Again this year the honor goes to DAD'S GARAGE THEATRE, but not for the reason you think. The Inman Park comedic madhouse had to do some mighty fast improvising of a different sort this spring when served a cease-and-desist letter over its show "Archie's Weird Fantasy". Seems the "Archie Comics" folks weren't too pleased with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's take on the red-headed hero, so the playwright and Dad's crew had to frantically rework the show the day before its opening. Apparently all those years of putting on gut-bustingly hilarious improv comedy nights paid off. "280 Elizabeth St., 404-523-3141. www.dadsgarage.com." less...

Here we go again. Year after year, we keep saying we're "not" going to name DAD'S GARAGE THEATRE Best Improv Group. And year after year, they just keep pushing that envelope of hilarity. Mainstays like "Theatre Sports" and "Gorilla Theatre" are still on the menu, but the Dad's kids have added new shows like "Ask Dr. Frapples" (a session of "Improv Therapy") and taken their popular "Scandal!" soap opera into the realm of fantasy, a la "Lord of the Rings." Go ahead, just try not to giggle.

"280 Elizabeth St. 404-523-3141. www.dadsgarage.com".

less...

280 Elizabeth St. 404-523-3141 www.dadsgarage.com. Improv comedy has gotten easier to find in Atlanta in the past year, with new troupes like the Comedy Response Unit gaining momentum and old favorites like Whole World Theatre still selling out weekly. Dad's Garage, though, remains the local leader in terms of in-your-face attitude and sidesplitting originality. Consider the latest season of "Scandal!", the improvised soap opera that included inventive and outlandish characters like an Amish scientist on board a space station, a prim British android and a human-cow hybrid. The humor may be juvenile at times, but it's fresh and frantic enough to make you hope the guys at the Garage never grow up. less...

Atlanta has plenty of talented improvisational comedy troupes worth at least one visit — Whole World Theatre even has a TV show on Turner South. But Dad's Garage keeps concocting new reasons to bring audiences back for more. In addition to the "normal" (and I use the word loosely) improv show TheatreSports, Dad's comes up with more unusual evenings like its newly developed improv game show "$ $ $" and the spur-of-the-moment soap opera "Scandal," which recently finished its third season. less...