This is the website for Comic Evangelists improv group.
This is NOT the website for the Comic Evangelists movie.
Please do not contact us unless you are interested in a fun lovin' group doing improv that celebrates the Lord!

So we just found out that the film that bears our name will be playing at the Indianapolis International Film Festival. I am saddened greatly by this. We consider the Midwest a holy place and regret that our own fellow region-dwellers saw fit to screen it again.

Rick and a few of our friends will be going down to Indianapolis to protest the film. Please join us!

In solidarity,

Noah Fillobien


PS: Here's a press release that Rick put together. Please share it!

FILM STARS PROTEST THEIR OWN MOVIE AT INDY INT’L FILM FEST
Christian Improv troupe objects to their portrayal in film screening at IIFF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, April 27, 2007

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – When COMIC EVANGELISTS screens at the prestigious Indianapolis International Film Festival, its stars won’t be walking down the red carpet. Instead, the stars of the feature-length “comedy/documentary” will be outside protesting.

The COMIC EVANGELISTS, a Christian Improv group from Michigan, hoped for an unbiased portrayal when they invited filmmakers to document their ministry. Instead, according to the troupe, the film COMIC EVANGELISTS shows “all the bad and none of the good of our mission trip up to Toronto.”

Troupe members signed waivers before they hit the road to perform at the Toronto International Improv Festival. They were to perform a wonderful and inspiring set of evangelical improv to a secular audience.

“It was to be filled with songs and jokes in celebration of our Lord,” said Rick Stevenson, leader of the COMIC EVANGELISTS.

But the trip did not go exactly to plan.

“The group didn’t get along at some points during the trip,” Stevenson said. “One of our members had a crisis of faith, and we had a fight. That’s all. Sadly, the filmmakers chose to focus on those few bad moments to make us, our religion, and the Lord look incredibly stupid.”

“We hoped we would be participating in the next Passion of the Christ,” said Stevenson. “What we got instead was more like The Last Temptation of Christ.”

The film attempts to promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle, and portrays many members of the Christian group as unfunny, bigoted, or otherwise ignorant for the sake of a few laughs.

“Ironically, the only person to come out of this film unscathed was a divorced atheist,” Stevenson said, referring to Blane Edwards, a friend that they brought along hoping to inspire. “That is just typical of Hollywood’s dishonest priorities. It’s too bad we had to learn the hard way.”

The group is hoping that filmgoers will choose prayer and protest instead of the falsity of the cinema. Stars of the film along with supporters will be outside Key Cinemas at 3:30PM on Friday, April 27. Members of the media are invited.

The film screens as part of the Indianapolis International Film Festival at:
Key Cinemas, 5PM on Friday, April 27, 2007, and again at
Landmark at 7:45PM on Monday, April 30, 2007

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The protest will take place at 3:30 PM on Friday, April 27 outside Key Cinemas at 4044 South Keystone Avenue in Indianapolis.

Labels: film festival, indianapolis, protest

A friend in Christ from another state stumbled upon us through this site. Praise! I swear it is real. Read on...





Here's the response I sent. Could Indiana be our next big trip?



In Solidarity!

Hey everyone! Happy New Year! Actually it's Chinese New Year! Since I've been going to the Chinese Christian Church a couple times a month I've gotten to know a lot about their culture. In China it is the year of the pig, which I means that the majority of livestock producing farmers will now switch to raising pigs, and pig-like animals.

Anyway, I was doing a little internet searching and I saw this video clip of the protest that we had back in 2006 in Los Angeles! There were a lot of TV cameras out there that day. I'm glad that someone had the courage to represent us appropriately on film.

Take a look

There hasn't been too much goin on with us since we got back from the City of Sin (Los Angeles), the New York City of the West. I put some photos on the previous post of our protest which was really successful. We did a little improv while we were there which was really fun, but the guy who was supposed to tape us forgot his camera.

I've been keeping track of where the movie's been going since Rick told me about their site - which has been absolutely NOWHERE. Plus, Jerry has a friend who's a movie critic at Guideposts who put in a review that I think made people realize what a inaccurate movie it was.

However I guess they did put the movie out on DVD (see here). But if any of you want to celebrate Christmas right, and are thinking about buying this movie, don't. Here's a couple of gifts you can get instead of buying Comic Evangelists on DVD:
• this is for my nieces
• this is for Rick
• and this is for Sabrina. I know she likes fashion, so when I saw it I immediately thought of her.


So you can have a happy Christmas without buying Comic Evangelists on DVD. Just take my advice!

In solidarity!
Noah

I wanted to keep everybody updated - the protest in LA went above and beyond our expectations, and I'm including some photos below. We protested before both screenings of the so-called Comic Evangelists Movie and we were almost detained after the second protest. By God's grace we weren't taken away in handcuffs, though Rick thought we should have handcuffed ourselves to the door of the theater to keep people from going inside. Here are the photos:

By Sunday the whole gang of us will be in Los Angeles for the movie that is SUPPOSED to be ABOUT us, called Comic Evangelists. See here for their supposed page about us. Well, we aren't taking a van this time, which Jerry, Sabrina's dad is kind of scared of because he's friends with the guy whose son crashed that Cessna into a building in Florida right after 9/11. But he said that going to Los Angeles to protest this film is worth that much to him! Everyone's excited to go, except Hillary can't go because she's leading a retreat for a theater group she's in - they're doing a Christian version of the musical Hair.

Rick and I were feeling creative so we put together these tracts that we are going to hand out outside the theater. See below. Remember, the show is at 9:45pm this Sunday at Arclight Theater in Hollywood, but we'll be out there in the afternoon protesting the film if you want to join us! If you can't make it, please put us in your prayers that we don't get smashed down by the man. I will see you on the other side of the blog!

In Solidarity,

Noah

Halloween is just around the corner and that isn't the only scary thing coming up. The movie about us that I have been talking about (see here for the MOVIE) is going to be playing at a film festival in Los Angeles next week, and, well, the actual Comic Evangelists have strong feelings about it.

I want the world to know that the movie Comic Evangelists unfairly exploits people badly. It’s a large screen attack on Christianity, improv people, basketball players, and Canadians.

I believe that no one should be exploited in such a way. We participated in this movie thinking that it would show Christians for what they are, not as fools. I didn’t go to Toronto to make money for someone else’s sinful desire. I went for the love of the game. Not basketball, but God. It’s wrong to negatively stereotype, and that’s why we’re going to LA to stop people from seeing this movie, and maybe meet some new Christians to get close to.

We'll be out to protest the showings on November 5th and 6th, or as we're calling it "Dark Sunday and Monday." If you're in LA, and want to join us, the movie is playing at the Arclight Cinema at 9:45pm, and we'll be there.