In their first show on campus in nearly two years, the Rowan Improfs took Westby Hall by storm this past Thursday night for a free performance.
Their recent performance on Thursday, April 9, ran promptly from 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., with a multitude of improv games played within the hour and a half time slot.
The Improfs are Rowan’s improvisational comedy group that also occasionally takes part in competitions off-campus. Most recently, The Improfs took part in the Collegiate Comedy Challenge at Comedy Sportz Philadelphia.
Though crowd reaction for the first game was a bit quieter, as the audience was getting used to the format of the show and the scenes that unfolded before them, the joy and laughter radiating from the scenes only grew as the show went on. The first game played was called “Sitting, Standing, Leaning, Laying,” where someone within the scene always had to be sitting down, someone had to be standing up, someone had to be leaning against a surface, and someone had to be lying down either on the ground or on some kind of object.
“In terms of the games that I played, I enjoyed ‘Follow The Leader’ the most because it’s a game that I have played with this club since the very beginning, and it gives me a sense of nostalgia. In terms of the overall show, the game is ‘Restaurant’ was my favorite to watch, because it has a great cast, and it is a game that always gives the best, funniest, and most creative scenes out of its cast,” said Joseph Fiorentino, secretary for The Improfs.
In “Follow The Leader”, any time one of the actors in the monoscene moved to a different part of the stage, the audience would have to say the phrase “follow the leader”, and though the location and characters of the monoscene would change, the plot wouldn’t. Whereas in “Restaurant”, there would be an actor performing as a waiter and two different sets of actors dining at different tables. While the waiter would go back and forth between these two tables, most of the other actors would have to act without sound for brief intervals of time. A moderator in the scene would call out “Table One”, for example, and only the actors at the first table would be audible. When the moderator would call out “Table Two”, the actors at the second table would then become audible after continuing to act out their characters
“I definitely felt more pressure while in front of the crowd. Much of the audience is a new crowd; this is their first impression of the club, and I want to make sure it is a good one. It’s also adapting to a new energy. During our traditional meetings, I have a decent idea of what’s going to sit well with the audience and get them to laugh, whereas at the show you throw things out and hope that they stick,” said Jillian Schultz, senator of The Improfs.
Audience participation was key for the night, as the actors asked those in attendance to call out suggestions for scene locations and character quirks. One of the games that required it, for example, was “Three Rules,” where the audience was asked to help the actors come up with three different rules that had to be followed for the monoscene. For this performance, the audience ended up shouting out rules such as the actors having to act freezing cold for the entirety of the scene, having to speak with a British accent, and having to randomly spin throughout the scene.
“So far, we have mainly only received positive feedback about everyone’s performances. The group actually surprised me with their decisiveness, making it so I had to add bonus games to the performance that I had written down in case that happened. I got a lot of laughs during my performance and had fun, which is my main goal with any performance,” said David St. John, the president of The Improfs.
One of the bonus games that St. John mentioned includes “Slideshow”, where one actor is present in the monoscene delivering a Slideshow presentation, with three other actors responsible for acting out whatever slide is meant to be presented. For instance, one of the “Slideshow” topics that was acted out included “The History of the World,” in which those who were performing acted out one slide as cavemen in the Paleolithic era and another as knights in medieval times.
Though The Improfs have no future performances set in stone just yet, the executive board members of the club, current and incoming, are hopeful about a heavier Improfs presence on campus next semester.
“I hope the club gets back to doing at least one performance a semester. I have talked with the president-elect, and it seems this vision will be followed. We also plan to compete again next year. If asked, we would also love to keep doing collabs with other clubs, as we have been doing this semester, and maybe even doing Hollybash if possible. We had fun collaborating with RTN and are excited to collaborate with eSports on Friday, the 17th, during their charity live stream,” said St. John.
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