Vicki Coolidge / The Bison
The show was Halloween themed and audience members were encouraged to dress in costumes.
Vicki Coolidge
Assistant Arts Editor
Festival of Fools introduced its new members at the “Something Spooky” improv show.
Last Saturday Oct. 5, Festival of Fools presented “Something Foolish: This Way Comes.”
The improv show was in Sarkeys Black Box Theater Oct. 5, 7 P.M.
The Halloween theme was present as fall leaves were scattered all over the stage floor. In addition, skeleton heads, pumpkin baskets, an old doll, a tiny pumpkin, and a cauldron with an up- side-down teddy bear were all situated on either side of the stage to add to the “spooky” theme.
To open the show, the host came out and had the audience chant “boo” in the spookiest voice they could. As the audience chanted, all the Fools came running out.
The show was an introduction to all the new Fools. The new recruits include Jacob Brown, Zack Coak, Skippy Glover, Anna Caughlin, and Gabe Barnes.
Because of another commitment, Barnes was not able to be at this performance.
To make the audience feel as if he was there, the Fools printed a giant poster of his face and glued it to a stick. At different times in the show, they would bring it out to make sure he was included.
From viewing the new Fools, a few seemed more nervous than others.
The first game that was played was a quick rhyming game where the next person had to rhyme with what the last person said.
In this game, experience is very helpful and the older Fools inevitably surpassed the new Fools in this game.
The second game they played was called “Actors Nightmare” which involved two people. One person had a random book chosen by an audience member and they had to read from it. The other person then had to go along with the script and make the scene work.
The scene was played by Anna Smolen and Garrett Wheeler. The lines Wheeler delivered were particularly humorous and creative.
One game called “Blind Line” was played by one of the new Fools, Glover.
In this game, papers with words or phrases, written by the audience, were scattered around the floor. During the scene, the actor must pick up a piece of paper and use the word or phrase in a sentence to make it go along with the scene. Glover delivered his lines clearly and creatively came up with several witty deliveries.
Glover in the be- ginning of the show seemed a little nervous, but he quickly got in his element. He is a real natural at improv and delivered several lines that had the audience laughing extremely loud.
The third game played was called “Take it Seriously.” The goal of this game is not to laugh during your scene. During this game, new Fool Brown did a fantastic job at becoming his character. In one of the scenes, he used a very deep voice which the audience found particularity humorous. When Brown started acting, he committed to his character and appeared relaxed on stage. Brown from the beginning was “terrified,” as he put it; but you could see the excitement on his face.
Glover also got many laughs during this game when he took the role of a demon hotdog. He said to his fellow thespian, “I’m the chili dog you ate five hours ago back to haunt you.”
New Fool Caughlin also played “Take it Seriously,” and was very creative in her responses and seems unfazed by the watch- ing crowd. Out of all of the new Fools tonight, Caughlin seemed the most comfortable on stage. In several games, Caughlin inserted her- self more than the other new Fools. She said several lines that made the audience laugh very heartedly.
Brown also did a very good job voicing the character of a snake in a can during a scene between him and Frank. The audience laughed extra hard when Jacob fake cried as the snake got crushed in the invisible can. When Frank told the snake, he could bury it, Brown memorably said “Please don’t, I’m not dead yet.”
The fourth game played was called “Death and Run,” and had new Fool Coak as well as two other Fools.
In this game, there are three scenes and every- one has to eventually die in all three scenes. Coak seemed nervous and a little uncomfortable at first, but after a while he loosened up and his true personality began to show. In one scene, Coak was taking a trip to NYC with his wife and he go a lot of laughs when he said, “We don’t have buildings at home.”
During one game, the host asked the audience for a relationship. The audience chose the relationship of “third wheel” for Coak and Caughlin. He incorporated it perfectly by talking about how his van needed a third wheel. Anna hilariously responded “I need the fourth wheel unless you want me to be the second wheel.”
Overall the improv team put on a great show. The show could perhaps have benefited from the Fools pull an audience member into the show.
However, the acting was funny, and the Fools came up with many hilarious lines. All the new Fools were a great addition to the improv team and the show was definitely worth attending.
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