The Stagebenders are an interesting blend of standup, improvisational sketch with a little bit of “Whose Line is it Anyway?” thrown in. When you toss in what ideas that the crowd want to see and hear you get some pretty off-the-wall skits.

Gust Alexander and Kim Thomassen, The Improv headliners through Sunday, Nov. 8, are two fun lovin’ guys who hail from Minnesota and have often been compared to that of a contemporary Abbott and Costello (more like two Costellos).
Jeff Burghart, who has a variety of impressions, opens the show.

Kim and Gust started out separately with theater arts and acting backgrounds. But they were junior high school buddies who liked to make each other laugh. They realized they were better off as a team than as solo acts and poof: The Stagebenders were launched. Over the years The ’Benders have fashioned themselves into a nonstop, fast-paced hurricane of interactive comedy duo that has to be experienced to be believed. It’s safe to say that after some two decades of being together their act has been honed to perfection.

They’ve developed an almost cult like following that over the years has grown to include actress Geena Davis, the Kinks and Improv founder Budd Friedman.

Television and film appearances include “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” ABC’s “America’s Funniest People,” MTV’s “The Jenny McCarthy Show,” filmmaker Roger Nygard’s “Trekkies 2” and the Coen Brothers’ “The Naked Man.”
They have been featured in national publications such as Esquire and, believe it or not, Mechanical Engineering. “The Stagebenders TV Show” hopefully gets picked up, but if not they have each other to fall back on. Wait. If one of them falls it could be a while to get them back up again! I say that with true affection because they’re just fun to be with both on and off stage.

When I bring them up on stage I usually refer to them as “700 pounds of Las Vegas showgirls rolled up into two, bald, fat chubby guys who are the funniest duo on the planet.”