Improv club captures audience

Is Improv Club fun? Yes, and it’s also educational! Does it improve your acting skills in a welcoming environment? Yes, and it’s a fun place to meet new people! Convening after school on Mondays in room 768 and going till about 5:00, Improv Club is a place to learn about putting the fun in acting fundamentals. If playing games while getting over stage fright sounds good to you, Improv Club has you covered.

You may be wondering, what do you learn in an Improv Club meeting? Well, if you are an astute reader already versed in the ways of theater, you may have already noticed the “Yes Ands” in the first paragraph. Yes And is the most well-known tool for improv that is shorthand for accepting other people’s ideas and adding onto them. When someone proposes an idea, you say yes, and then add on to their ideas. 

The other core tenant of improv is the acronym CROW. It stands for Character, Relationship, Objective, and Where. These are important things to establish in your scene. It is helpful (and fun) for the audience to know who the Characters are, what their Relationships are with each other, what they want (or what is their Objective), and Where they are in space and time. Improve Club teaches you about these tips and how to implement them within a scene.

“I joined Improv Club because I love being funny and I thought joining the club would be a really fun way to express that and make some friends. I love how supportive and inclusive everyone is. Going to Improv makes my week,” said Laila Qarshi, a junior and first-year Improv Club member.

Improv Club often partners with ComedySportz, an improv show company, and sometimes gets to go on field trips to their San Jose location for training. A trip there consists of a training session, and then you can watch a professional Improv show for free. This greatly improves your skills and it’s a fun time with your friends. The club has practice shows to acquaint the new members with the ComedySportz format, which is supposed to mirror a sporting event. Along with all this, there is also an employee of ComedySportz named Scott who often comes to train members.

“There is a theme of acceptance and you learn the value of letting go of control and having fun,” said Improv Club President Ash Ahmad.

If you’ve ever seen an Improv show and thought it looked fun, there are optional Improv shows for members to show off their skills to a crowd.