees and 60 troupes from the United States and abroad. The Austin Chronicle wrote that by 1999 the festival had grown to nearly 60 separate shows, including six gala shows at the Paramount Theatre, and had secured sponsorship from Comedy Central, Jose Cuervo, RC Cola, and Time Warner Cable. A later Chronicle history of Austin comedy festivals described Big Stinkin' at its peak as showcasing more than 50 comedy troupes from coast to coast and featuring guests such as Fred Willard, Stephen Root, Wayne Brady, Chris Kattan, Ana Gasteyer, Alex Borstein, Will Sasso, Michael McDonald, Mo Collins, Phil LaMarr, and Nicole Sullivan. == Closure and legacy ==

Plans for a fifth festival in 2000 did not materialize. In a 2001 retrospective, The Austin Chronicle reported that Ed Carter, who had acquired the festival in 1998 and served as its sole financier and executive producer, took a major financial loss after the 1999 festival fell short monetarily. The same article said that Carter postponed the 2000 edition while seeking a financially stable partner, but the event did not return. Later coverage has treated Big Stinkin' as an important precursor in Austin's comedy-festival history. In 2012, The Austin Chronicle called it the "granpappy" of later April comedy festivals in Austin and identified its collapse in 1999 as a turning point before other local festivals emerged in later years. It has also been described in later media coverage as among the earliest major improv festival gatherings in the United States. == See also ==