It's about 9:30 pm and when Russel Faillaci is on stage halfway through his show, he's already got a 10-hour day at his back. Faillaci, improviser, part owner and general get-things-done-er at MadCap Theater, 10679 Westminster Blvd., has already worn a lot of hats today.

Right now, he's wearing a visor and playing "Todd," an egomaniacal simpleton jock during The Dating Game, one of several improv comedy games the MadCap troupe will perform tonight.

"If you could change one thing about yourself, what it would it be?" asks a young woman pulled from the audience to take part in the game. Todd laughs to himself and blurts a boneheaded, satisfied "Nothin'."

Todd's competition for her affections will see him trade jabs with him, a man-sized squirrel.

The bit kills with the crowd - a cross-section of Westminster who've come to MadCap Theater at the Westminster Promenade for friends' birthdays, or to bring the family or first dates. Far from Denver, where several improv troupes (including Impulse Theater, in which Faillaci cut his teeth) compete for attention, MadCap has had, for its two years, the luxury of being the only game in town. That comes with its challenges.

Faillaci says when an audience is so broad, it's important to "make it a professional experience for everybody involved. It's different every night and you have a different cast makeup every night. So what you teach are the basics. What makes a good improv scene?"

For Faillaci that means seizing on characters and a story, which hammers out a lot of the inconsistencies that can make an improv bit fall flat on its face.

"We have a really specific formula we try to follow here about what's important. Two people are out on stage together; it's going to be a lot easier to create together if they know what's important to a scene."

Faillaci and his fellow improvisers work to keep a spit-shine on the operation, aided by a slick concert-quality stage light setup and a tech and sound worker in the back. That kind of polish doesn't come cheaply. Faillaci cuts costs by running a lot of the day-to-day operations himself.

"I'll come in and do the phones, take reservations ... all those little things," he says. "Then I try to take a break for an hour - try to separate myself from here for an hour just to get in a performance space."

Afterwards, he'll take the stage with his fellow improvisers and put on two shows, cruising through a list of improv games the crowd might recognize from shows like Whose Line is it Anyway? The crowd eats it up. These guys have figured out the game of mass appeal, without getting the kiss of death of being branded kids' stuff.

"We don't want to get a stigma if we label it 'family friendly,'" Faillaci says. "It's just appropriate for all audiences." On the possibility of working a little more risque or "blue," he says, "It's easy to go to that level. When you can't, you're forced to create."