Comedy Wars celebrates 10th anniversary

ESPN anchor and MU graduate Mike Hall came back to perform.

By Kelly Hagen

Published April 9, 2009

Comedy Wars celebrated 10 years of laughter Wednesday night and brought back alumni of the student comedy troupe. The crowd was large and filled with anticipation.

"We walked in a few minutes late," freshman Madeline Blasberg said. "Before we even rounded the corner, we could hear laughing."

Blasberg, like many students, goes to Bengal Lair at 9:30 p.m. every Wednesday for a performance from the student improvisational comedy troupe.

Pizza and soda were served at 9 p.m. Then students vied for free T-shirts, and by 9:30, every chair, table and most of the standing room within Bengal Lair was taken. The audience roared as former and current members of the troupe were introduced, running through the crowd and taking the stage.

Among the returning alumni was ESPN "Dream Job" winner Mike Hall. Recent graduate Nick Renkoski also joined in the improv via webcam, introducing the audience to his cats and requesting to be held up to the microphone for a few one-liners.

The show is based on multiple interactive improv games, where the audience members suggest objects, slogans, adjectives and movies. They tell stories the comedians then take and turn into a sketch.

The night of improv included secret handshakes in a mineshaft, Miley Cyrus sneakers, "petrified belts in the club named Greg" and a man-on-man kiss. Also, the night included a collection of "yo mama" jokes, where the audience was asked to provide an adjective not typically used in a "yo mama" joke. The comedians then had to come up with one-liners on the spot.

For example, the adjective saucy garnered jokes like "Yo mama is so saucy, she's a damn pizza from Shakespeare's" and "Yo mama is so saucy, a flying yo mama crashed in Roswell."

Also, the suggestion "invisible" elicited responses such as "Yo mama is so invisible, she was the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina" and "Yo mama is so invisible, Harry Potter be sportin' a yo mama cloak."

The troupe was the brainchild of MU graduate Todd Geritz, who gathered the original 12-member cast in 1999.

"At first, it was a really lax thing," Hall said. "There would be a small audience of just a couple people."

By its second year, Comedy Wars became weekly, and by the third year a core group had formed and meeting and training times were solidified.

"This is when we really started to get organized," Hall said. "We began to draw larger crowds."

MU graduate Brittany Sanborn said the troupe started off very low-key and cited popular comedies such as "Anchorman" as the group's inspiration.

"The show's growth really reflects improv's recent rise in popularity," Sanborn said. "A lot of new writers and actors value improv."

Since its creation, improvisational energy has always been Comedy Wars' defining feature.

"I saw their act at Relay for Life," Blasberg said. "Seeing them perform was really entertaining and energizing, and I came back tonight because I wanted to see more."

Although an attraction for audience members, the energy surrounding Comedy Wars also serves as a fuel for its comedians, Hall said.

"Laughter is like a drug," he said. "You hear the audience laughing and you want more."