The 404s had a smashing spring season, and have lots to look forward to in the next few months! Here’s a snapshot of what’s been happening on both sides of the country:

EASTSIDE CAST

The Eastsiders had a great spring, doing the new Con-G anime convention in Guelph and pitching in at a couple of improv fundraisers: a fire victims charity event in Mississauga (with our improv friends The Basement Kids) and the “Shortbus Improv” fundraiser helping out the Imperial Court of Hamilton-Wentworth. They topped the spring off with a ginourmous set of shows at the Eastside’s flagship event, Anime North: four performances plus a ton of appearances around the con! The event also reunited the Eastsiders with some of the Westside cast that guaranteed an awesome time, culminating with a record crowd of a thousand people in the audience at the late-nite show on Saturday!

WESTSIDE CAST

The Westsiders were no less busy, bringing in a bunch of new talent to mesh with existing veterans to form a great new dynamic cast that has won over new and old fans at their shows. In addition to two great high-school anime events in Edmonton (Soba-Bowl and Haru Fest), they headed up improv shows at the Cal-Con gaming convention in Calgary and of course the huge shows at the Otafest anime con in Calgary, and the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo! The latter was a special treat, as we welcomed improv veteran and comic writer Ian Boothby to play with us, and we’re happy to report he loved jamming with us as much as you did!

WHAT’S COMING

The 404s have never slowed down during the summer season, and this year we’ve got some big performances in store with tons of chances for audiences to join in the fun. On the Eastside, there’s a trio of shows at the brand-new ConBravo anime con in early July, followed by our annual roadtrip to Montreal in August for the biggest anime bash in Quebec: Otakuthon, which features our own Irulanne as a special musical guest! Meanwhile the Westsiders are practicing hard for our flagship show at Animethon in Edmonton, where the legend began. The fall brings more shows in Ottawa, Calgary and some exciting announcements expected where you’ll be able to see even more 404s action around the country.

And of course, summer is when we start booking for the Christmas party season! We have a long and successful track record of entertaining corporate crowds at office parties workshops and all sorts of work-related events. Check out the appropriate pages on this site for details on hiring The 404s for your corporate training or entertainment needs!

As always, stay tuned to the404s.com, and following “the404s” on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube for the latest news and videos of our shows!

Our Friends at Cal-Con, Calgary’s premiere gaming event, have given us some tickets to the event on March 26-28! We’ve decided to hold a quick ‘n’ dirty contest for them, that’ll help us out as well.

To enter our contest, write up your own “Scene From a Hat” – a suggestion for a scene you’d like to see The 404s act out in a show. Some of our great SFAH suggestions over the years have included:

- If people got to meet video game characters in real life
- Sci-Fi crossovers you don’t want to see
- Stuck in the elevator at an anime convention

E-mail YOUR suggestions to us at info@the404s.com with your contact information (or just post it on our Facebook page) by March 24. We’ll pick our winners for the tickets, AND use the winning suggestions in an upcoming improv show!

Good luck, and we look forward to the replies!

When Tim & Dany played a game of two-headed expert at Con-G in Guelph,
the audience suggested they be experts on tomfoolery. Through the
magic that is improvisation, they ended up explaining that the best
method to commit tomfoolery was to get monkeys to light puppies on
fire.

One of our audience members, a talented artist named Jodi Serge,
approached The 404s at the end of the show, presenting us with
drawing: “I just couldn’t get the image out of my head and had to get
it down as a drawing”. I’m not sure if that speaks well for our comedy
stylings, but we’re just happy no-one in Guelph drew the ‘made-up
olympic event’ skit, “Washing Grandmas”.

To see more of Jodi’s art, check out her website at
http://jkstudios.weebly.com/.

We’re at Soba-Bowl IV in Edmonton next weekend! Our 2010 season premiere will be sure to entertain, with several new members joining some of our veteran players at two events in the afternoon – read the details below. See you there!

When: Saturday, March 13

Where: Harry Ainley High School, Edmonton  - MAP HERE

Link to the Soba-Bowl website HERE!

Improv Workshop With The 404s – 1:30pm

Ever wonder how The 404s create their crazy comedy? Join members of the group for an informative session on improv comedy theory and exercise, then stick around and participate in some improv practice games!

Anime Improv With The 404s! – 4:00pm

Back after two years! The 404s are Canada’s group of improv comedy maniacs who have been entertaining crowds around Canada and the US since 2003. Come to our show this afternoon and watch as our team performs their classic anime-inspired improv comedy show, using your suggestions as a guide – and be ready for your chance to join in!

The 404s had their February auditions recently, and we had a grand ole time. New talent was discovered, old talent was impressed, and some longtime fans of The 404s were tested to see if they could become part of the team. Thanks to everyone who auditioned, and we’ll be announcing the new members of the Westside cast shortly!

It’s a late addition, but a worthwhile one! The 404s have been entertaining the crowds at the Bellerose Student Anime Festival for several years now, and we’ve always been happy to return to their cavernous main events stage. Looking forward to this weekend – see you there!

Location: Bellerose Composite High School – 49 Giroux Road, St. Albert
Date: Saturday, October 24
Showtime: 4:00-5:00pm
Website: http://www.bellerosecon.com/

Next event : Naru 2 U / October 9th-11th 2009 / Ottawa ON

Schedule (subject to change) :

Saturday 1h00 PM – Regular Show
Saturday Midnight – Late night show
Sunday 3h00 PM – Show before Closing Ceremonies

The 404s have come and gone once more at Animethon, Edmonton’s annual celebration of Japanese Animation. We were there for three shows of anme-inspired improv madness, plus a performance of “The 99 Yen Challenge”, our comedy gameshow. Thanks to the divine power of YouTube, we’re posting a bunch of clips from the weekend. Enjoy!

A big fat THANK YOU to the hundreds of fans who came to our shows, we really loved having you with us!

We’ve been working hard at putting up two of the shows we did recently at AnimeNorth 2009 in their entirety. More stuff coming – enjoy the vids, the laughs, and the ridiculous acronyms!

The Saturday Night Improv Faceoff (SNIF!)

The Anime Improv Extreme Elimination Extravagganza (AIEEE)!

As we work out the kinks of the new format, be sure to re-bookmark the404s.com for lots of funky-phresh new content on the website, including:

- New Youtube videos embedded on the site
- Updated bios from our current and new performers
- Pics on the website that were taken LATER than 2003
- An easily-updated calendar of current and upcoming shows
- And more!

This is WAY easier to update than the old site, which was all hard-coded HTML which the webmaster had trouble remembering between major updates. Hooray for other people doing back-end stuff an distributing it for free!