The Drexel Football Comedy Improv Team performed their winter show Jan. 29 at 8:00 p.m. Although the show typically follows a fixed format, the team decided to change things up for this show. The Drexel Football team’s version of “Whose Line is it Anyway?” was the theme for this show, titled “Choose Your Own Adventure,” which created an environment that was based entirely on audience participation. The Football Team gave audience members a chance to shout out words and invited them to come on stage to help inspire skits and participate in games.
Benny Feldman acted as the narrator for the show, introducing each new skit as a chapter of the eight-part adventure. Following the theme, each member of the audience had the chance to participate as soon as they walked into the auditorium of Nesbitt Hall. Guests were asked to write down their dying last words to be used in the fourth chapter called “blind-line.” During the skit, the dying last words of the audience members were scattered across the stage. The comedians would pick up the slips of paper throughout the scene and incorporate the lines into it. This built up anticipation since there was no way of knowing what they were going to pick up. No matter how random or inappropriate the dying last words were, the Football Team members were able to make them work.
One chapter called “A Day In the Life” involved bringing an audience member on stage to interview them about their day. The team then used the events of their day as inspiration for the skit. Sophomore Mike Perella was chosen as the first interviewee, but had an uneventful day leading up to the show. Regardless, the 10-member comedy team was able to twist his day and exaggerate it into an entertaining and humorous skit for the audience.
“I liked how they made my day seem a lot better than it was between the little burger I ate and not waking up until 2 p.m.,” Perella said.
Audience members were also brought on stage to be used as human props. The props were not allowed to talk or move themselves; they simply had to be puppets. During this chapter, the team acted out a scene in a grocery store where the audience members were man-handled and turned into shopping carts, backpacks and freezers. The human props were piled on each other, rolled across the stage and pushed around, which had the audience laughing the whole time since the volunteers were powerless.
The sixth chapter of the show, “Madame Zelda,” involved one of the comedians leaving the stage. During that time audience members were asked to help make up a fortune for Madame Zelda to tell to another team member. After a few minutes of shouting of random words, the audience came up with the fortune that he would become a dolphin that visits Jurassic Park, but breaks a bone and then would meet Bernie Sanders, who would sign his cast.
Madame Zelda was brought back on stage with no knowledge of the fortune. The skit then turned into a game of charades. Three of the team members acted as the spirits from whom Zelda gets her fortunes and had to act out the fortune that the audience created without saying a word. Each time Zelda figured out a new part of the fortune the crowd burst into applause and laughter.
For the first time, the comedy team kept a head count of how many people came out to see them. Audience filled every seat in the auditorium, and other people even had to stand in the back. More than 300 people attended “Choose Your Own Adventure,” which was a statistic that really pleased the team.
“It’s really amazing because when I came to these shows just as an audience member it was a much smaller event; this room was only half filled,” third-year team member Jesse Webster said. “Just looking out there on stage tonight and seeing it swamped in the back and not even enough seats for everyone just shows how much this has grown.”
Moving forward, the Football Team hopes to continue to increase its fan base, as well as search for new potential members. The team will be hosting an improv workshop Feb. 14 to scout new talent.