Brandeis University Improv Comedy Analysis

On Sept. 1st, students from different corners of campus were all sprinting towards one common location: Ridgewood. It was, once again, that time of the year when Brandeis University’s four improvisational comedy groups perform for an audience of returning students and new first-year students in the annual Improv Comedy Showcase; a showcase that serves as a tidbit for first-year students of what the university has to offer.

This year the show commenced with False Advertising, and it was followed on to Crowd Control, TBA and Bad Grammer, each group generally performed a series of long-form skits and short-form games that allowed them to demonstrate their compelling comic prowess. In addition, the performers were able to get everyone gleefully involved and engaged, often asking the audience for ingenious and witty ideas for them to use in the skits—although as the evening progressed, the air filled completely with wondrous ideas from

They picked a volunteer from the audience, first conducted a brief interview with the individual, who demonstrated to be intrinsically funny himself. Then two performers decided to play a game with him, wherein they would recite a supposedly romantic love speech, both declaring their love for the same person (the audience’s member), and as they recited the poem they would constantly adhere random words, again all thought by the audience, this created a playful, ludicrous swirl to the speech’s meaning. Soon after the finalization of the declaration of love the volunteer had to pick between one of the two performers to therefore break the love triangle and marry one of them. Furthermore, there were also a Line Games most of the jokes landed well, but there were a few that were misplaced. There was a cast member who apologized for not being clear enough with certain joke, in improvisational comedy you will never need to apologize there is no wrong