Laughter filled the theater as "The Rare Bird Show" took the stage on Thursday, April 21. The group performed after the preview of the fall musical "Trixie True Teen Detective."

The group was an immense crowd pleaser, as they took various suggestions from the audience. Some of the suggestions included mermaids and roller skates.

There are two forms of improv: long form and short form. The easiest way to distinguish between the two is that long-form improv depends on one suggestion from the audience, and short-form improv is dictated by many suggestions from the audience. "The Rare Bird Show" relies on this long-form improv to carry out their unstaged performance.

"The Rare Bird Show" includes Matt Holmes, who graduated from Cabrini College in 2002. He was part of a short-form improv group while attending Cabrini known as "On the Spot."

For more information on "The Rare Bird Show," check out their website: www.rarebirdshow.com

When people hear improv the first thing that comes to mind is television shows like "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" Even though that show is immensely popular, there is a whole entire underground world of improv, even in Philadelphia.

Take Matt Holmes for example; he graduated from Cabrini College in 2002 and is a leader in the phenomenon of long-form improv that is sweeping the City of Brotherly Love. "I had never really done anything with it [improv], other than watching on TV until I went to Cabrini," Holmes said.

While a student at Cabrini, he was a part of the short-form improv group known as "On the Spot." He worked his way up to being captain of the group. "I think that learning short-form first really helped me when I got into long-form. It's sort of like learning to drive a stick before driving an automatic," Holmes said. Holmes said that when he went to Cabrini, the improv group was basically student run. Holmes said that this proved to be beneficial when he decided to start his own improv group. "We went to Skidmore, where I first saw long-form, and one of the other colleges there was Haverford College (also on the Main Line), and through checking out Haverford shows I met my future partners, who had been running a long-form group there," Holmes said.

There are two forms of improv: long-form improv and short-form improv. The easiest way to distinguish between the two is that long-form improv depends on one suggestion from the audience, and short-form improv is dictated by many suggestions from the audience. "In terms of long-form vs. short-form, I think that they're really just categorizations and what's important is good characters in good scenes, and that's something that I was fortunate enough to learn early on at Cabrini," Holmes said.

Since The Rare Bird Show's creation, the group that performed upon many a stage as well as taking part of The Fringe Festival and the Del Close Marathon at the Upright Citizen's Brigade in New York City.

"While performing in the Del Close Marathon, I got a chance to see some great groups from all over the country and see and meet members of SNL and Mad TV."

There will be a free long-form improv show performed by Holmes' group, The Rare Bird Show, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It will be on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 7:30PM at The Rotunda, which is located on 4013 Walnut Street. Two other long-form improv groups, The Cabal and the Lunchlady Doris, will also be performing with The Rare Bird Show.