Funny business.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: Attitude/Altitude - Rave Reviews - A.C.E. Entertainment - Brief Article

NOTHING CAN PRODUCE A YAWN FROM EMPLOYEES more quickly or reliably than the mention of a "team building exercise" or a "company awards presentation." That's where Rave Reviews or A.C.E. Entertainment can come to the rescue.

Both are Denver firms seemingly guided by the principle that anything worth meeting about is also worth laughing about.

Rave bills itself as "the cure for the common meeting," and A.C.E. as "a festival for the senses."

Companies like Sun Microsystems, Charles Schwab, AT&T, Hershey Foods and dozens of others have hired the firms to put an entertaining spin on everything from new product launches to new customer-support programs.

Take the team-building exercise Rave Reviews put on for 450 Xcel Energy employees. Employees donned chef hats, were divided into teams and set about to make ravioli -- the largest quantity and the most creative a team could conjure. Then, while the ravioli cooked, the Rave Reviews cast taught a tap dance, and everybody sat down to eat.

"It gets people talking to each other," Sharon Allison says of Rave Reviews' team-building technique. "But it's real, honest, non-stressful talking, so they begin a relationship in a place that's not difficult or stressful. It's like kids making friends in the sandbox."

A.C.E. Entertainment is a comedy troupe that performs what Linda Klein calls "spontaneous theater" internationally and throughout Colorado. She, Barbara Gehring and Matthew Taylor formed the company three years ago and still perform their improvisational comedy at least once a month in Denver and Boulder. A.C.E. is an acronym of their nationalities --...