About 150 people crowded into the Motley Coffee House on Saturday, Oct. 24, to see students pretend to be serial farters, news anchors and polyamorous archers.
This past weekend, the two major improv groups at the 5Cs, the Underground Theatrical Institute (UTI) and Without A Box (WAB), had their first shows of the year. Both groups noticed something their turnout had boomed.
“We’ve had a lot of people audition for the last two years, so we definitely noticed a little bit of a difference, but I think the bigger difference has been our turnout at our shows,” UTI member Eric Chu PO ’29 said.
Chu attributes the rise in audience turnout to both the location of their shows and more successful performances.
“We’ve really proved ourselves last year as being a good group, but since we started performing at the Motley, it’s allowed more people to have access, as it’s more central to the 5Cs,” Chu said.
UTI isn’t the only group seeing bigger crowds. Andy Feingold-Fisher PO ’27, a leader of WAB and an editor for The Golden Antlers, has noticed the same trend. WAB’s show last Friday was also located at Scripps College in the humanities auditorium.
“I definitely think that turnout to shows is greater, which is wonderful,” they said.
Bigger crowds raise a bigger question: Why is improv drawing so many people right now? For its members, part of the answer is that improv is a very special form of art, and for many, the answer is the strong feeling of community it provides.
“I think going to an improv show is an act of community, and I think that having people at the 5Cs come to improv shows is a communal thing,” Feingold-Fisher said. “Everyone is a part of the show, whether you’re on the stage or in the audience yelling suggestions, you are part of what makes that show.”
That sense of shared ownership is built into how improv works. Going into a show, performers really only have one rule: “Yes, and.” This essentially means performers cannot stop a scene or dialogue by saying “no.” They have to continue the dialogue presented to them by their scene partner for the show to keep moving. In comparison to a traditional showcase, this rule gives improv a uniquely fun dynamic.
“You are creating a moment that will never happen again,” they said.
But Feingold-Fisher says the magic of improv carries farther than just its exciting nature.
“You are creating a moment that will never happen again,” they said.
Students looking to create especially hilarious memories have more options than ever. UTI and WAB are not the only sources of comedy on campus — The Golden Antlers, the 5C satire publication, makes daily satire content for the colleges from their team of writers. Last semester, students also performed stand-up comedy at two shows: one organized independently by students and another sponsored by The Golden Antlers.
That magic isn’t limited to the stage. Andrew Barber PO ’27, a leader of WAB and editor-in-chief of The Golden Antlers, said that several of both club’s members are both practitioners and avid enjoyers of all forms of improv.
“Coming into [improv] practice, we’ve had either a fine week, a horrible week or a good week,” he said. “The only function [of practice] is either to prepare to make other people laugh or to make ourselves laugh. And it is healing.”
To Barber, comedy is a way of life.
“I think that wherever I go, I will be doing something kind of like this [comedy],” Barber said. “I think it’s an addiction I can’t really stop, a way of living in the world.”
For some UTI and WAB members, too, comedy is more than a performance — it’s an art.
“I think that comedy is an inherently optimistic art form,” Feingold-Fisher said. “It’s extremely important because comedy is the art form of making other people laugh and bringing joy into this world.”
Comedy isn’t only meaningful to the people performing it. More broadly, the importance of comedy may lie in how it makes the audience feel, and at the end of day, it feels good to laugh with others.
“I think comedy is one of those things that people kind of just need in their lives,” Chu said. “Sometimes we’re so stressed by the work that we have to do throughout our day that it is nice to just go to a show that is purely meant to make you laugh.”
Improv’s rise at the 5Cs may come down to better venues and a few great performances, but its members say the draw runs deeper. Each show is something special, a moment built by a whole room of people that will never happen again.