Dad’s Garage goes big at Fox with latest fundraiser

Last year, Dad's Garage held two sold-out major fundraising shows at the Goat Farm Arts Center, drawing a total of 1,400 people.

This year, the esteemed Atlanta improv comedy troupe decided to go even bigger by holding its latest fundraiser at the Fabulous Fox Theatre, which can fit more than 4,500 people.

“I’m excited for the shows now,” Dad’s Garage artistic director Kevin Gillese said a few days before the show this Saturday. “I was nervous last week because everyone I talked to was like, ‘Wow! The Fox? That’s ambitious. Good luck!’ I was like, ‘Are we gonna be the comedy Icarus who flew too close to the sun?’ But everything’s coming together.”

Aware they needed to sell even more tickets than last year, the cast and crew worked their Rolodexes seeking comedians and actors who would join them for Dad’s Garage and Friends.

They ended up nabbing several respected comedians, including Fred Willard (“Best in Show,” “Anchorman”), Colin Mochrie (“Whose Line Is It Anyway?”), Gary Anthony Williams (“Malcolm in the Middle,” “The Boondocks”) and Cedric Yarbrough (“Reno 911”).

The first half of the show will be an “epic variety show,” Gillese said.

There will be songs, a dance number, animated bits and improv games. “We tried to put all of our favorite bits together,” Gillese said.

Dad's Garage is also planning a live homage to the recent Adult Swim viral video "Too Many Cooks," which featured 68 extras, a serial killer and a ridiculously catchy fake sitcom theme song that sounds like it was salvaged from a 1990s "Full House" time vault. (The video has been viewed more than 8 million times on YouTube.)

“I remember rehearsals for our Christmas show last year, and we all took a break to watch it together,” Gillese said. “It had a big impact on us.”

The second half will feature the celebrity guests doing improv games with the cast. “To me, getting to see the likes of Colin and Fred improvising live is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Gillese said. “They’re just such icons of hilarity.”

Gillese, who has been artistic director since 2010, met Mochrie a few years ago at a comedy festival and invited him to Atlanta. Mochrie has since flown down from his home in Toronto to do several fundraising shows for Dad’s Garage.

“It’s a great group of improvisers,” said Mochrie, 57, who has starred in different incarnations of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” in the U.K. (1988-1996), ABC (1998-2004), ABC Family (2005-2007) and the CW (2013 to the present). “I’ll do anything for them. They’re world-class!”

Williams, who grew up in Fayetteville and lived in Atlanta from 1987 to 1998, performed improv with Laughing Matters, another Atlanta troupe, but learned about the Dad’s Garage guys near the end of his time in Atlanta. He now works with Mochrie on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and performs in a group called The Black Version in Los Angeles. So for him, doing the fundraiser was a great excuse to show off his improv chops to a hometown crowd.

As for Willard, Gillese credits one of Dad’s Garage founders, Matt Young, for hooking them up. Willard first visited Dad’s Garage last fall for some shows and said he enjoyed it so much, he decided to come back.