After Hours improv members think on their feet
Ryan Holm carried the dead body into the room and confidently tossed it on a table.
His partner stared at him for a split second, before saving the scene by asking if what he had thrown on the table was really a bag of jelly beans from the jelly bean factory.
The Farmington Hill senior is part of After Hours Improv, an open improv group founded in 2006. The pair had been playing "Switch Left," an improv game that features four actors in a square-like formation, each performing separate scenes while partnering with the actor adjacent to them.
Holm accidentally carried his previous scene, which took place in a mortuary, into his new scene, which featured the noun "jelly beans."
“There’s this aspect of fear that you really have to get over in improv," Holm said. "The best scenes are the ones you make up at the top of your head and just jump into. When you’re beginning improv, there’s a lot of hesitation, will this be funny? There’s a lot of ‘can I do that, is that funny?’ You end up just waiting on the sidelines.”
There are two forms of improv: short form and long form. Short form improv is shorter, quicker games that are often interactive with the audience who offer the actors suggestions. Long form improv is story-based and focuses on developing a plot that contains layers of meaning.
The group meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Pearce Hall 128. Members don’t need to be extremely funny, said Allen Park senior Nick Boulahanis. Being an improv actor isn't the same as being a comedian. It requires actors to think on their feet and work well with other people.
“Being funny is just a part of it,” he said. “I used to freeze up in the beginning because I was thinking too much about the rules, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. You just have to power through it.”
Ohio senior Walter Mueller struggled with social anxiety before starting improv seven years ago. He claimed the first time his grandma saw him perform, she said he had become a completely different person.
He’s now part of the After Hours Improv group and “can make easy small talk now” while making close friends within the group.
“I like them because it’s an open group; they’re a motley of different majors and have a good time," Mueller said. "They try to teach members about improv. After Hours is a very open group that anyone is open to join, so it’s one part entertainment and one part learning how to do it because you really need to learn the basics of improv before you can do big games.”
After Hours Improv compares itself to "Whose Line is it Anyway."
“It gets weird, in a good way. If you have normal, boring ideas, it won’t make for a good scene,” Holm said. “We have to make up crazy, insane ideas for it to work and it bleeds into life.”
