The Valley’s only improv troupe that incorporates film, Phoenix Neutrino Project, celebrates its one-year anniversary Sept. 15 at The Paper Heart.

The Neutrino Project, which has troupes all over the nation, takes three props from the audience, divides into groups and films three scenes that create a brand-new story every time.

Members of several Valley improv troupes participate with Phoenix Neutrino Project every month, and director Mark Jordan said he’s happy with the way the project has worked to unify Arizona improvisers and bring film and improv together.

“In the improv community, everything we’d done was all stage stuff,” Jordan, 30, said. “It took those two medias and combined them together and brought together those two individual groups that don’t usually work together.”

For the next year, the troupe hopes to land more corporate gigs while continuing their monthly stint at The Paper Heart. Jordan said compared to other forms of improv, Phoenix Neutrino Project actors must be grounded in reality because they are filming true-to-life scenes.

“The absurdity that usually goes well with an improviser usually doesn’t work well with a Neutrino actor because you can pretend to be a 20-foot tall giant on-stage in an improv show, but there’s no way you can pretend to be that in a Neutrino show because it doesn’t work,” Jordan said.

The group has managed to gain a steady audience throughout its run so far, and though the members are proud to be recognized as a strong art form in the Valley, Jordan said they’re looking forward to the anniversary show for another reason: cake.

“It’s like getting a sticker in elementary school—even though it’s a little piece of paper with goo on the back of it, it makes you so excited,” Jordan said. “For some odd reason, cake makes people happy, so we’re excited about the cake. Hopefully it’s going to be a good celebration and come full circle with our year and celebrate the fact we’ve been successful.”

Watch former Phoenix Neutrino Project films at www.phoenixneutrino.com.

Mark Jordan’s Phoenix Neutrino Project memories

Funniest moment:

“Jose Gonzalez’s character was against the corporate America view of Starbucks and everything they stood for, and at the same time, he was against how the diamond mines were dictating not only people’s lives in Africa, but he had a political standpoint about commercialism and how that affects love. So, he’s at Starbucks with his girlfriend, and he’s complaining about that, and they get into a huge fight, and Bob Fisher happens to be there. Through the course of this argument, Jose and Jacque Arend end up breaking up at Starbucks, and Bob’s character ends up picking up on Jacque, and in the middle of their scene, Jose comes back to fight for not only his girlfriend but the viewpoint of Starbucks being totally commercial and DeBeers ruining the world with their diamonds. They start to get into a fight, and Bob leaves the fight, and then Jose and Jacque’s characters continue to argue, and in the middle of the argument, Bob’s character comes up and hits Jose with a parking cone he found on the side of the building. When he hits Jose with the parking cone, he says, ‘How ‘bout this?’, and right then, out of the shadows, a cop comes and says, ‘Well, how ‘bout this?’ and grabs Bob by the shoulders, and Bob instantly turns scared and says, ‘We’re filming a movie, we’re filming a movie.’ You can see the cop go instantly from angry to happy in a matter of mere moments. All of a sudden (the cop) starts laughing and puts his hands on his pockets, and it’s completely a funny moment that he’s about to throw Bob on the ground and stun gun him, and then he goes instantly from that to not. No one got arrested, no one got hurt, and it was high-drama, high-comedy, and everything came out perfect in that scene.”

Scariest moment:

“We have bounties we put on scenes, and if you do certain things, you can get a bounty for it. One of the bounties we had was filming a scene in the Holsum Bakery of Arizona. If anyone could ever film a scene there, we’d give you $20. (The group) was over there in the bread factory, and it’s like the beginning of Laverne & Shirley when the beer bottles that go by, except, it’s bread. There’s bread on these conveyor belts just zipping by, and they’re standing there, and all of a sudden there’s this security guard just yelling at them to get out of the bread factory, and I was like, ‘Oh, God, somebody’s going to get arrested.’ I was a little scared for them, but I wasn’t on their team, so it was OK for me.”

Bit that didn’t pan out:

“We’ve had a few of them. One of them that sticks out in my mind is that somebody tried to film a La Ronde (type of improv), which is a circular scene, a scene that just goes into a circle. They tried to film it with a steering wheel cover, and the steering wheel cover represented the circular bit of the scene. Every time the person was in the scene, they’d stick their head inside the steering wheel cover, so both people were in the steering wheel cover that represented intimacy and also the La Ronde and a couple other things. It ended up not panning out, and the audience didn’t really get a chance to read it.”

Favorite prop:

“(My favorite prop was ) the Starbucks card. Earlier in that day, when we were out looking for possible locations, I was like, ‘Should we stop and see if Starbucks would let us film there?’ and that’s when Jose first started in on his rant that played out in his scene how he didn’t like Starbucks and hates everything they stand for. It started before we even got the card. We’re up there on-stage asking for props, and up flies a Starbucks gift card, so I was like, ‘Jose, we got to go to Starbucks,’ and he was like, ‘I know, I know.'”

Prop you haven’t used but want to:

“One of the things that is Neutrino folklore is, ‘If you give us your car keys, we’re going to use your car.’ No one’s ever thrown that up on-stage, and if they did, we would actually probably use someone’s car, but no one’s been silly enough to do it. I guess it’s been done in other places.”

Hardest prop to incorporate into a scene:

“We had a rolling pin last week, and it was really hard to do the rolling pin because it really didn’t fit in with where we were going. Tommy Schaeffer ended up rolling out chocolate pudding on a cutting board, and it was really awkward and didn’t really end up fitting in.”

What makes a good Neutrino actor:

“There is a certain amount of physical fitness that goes along. Everybody has to run. The runner has to be the most in-fit person in Neutrino. The runner runs back the tape, but everybody has to be in at least decent amount of shape. If they end up falling down and having a heart attack on the side walk, that would be very bad for the show.”

Phoenix Neutrino Project
September 15- 8 p.m.
$7
The Paper Heart
750 N.W. Grand Ave., Phoenix, 85004
www.phoenixneutrino.com