The university’s improvisational comedy group, the Fat Tuesday Debutantes, performed their first show of the academic year, ‘Liberté, Egalité, Fat Tuesdé’ last Tuesday at 10 p.m. in Huntington Recital Hall.
Prior to the beginning of the show, performers energetically welcomed audience members to their seats. Many of the Debutantes welcomed their friends who had come out to see them perform. “I know a lot of the people that are in improv, so I love to come support my friends,” said Katie Comfort, an audience member.
The audience quieted down to listen to Meg Garcia, a long-time member of the group, announce the beginning of the show. The show consisted of a variety of short scenes called “games” in which different Debutantes performed. The show was semi-planned in terms of which games would be played and by which members;otherwise, everything was improvised.
“During our rehearsals is when we really start throwing ideas out there,” said Halley Akers, a first-year member. “During the show itself, I saw our ideas from rehearsals being reused, which is a really good thing because they were really funny [concepts].”
The games were remarkably funny and cohesive. Audience members could see the individual personalities of each Debutante as they got to respond to different prompts. “In improv, it’s very much so be yourself,” said Akers.
Although each Debutante gets to perform as themself, they also work extremely well as a group. “[Improv is] like using the humor you and your friends use in a semi-professional setting,” Garcia said.
During the games, the audience has the opportunity to interact with the Debutantes by making suggestions for their skits. For example, in the game “Party Quirks,” audience members suggested Parker Wilkinson play a party-goer who is sure the rapture will be coming tomorrow.
“Having an audience that gives a lot of good prompts is important. But having an audience that gives any prompts is the baseline. There are times where it’s like ‘give me a suggestion,’ and it’s just a blank canvas,” said Wilkinson. The audience for ‘Liberté, Egalité, Fat Tuesdé’ was lively and gave the Debutantes plenty of material to improvise off of.
Overall, the show was a hit with the audience. “This was one of the best shows I’ve seen. This was really great,” said Comfort, who saw all of the Debutantes’ shows last year as well.
While an improvisational comedy show is not something most people have seen, improv can be relevant to anyone; people are improvising everyday at their jobs and even in casual conversation. “Professional improvisers teach a lot of seminars to business leaders … the two skills you learn with improv are group collaboration and really quick thinking,” Wilkinson said.
“If you’re not a performer, come check out the show anyways. It’s a group of really kind people who are so excited to perform. It’s just a great opportunity to laugh. You can be a bigger part of the show than you would at a musical,” said Wilkinson.
The group performs next on Tuesday, Oct. 28 in their ‘The Not-quite-Halloween Show’ at 10 p.m. in the Huntington Recital Hall. Admission is free and Halloween costumes are encouraged.
