Improv brings humor to Saturday nights
Greg Ott has been a fan of improvisational comedy for a long time.
So when the Lake Orion senior came to Central Michigan University, he brought his love for comedy with him.
"I did it in high school, I've seen it on TV and I've seen it live," Ott said. "Instead of waiting for someone else to (bring improv to CMU) I decided to do it."
Ott, along with the rest of his troupe, Three Dull Guys, present Saturday Night Improv once a month in Moore 102.
During the past three years, the group has developed a reputation that goes beyond campus. Three Dull Guys recently received the nation's Best Comedy award at the College Broadcast Inc. national conference.
Despite two showings this past Saturday, people were turned away at the door.
Saturday night's skits focused on everything from CMU football to the long line at Quiznos in the Bovee University Center.
Ann Arbor sophomore Leah McManus said her favorite part of the show was a skit that parodied the recent confrontation between Pam Gates, interim dean of the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Topinabee junior Dennis Lennox II.
"It's fun to have things that are relevant," McManus said.
The group added skits this year that they perform between the improv games.
Farmington senior Matt Hays has performed with Three Dull Guys for the past three years. He said the skits keep Saturday Night Improv up-to-date.
"We chose the sketches to make it more current," he said.
Ott said adding the skits gives the group a chance to bring up issues related to campus.
"We started the skits because we didn't always bring up topical stuff in our scenes," he said.
Ott said most of the material in the skits comes from news on campus.
"We usually base (the skits) off of the last two weeks' paper," he said.
Audience participation was important Saturday night. Upon entrance, every audience member was asked to write down anything they wanted to on a piece of paper. Cast members then read the slips of papers during the games and tried to incorporate them into the scene.
The cast also took advice from the audience before the skits. In one game, Ott and Mount Pleasant junior Andrew Papa asked the audience for a famous celebrity and a bizarre murder weapon.
McManus yelled out "waffle iron," which Ott and Papa then incorporated into the scene.
Three Dull Guys will present their last Saturday Night Improv of the semester on Dec. 1.
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