Trap Door Improv’s off-the-cuff antics brought a crowd to riotous laughter Saturday night, kicking off the year in good spirits with three separate improv shows.

The first show of the season brought in 68 students, 22 shy of a full house. It sold out at the 8 and 9 p.m. showings, turning away 45 students and 10 at the the last show.

“There is a great amount of energy for the first show of the year,” said senior troupe leader Alex Cabala.

Trap Door Improv, a student led comedy show, provides a number of free shows every semester. Their act is completely improvised, and they encourage audience involvement, relying on spectator’s suggestions to complete comedy skits.

“Everyone was so excited to finally get back at it,” said Allie Jackson, a member and leader of the troupe.

The show is made up of a number of games where a member of the troupe moderates while several actors respond to the audience’s cues to complete a skit.

The show included games like “sound effects,” where selected audience members offered noises to the actor’s actions, “rap attack,” where actors competed to come up with free-style raps based on crowd suggested words, and “Charlie,” where actor Dillon Harke spewed Katy Perry lyrics.

Among the games they played on Saturday’s show was “Hamster,” where the actors told a three part story regarding how they accidentally killed a friend’s hamster they were pet-sitting. As an added twist, the actors had to stop speaking, rotate and continue the story every time an audience member laughed.

“They have to be so quick on their feet to keep the story going, while having absolutely no idea what is going to happen next,” Thurston said.

The first show was made up mostly of viewers who had never seen any form of live improve comedy before.

“We always get a lot of returners, but we also get some people who have never seen improv, tonight especially,” Jackson said. She and Cabala said they made a significant effort to involve the newcomers and keep them coming back for the rest of their time at CMU.

For freshman Alyssa Campa, it worked. Campa said Trap Door Improv succeeded in getting their hooks into her.

“I just know I really liked it, and I want to go again,” Campa said.

Carmen Thurston, another freshman who had never seen an improv show before, said she especially appreciated the audience involvement.

The 6 p.m. show was introduced last spring semester after the traditional 8 p.m. and 10:00 shows consistently sold out, and the overflow was enough to fill up another room.

Jenna Walker, a sophomore majoring in musical theater, has gone to almost every Trap Door Improv show offered while attending CMU. She thought Saturday night’s 6 p.m. show went particularly well, and thought the cast did a great job for their first, unrehearsed show of the year.

“I think part of the appeal is how sporadic it is,” Walker said. “They make people want to come back and see what they do at the next show, because no two shows are the same.”

Trap Door Improv’s next show will take place Homecoming Weekend on October 3. Shows start at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. in Moore Hall 102.