SCOTT GULLEDGE / Scroll
Christian Busath demonstrates as Brant Wadsworth teaches the audience about committing to a scene.

Comic Frenzy teaches improv

Amber Meyers MEY04001@BYUI.EDU Special Sections Asst. Editor

For most people, improv is something they love to watch but feel they could never do because they don’t know how. To help others learn, the members of Comic Frenzy were asked by the Talent Board to hold a forum April 13.

Improv, or improvisation, is making up scenes and characters on the spot and acting them out, often for humorous effect.

During the night, Comic Frenzy taught various areas of improv and played short games displaying what they taught.

Students came to the forum for a variety of reasons.

“I have never been to a show before and wanted to find out what it is about,” said Heather Nebeker, a sophomore from Idaho Falls. “I love to laugh.”

Most students came to enjoy the quick games and learn more about what it takes to be in Comic Frenzy.

The forum began with an explanation of Comic Frenzy. Comic Frenzy began winter 2002 when Jeff Blake, a former BYU-Idaho student, and Johnathan Gagnon, a junior from Stillwater, Okla., decided BYU-Idaho needed an improv troupe.

“We are now a class held with Brother Richard Clifford,” said Shon Feller, a senior from Woods Cross, Utah. “Each class, one person prepares a lesson on a technique and then we practice that technique.”

Feller explained the good side of humor, pointing out it is a way to cope with the sorrows of life. He quoted the Family Home Evening Resource Guide, which states humor is like the safety valve on a pressure cooker, letting out stress so we don’t explode.

Yet he made sure the audience knew there is a bad side of humor also, that comes when sacred things are joked about.

“Satan makes us believe all humor is good and all laughter acceptable,” Feller said.

The group then taught about improv, starting with the basics of improv situations.

The basics of any improv situation are relationship, location and the big day, which then lead to a third-person complication, said James Best, a senior from Rexburg.

“Make sure to communicate exactly what you’re saying,” Best said.

Best taught that it is most fun to twist everyday occurrences and raise the stakes. It is also important to commit to a scene and character.

When someone commits to a character, movement is the most important thing, said Brant Wadsworth, a senior from Sugar City, Idaho.

“When a person is nervous and lacks control of their body, it inhibits improv,” Wadsworth said. “If words are all you rely on, it is never interesting improv.”

Wadsworth also said if an actor only does halfway what the audience suggests, they appear not to care or that they don’t know how and lose the trust of the audience.

Comic Frenzy finished up by teaching it is important to believe the other person you are doing the scene with is funnier, which will help them build each other up by giving better cues.

The group announced that they will now perform during the summer and that auditions will be within the first few weeks of summer semester.