Campus improv troupe turns heads by winning L.A. comedy competition

Staff Writer

he crazy hijinx and antics of USC's comedy improv troupe, Commedus Interruptus, may be a familiar sight for those who have seen them perform Friday afternoons on campus, but after winning a competition in April, the group has proven it has what it takes to play with the professionals.
Commedus Interruptus, which performs as part of tonight's Welcome Comedy Show at Bovard Auditorium, competed at Improv-Olympic West in an event called Cage Match. The troupe went on to win the competition for five weeks straight and went out as defending champions.
"It's really outstanding what we accomplished," said Todd Wald-man, a junior majoring in broadcast journalism, of his team's performance. "We went out undefeated; it wasn't like we got beat. We weren't going to be able to go back because it was the end of the school year."
In last spring's head-to-head Cage Match contests, teams were given 20 minutes to perform various improv theater games in an attempt to win audience votes. After both teams performed, the one receiving the most audience votes was declared the winner, and returned the following week to compete against a different improv troupe.
Commedus Interruptus was contacted by ImprovOlympic West and recruited to compete in Cage Match.
"We have a web page on the improvisation web ring," Waldman said. "ImprovOlympic heard about us because of our posts on the web pages. They liked it and contacted us."
Before signing up to compete, a few members of Commedus Interruptus went to Improv-Olympic to see a Cage Match show, which Raymond Hudson, publicity director for ImprovOlympic West, described as "a no-holds-barred competition."
"We were told we needed to check it out and see if it was something we wanted to do," Waldman said. "We got there and the challengers weren't complete; they only had two people. The ImprovOlympic people asked us if we wanted to go on because the other troupe hadn't shown up and we were like, ŒWell, sure.' We hadn't practiced, we hadn't warmed up, we weren't even planning on competing and the whole troupe wasn't there. But we went up and beat the other team. It was very exciting.
"The first night, it was totally unexpected. We thought we were going to lose. We were just taken back. We were like, ŒDid we just win?' Everyone was applauding, and they said, ŒYou're coming back next week' and we were like, ŒSure.'"
The troupe performed the same type of games at each of its five shows, but with each performance the scenarios changed.
"We were doing basically our regular troupe games," Waldman said. "One is a game not unlike charades, called Two Things, where one person goes out of the room and we ask the audience for a suggestion of an activity such as baseball, but we change it up a little bit. Instead of a baseball bat, the person will be using something like a banana, and we have to mime and (speak) gibberish to explain the situation to the person who has gone out of the room."
Since Cage Match only allows each team 20 minutes to perform, playing Two Things is difficult because it often takes the team member who goes outside a long time to figure out the situation. However, in its first Cage Match competition, Commedus Inter-ruptus did very well in performing Two Things. "We were able to nail it the first time in five minutes, which is excellent," Waldman said.
Another game the troupe performed was Game Show Or Talk Show, where troupe members put on a mock game show or talk show based on an audience member's suggestion. The team asked for a name for the show, a name for the host and a topic or theme, and from that information the team improvised a skit.
Throughout its five-week stand, Commedus Interruptus took on many different competing improv troupes. It faced teams such as The Groundlings, Second City and ImprovOlympic's house team, among others.
"The competition was probably some of the toughest in Los Angeles, because we were facing professional troupes," said Waldman.
Kirstin Eggers, a junior majoring in theater, said, "We competed against people I had seen at The Groundlings when I went to go watch them. I paid money to go see them, and then we beat them."
Commedus Interruptus member Andy Cochrane, a sophomore majoring in cinema-television production, said, "We actually went up against one of the people who invented one of the games we were playing."
Winning the Cage Match competitions has given the team some recognition. "Winning was great to advertise," Waldman said. "It was kind of toward the end of the year, which is unfortunate because it was finals time when we were really building up that great buzz. It was hard to get people in there to see us. But on a given night, we probably had about 20 to 25 people from the school come and see us, which was great support."
Commedus Interruptus will continue to compete in Cage Match competitions later on this year at ImprovOlympic West. Located in Hollywood, the small theater presents improvisational shows every Thursday through Monday night at 10 p.m.
For now, though, the troupe performs Fridays at noon on the Bovard lawn, and will also be on campus tonight. The group plans to take the Bovard stage at 6:30 p.m., then yield it to Saturday Night Live alumnus Norm McDonald. Commedus Interruptus hopes to gain additional exposure through tonight's show.
"We're just looking to get Commedus established," Waldman said. "For a lot of people who are not able to see us Friday on the lawn because of classes or being hung over, they can see us Wednesday night on a stage, and they can find out what we're all about. And they'll really like it."
For more information on Commedus Interruptus, visit the troupe's web page at www-scf.usc.edu/~commedus, or e-mail the team at commedus@usc.edu.

Copyright 1999 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 138, No. 03 (Wednesday, September 1, 1999), on page 7.