CCHS’s comedy improv team will be hosting its first shows of the year on Saturday, Dec. 9 in Room 108. The improv team hosts two weekends of shows per year, one in the winter and one in the spring, with a different theme for each show. This semester’s theme is “Grandma vs. The Wolf”.
“We have a silly way of doing the show,” said senior Davis Barthelman, one of the improv team’s co-captains. The team, made up of 18 students (or “players”), are split into two smaller teams during the shows, which compete against each other. “We’re just one big team, but it’s a kind of a funny way of putting on a show.”
Throughout the show, the players perform multiple games and win points for whoever the captains deem is the “winning” team. In accordance with the show’s theme, one team will be “Grandma” and the other “The Wolf”, which players dress up as.
“It’s usually a really hectic moment where we just throw out every possible idea ever,” explained Barthelman, as to how the team decides on the theme. “It’s just crazy little things in our minds, they don’t have any logic behind it, just anything we think it would be fun to dress up as.”
Barthelman said she encourages the audience to dress up as well, in solidarity with a team of their choosing. The improv team also spends time decorating Room 108 prior to the shows.
Improv, short for “improvisation”, is a form of acting in which actors make up everything they say and do on the spot without any preparation prior to performing. “The whole show is inspired by what the audience suggests,” said Barthelman. She hosts one show and senior Elisabeth Marcot, the other co-captain, hosts the other, and they ask the audience to shout out suggestions before each game.
Some popular games the team often performs during shows are Pick Up Line and Expert Challenge. Barthelman described Pick Up Line as “pretty much an audience game”. During the game, the captain hosting the show asks the audience for a broad suggestion and players come up with pick up lines on the spot relating to it, which they pitch directly to the audience. “We all hit on the audience and it’s really funny,” said Barthelman.
Expert Challenge, according to Barthelman, is “like a debate with no logic at all”. In this game, the two teams compete against each other, with one person speaking to the audience about any topic of their choosing. If a player on the other team notices a flaw in their argument, they “challenge” that player and can take their place, if the captain permits them. The game is played under a time limit and the player left in the middle when the time is up (and their team) wins the game.
Shows will be at 5 and 7 PM in Room 108, and tickets will be sold at the door for $5.
