Bruins join improv lineup, team scores big
By Nick Rabinowitsh
Nov. 14, 2002 9:00 p.m.
What happens when you take improv experts from UCLA and
elsewhere, put them in baseball jerseys, separate them into teams,
and warn them that if they curse or use obscenities they will have
a paper bag put over their heads?
They get funny.
Case-in-point: ComedySportz, an improv show in Hollywood, bases
its format on a sporting event.
Not to mention, some of the show’s newest talent hails
from UCLA. Myles Nye, a fourth-year UCLA theater student, plays in
shows a few times a month. Andy Goldblatt, a recent graduate of the
UCLA theater department with an emphasis on directing, also
participates. Representing the newest generation of Bruins is Kim
Weisberg, a first-year student.
An average college student’s first impression of the
ComedySportz show is probably one of bewilderment. After all, how
funny can a show be after a referee introduces it as a
“family show,” with no swearing or sexual
references?
As it goes on, though, the show is no less funny than most
improv shows which are known for their tendency toward R-rated
humor.
“It’s really easy to get a roomful of people to
laugh just by being dirty or racist or gross,” Nye said.
“It takes a little more skill to keep things rated PG, and
better yet, to flirt with being dirty, but never to cross that
line.”
Since the performers are forbidden from using obscenities, they
must have a finely tuned sense of comedy to constantly come up with
jokes on point, while being cognizant of overstepping the
boundaries of PG humor.
“It sets us apart from other companies,” said Nye.
“It’s a show that I can bring my parents to and not be
worried about being in a scene with a 60-foot-long
penis.”
Despite being a family show, the players still manage to slip in
plenty of adult themes and jokes, albeit in a discreet way that
flies right over children who happen to be at the show.
“It is a family show, but the people who perform
aren’t all sugary sweet,” said Goldblatt.
Adding an edge to the show is the competitive atmosphere that
the sports theme creates. After selecting an event (such as
“Blind Line,” in which sentences written down from the
audience are randomly thrown into a scene), a team wins points by
performing a better improv sketch than the other team.
This sort of improv competition requires lightning-fast wit,
instant adaptability to unexpected transitions, and a vision of
where the skit is headed. The players from UCLA, all of whom are
relatively new to the show, expressed initial anxiety.
“I’m still very much starstruck,” Nye said.
“I am an audience member who got to cross the footlights and
join the company. The players who I used to watch and look forward
to seeing are now working alongside me.”
The players got their starts in different ways, but all of them
had a strong appreciation for the art of improv well before joining
ComedySportz.
Weisberg actually started her high school’s ComedySportz
team (ComedySportz has high school teams, which compete in their
own “league”). Goldblatt grew up in San Jose where
another branch of ComedySportz is located.
“I grew up watching it, and when I was 16, I decided I
wanted to be in the show,” she said.
As a theater student, improv has helped to teach Nye the art of
living in the moment and continues to be a welcome challenge for
him.
“The thrill of improv is that the conception and execution
are simultaneous,” he said. “As soon as you think of
something, it is made manifest on the stage. If you try to describe
a good improv scene, it never comes out sounding funny. It is
always a circumstance of “˜you had to be
there.'”
Shows run twice every Friday and Saturday night, at 8 p.m. and
10:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 at the door, but $12 for the 10:30 show
with a reservation by 9 p.m. For more information, call (323)
871-1193.
