Your relationship might be a mess, but this SF show roasts it
‘Your Fucked Up Relationship’ turns real-life breakup disasters into improv gold at Endgames Improv.
By Courtney Muro
My job as a reporter has taken me to so many new experiences that I never would have otherwise sought out. Performance arts have been the meat of this lately and probably the one with which I’m most unfamiliar.
I find stand-up comedy, in particular, kind of cringy. The way they tell jokes in a way that seems off-the-cuff, but you know they’ve been told a thousand times, makes me uncomfortable. Improv, on the other hand, is entirely based on being non-scripted, so maybe I won’t hate it? I put this theory to the test with Endgames Improv’s Your Fucked Up Relationship — their longest-running show, now in its 14th year.
A home-grown venue
Scott Meyer owns Endgames at 2965 Mission St. He got involved more than a decade ago when there were just 30–40 regulars, and they bought the venue to stop scrambling for space.
The current space feels rough but charming, one that feels lived-in rather than polished. The pandemic thinned the audience, but the enthusiasm remained. Meyer said they’ve been rebuilding for several years — now up to 100 people attending.
We walked down the hall to a no-frills theater box with six-person-wide, 15ish-person-long stadium seating. Endgames co-founder Max McCal came out with a fishbowl that contained shreds of paper and bent down to a young man in the front row with blonde, side-swept hair that had to be inspired by Luke from The O.C.
Luke chose his own name and then recalled his harrowing tale —
Luke got caught between two friends who had broken up, acting as a shoulder to cry on for both. In the aftermath, the ex-girlfriend flew to Ireland determined to date him — against his will. When asked why he didn’t stop it, he replied, “When someone falls on you, you just kind of hold your hands out.”
The relationship lasted four years until he finally coerced her to break up with him on a family trip to Italy. “I broke up with me for her.”
The guy was such a comedy act by himself that I wondered if he was planted. (He wasn’t — I investigated after the show.) He was also on a date with a girl he had known for only a few weeks. “Now I’m regretting this,” he turned to her as the story got deeper into absurdity.
Taking chaos and running with it
Now it was the cast’s turn: A pair pulled chairs to center stage and launched into a plane scene — one flying to Ireland last minute with no plan, the other asking the obvious: what was she thinking? The story soon veered off course, turning into a debate over a flight attendant’s terrible Irish accent, with HR forced to intervene.
I found myself not really following the storyline but laughing hysterically, which was such a relief because I really didn’t want to have to review something horrid.
Nobody seemed to be following the plot, either — not the audience, not even the performers. But that didn’t matter; the real magic was in watching eight people desperately try (and fail) to keep it together while spinning absolute nonsense. Even when the laughter paused, I caught myself grinning, waiting for the next ridiculous line to send the whole room spiraling again.
The aftermath
After the show, the team invited the audience to hang out in the front room. I loved this immersive aspect of the show, where life and art further converge. Improv is ultra-experiential.
McCal said audience interviews can be hit or miss — some people just can’t deliver a story worth spinning into comedy. Luke was an improv goldmine, but the next subject? Less so. He was still stuck in the breakup, rambling about things only he found important, yet the cast turned even his lukewarm tale into something worth laughing at.
“We’re not trying to replay things,” said McCal. “We’re trying to be inspired by, and create something new that takes off from these real-life situations, satirizes or exaggerates it.”
I had a great time at Your Fucked Up Relationship, but it’s hard to describe why it’s so fun. It’s like being at a party where a friend keeps hitting you with perfect one-liners — you can’t recreate it, but in the moment, it’s gold.
// ‘Your Fucked Up Relationship’ has two shows every week, Friday and Saturday at 9:00 PM. You can attend the shows that go on before or after on the same ticket if it’s not sold out. It’s a short and sweet event, with two 20-minute sets.
Courtney Muro is a San Francisco-based content strategist, producer, designer, and creator.
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