Improv(e) Your Life This Weekend

By AnnaLiese Burich ‘17

Any comedic actor will tell you that if you are at all interested in comedy, then you should try improv. It doesn’t matter whether you want to act in comedies, write for comedies, or maybe even just watch comedies, but forcing yourself to think on your feet helps improve your craft.

Actually, improv does more than help with your comedy: it helps improve your social skills. Being social is essentially improv, right? You never know what someone is about to say until they say it. Improv forces you to respond with a concise—and hopefully witty—response in front of a large audience. Oh yeah, and at the same time you should be in character. To channel such characters, you may need to sharpen your observation skills in your daily life to mimic humanity’s various quirks and tendencies. So basically improv makes you a superhuman.

And most importantly: it’s fun. We all know that laughter adds years to your lifespan, so imagine having a regular scheduled outlet for your laughter. You’ll be friends with funny people, and you’ll be funny yourself! You and your funny friends will spend hours laughing! You’re practically guaranteed to live to be 150 years old!

Have I sold you yet? Have you gotten the sense that improv will solve all of your social, personal, financial, and even medical problems? Perfect!

USC has a thriving improv scene with four major troupes. And, lucky you—all four are having open call auditions THIS COMING WEEKEND!

Each of the four troupes has its own unique style and flavor. Much like rushing a frat, you just sense which one is right for you. But how, you ask? You might be kicking yourself for not going to more improv at USC recently, but have no fear. I’m here to help. I reached out a member of each troupe to hear what makes theirs different from the rest.

(In alphabetical order)

1) Commedus Interruptus

I talked with Tyler Miclean, senior extraordinaire. He says: “Commedus Interruptus does “Whose Line is it Anyway” Improv comedy, primarily short form–follow your heart and think fast. We usually perform outside, but several times during the year we’ll do venues like Ground Zero and some of the theaters on campus for improv as well as for our semiannual sketch shows which we write and stage. Past as well as some current Commedus members have had little to no improv experience entering auditions, and your major need not be Theatre or Film to join. So get out here, and fly.”

2) The Merry Men

According to USC Junior Kristen Garrett, “The Merry Men is USC’s premier mixed-form improv troupe, meaning we do a combination of short form and long form improv, with an emphasis in UCB and iO style training. We constantly challenge ourselves to learn new forms, including musical and murder mystery styles, among many others, and frequently do shows on campus and around Los Angeles!”

 3) Second Nature

USC Junior Sam Wagner explains that “Second Nature is sketch comedy but improvised—there aren’t structured games that someone explains to the audience and then we play. It’s in the style of UCB; we do Harolds and Armandos and a couple other forms and focus a lot on like scene structure.” Sophomore Sabrina Brennan adds, “What really drew me to Second Nature my freshman year was how different they are from the other troupes, not only because they’re long form but also their sense of humor. While our troupe still does goofy voices and characters, there’s also a very intellectual style to it. We’re constantly listening to everyone’s scenes and looking for ways to make connections or support the information they’ve already put forth. We really are a team and it’s really an honor to be a part of it.”

4) Spoiler Alert

USC Sophomore Cameron Gavinski spoke on behalf of his team and told me, “Spoiler Alert specializes in their signature long-form weekly ‘Episodes,’ where the audience suggests the genre and the name. The episode is broken up with short-form games: ‘Commercial Breaks.’ Spoiler Alert also hosts ‘Improvtu,’ a weekly casual improv workshop for anybody who wants to learn or just play games with us.”

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Okay, now that you have the lowdown on the troupes, how about the lowdown on when and where you can audition? Your best bet is probably through RSVPing on this site: https://www.facebook.com/events/949656685096769/.

(Below are the dates and times copied and pasted from the Facebook event if you don’t feel like clicking.)

FRIDAY 9/11

6:30 - 8:30 PM

8:30 - 10:30 PM

SATURDAY 9/12

10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

2:00 - 4:00 PM

Specific Times/ Locations for the specific troupes are as follows:

Second Nature:

Friday, September 11

• THH 118 8pm-10pm
  

Saturday, September 12

• VKC 152 10am-12pm
  
• THH 118 2pm-4pm
  

Commedus Interruptus:

Friday, September 11

• THH 114 6:30-8:30pm
  
• THH 114 8:30-10:30pm 
  

Saturday, September 12

• THH 118 10am-12pm
  
• THH 212 2-4pm
  

The Merry Men:

Friday, September 11th

• THH 210 8:30-10:30pm

Saturday, September 12th

• THH 114 from 10-12 am
  
• THH 210 from 2-4 pm
  

Spoiler Alert:

Friday, September 11

• THH 212 6:30-8:30pm
  
• THH 116 8:30-10:30pm

Saturday, September 12

• THH 119 10am-12pm
  
• THH 119 2-4pm
  

Callbacks will be held at various times on Sunday. Auditions for ALL of the troupes will meet outside THH (Taper Hall) on Trousdale Pkwy.

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There you have it! If you want to become better at comedy–or even just become a better person–it can’t hurt to check out any and all of the auditions this weekend! And, as someone who has seen each of these troupes perform, I’m here to tell you that you can’t go wrong whichever you choose.