Innovative improv

If you're sick of the same ol' types of improv (sports themed, trivia, game show), here's a totally free-form group that promises to be “unthinkable,” according to its flyer: Wet the Hippo is presented by the Los Angeles-based improv group the Idiot Workshop, and directed by John Gilkey, once a lead clown in Cirque du Soleil—at least according to a press release. The show features nine Los Angeles performers, plus one concert violinist (or perhaps just a regular violinist—this fact is unclear based on the unreliability of the troupe's website biography). One thing we do know is that Wet the Hippo was nominated for Best Comedy at the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival (there is actual sourcable evidence for this) and that a press release calls the 18-and-over production an “edgy, improvised show”—whatever that means. Wet the Hippo, 9 p.m. Friday, August 23; $10. Smith Flat House, 2021 Smith Flat Road in Placerville; www.wetthehippo.com.