Harvesting eggplants with a chainsaw. Using a stapler as an electric razor. Having your body moved around by complete strangers. Dressing in a giant foam rubber cross.
These are just a few of the situations local comedy improvisation groups have dealt with onstage in front of a live audience.
Popularized by the British television show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and its eventual American counterpart, improv comedy has become a popular form of entertainment in Eugene. With a number of troupes performing around town in both regular and sporadic intervals, there are plenty of opportunities to witness the spectacle that is improv comedy.
“It’s like going to the circus and watching people on the high wire,” WYMPROV! comedy troupe member Sally Sheklow said. “You get this kind of ‘whahh!’ feel when you think the performer is about to fall, even though you know they’ll be all right.”
Relying on audience participation, improv shows consist of a series of games and exercises that the
performers go through based on random suggestions from the crowd. Since the performers have no idea what the audience will suggest, the entire performance is created on the spot. Absolute Improv member Kimberly Bates believes spontaneity is part of the attraction to improv.
“I think there is something really amazing about watching people doing things right off the cuff,” Bates said. “It really has a fresh, unplanned quality to it.”
While most of the improv groups in Eugene perform whenever they have the time or a venue, one group faces neither of these concerns. Comedy Sportz, which operates a storefront theater at 1030 Oak St., has performances at 8 p.m. every Friday and Saturday night. A national comedy team, Comedy Sportz was founded in 1984 in Milwaukee, Wis., and has since started troupes all over the country.
“We started here in Eugene back in 1999,” Eugene Comedy Sportz executive producer Kent McCarty said. “Business has been up and down since then, though it’s never popular enough for our taste.”
Pitting two teams culled from the troupe’s roster of performers against each other in a variety of games, Comedy Sportz is a competitive improve show in which the audience awards points to the best performing team. Other than the points and the presence of a referee, the show has little to do with actual sporting events, McCarty said.
“There is often some confusion about that,” he added.
Though Comedy Sportz is the most regular performance, it is not by any means the only one. WYMPROV!, a four member, all-woman comedy group, has been performing in Eugene since 1991. In a performance style usually dominated by men, WYMPROV! attempts to break down some of the stereotypes, Sheklow said.
“We’re not the usual image of women in popular culture,” Sheklow said. “In most improv shows, women are usually the pregnant one or the bitch. But there is so much material out there that isn’t explored because of that view of women. There are so many possible images of women.”
Improv also plays an important role in a different way for other performers around town.
“I think doing improv helps me develop confidence in myself,” Bates said. “It’s just a good way to engage with people. It really helps me talk to people without feeling awkward or having to scramble for words.”
But the most important part of improv, for many performers, is the comedy itself.
“We all need to laugh,” said Sheklow. “We need to laugh a lot.”