Ultimate Improv offers original humor to fans

By Siddarth Puri
Daily Bruin Contributor

Crammed into the attic of the Westwood Brewing Company, the
audience waits impatiently.

Then it happens ““ the familiar clapping starts out slow
and soft, almost a golf clap, the noise increases with louder
clapping and the addition of stomping feet. As the clapping and
stomping intensify and people begin to scream, the casually clad,
clean-cut crew of men begin running into the room and jumping onto
the raised wooden stage inches from their adoring fans. Such begins
a regular night at Ultimate Improv.

Started in 1999 by JD Walsh and Justin Bowler as a way to
combine different improv groups from Groundlings and Comedysportz
to Improv Olympic, Ultimate Improv is here to “rock your
world.” Their mission statement: “To do the improv we
want, with the people we want, in front of big crowds. You can have
the rest.”

“We’re just doing this for fun. We’re not
doing this to make money or to further our careers. We want to
relax, perform and have fun,” Walsh said.

Inspired by bad improv groups as well as his own creativity,
Walsh said he also created Ultimate Improv as a way to give people
humor that they actually found funny.

The show is a mix of short form improv in the first half and
extended scenes of long form in the second half, which is a long
scene reminiscent of a movie. Their aim in scenes is to tell
stories and screw with each other as much as possible, while being
entertaining. Crowd participation is also important during their
performance.

“We love that the audience is involved every weekend. At
Ultimate Improv the wall between the performer and audience is not
there. We’re constantly getting suggestions from the audience
during the show,” Walsh said. “You never know
what’s going to happen. We want every show to be spontaneous
so it’s not manufactured comedy. The best scenes are the ones
where things happen out of the blue.”

The players are a group of improvisers that Walsh worked with in
comedy clubs from all around the Los Angeles region.

“I wanted to bring the best of the best from different
groups in Los Angeles and put them into one show,” Walsh
said.

These players work off each other throughout the performance and
try to use each other’s greatest abilities to create
hilarious scenes.

“Improv is all about teamwork: knowing and communicating
with your team and accenting each other’s ideas” said
Dan Oster, an audience member turned team member.

Their improv combines vulgarity, humor, congenial mockery and,
of course, spontaneity. Performing numerous scenes during which
players make use of their improvisational skills ““ such as
when they incorporated a drunken girl who walked in from the bar
into one of their scenes, to attempting to cover-up surprise boners
““ add to the color and personality of Ultimate Improv. These
qualities in the humor attract a young crowd to the
performances.

The audience that lines up as much as an hour before the
performance appreciates the crude humor.

“When you leave you feel like an entirely different person
in many respects,” said Maryam Girffin, a first-year
political science student. “Your abs are so much tighter and
your bladder is much stronger.”