Valley has many clubs and spaces for students who love theater and the performing arts, one of them being the quick on your feet club, Comedy Cult, sponsored by Zachary Collins. Saturday, Dec 9, marked their first visit to the stage for the 2023-24 school year.
“The best thing out of my entire high school career is Comedy Cult,” junior Keira Thompson said. “It’s really funny and the people really put themselves out there.”
Another Comedy Cult member, Jacob Borror, shared the aspects of creativity Comedy Cult allows its members to partake in.
“I love the freedom that you get with it, the freedom to just make up your scene with your scene partners,” he said.
Borror describes Comedy Cult as an “improv troupe”, its major separating aspect from traditional theater being the absence of a script as members are expected to act quick on their feet whilst creating an entertaining show.
His favorite aspect of Comedy Cult is that the cultists aren’t bound to any script or blocking like a play or musical. It allows the character to be whatever the actor wants it to be on the spot.
“Personally, I enjoy improv because it’s much less rigid, much more creative, and you’re better connected with your fellow performers,” sophomore Clarin Gaucher said.
Typically, Comedy Cult shows run for an hour, full of different segments and games thrown on the spot by the cultists. The audience has influence and interactions with Comedy Cult shows as demonstrated in one of the games performed: Storytime.
“This game basically boils down to having an audience member volunteer to come up with us on stage, and fill in the blanks of a story that one of the cultists is reading,” Borror explained.
While this is happening, four other cultists act out the scene on the other side of the stage, creating a chaotic segment.
“I really enjoyed this game because it throws in the element of pure chaos, even though this time our audience members didn’t go as crazy as they could have,” Borror said.
As far as the audience’s reactions during the show, they were nothing short from thoroughly entertained.
“There was definitely laughing,” Thompson said. “If you looked up in the front, you could definitely see smiling, happy faces and laughter.”
Borror shared that he saw the audience enjoying the show for every segment performed. “There were plenty of times when the entire audience burst out laughing. I think every audience member at least chuckled.”
Rehearsals are everything for any performance, even for improv groups like Comedy Cult. However, some members expressed that practices were very infrequent, building up to the overall pre-show anxiety.
“With holidays and Our Town rehearsals, we missed a lot of practices,” Borror said. “However, I think that our show reflected how even though we didn’t practice and prepare as much as we normally would, us cult members still brought our best and made a great show out of it.”
Thompson shared her annoyance with the timing of both the Viking Theatre’s Our Town, and Comedy Cult’s rehearsals lining up.
“We didn’t get a lot of practice in so I was really worried that we weren’t prepared at all. But we all did better than expected, surprisingly,” Thompson said.
According to the members, Comedy Cult’s first show of the 23-24 school year proved to be quite the performance, showcasing their showmanship and collaborative strengths as a team.
“The energy was amazing, and I think everyone was at their best!” Gaucher said.
