Live Review

Is the most important part of a comedy show the laughs? If what's happening onstage is funny enough to have people doubled over in their seats, then it would seem they could consider themselves entertained. While student-run improv troupe Monkapult's end of the quarter performance in Balch theater certainly offered up consistent laughs, this particular performance was uneven to the point of distraction, and displayed a worrying rift between the newcomers and those who've been doing this for years.

Monkapult leaders and K seniors Alex Clothier, Ben Harpe, Terry Cangelosi, and Andrew Dombos have consistently used their grace, wit, and panache to create hysterical scenes that can succeed without any satellite performers, as evidenced by the Just Panda shows they perform with a scaled-back, more concentrated cast. Michelle Myers and Cooper Wilson, a junior and sophomore respectively, are also strong presences capable of creating and sustaining individual and group energy in scenes. They know when to give and when to take.

But the freshmen, for the most part, brought things down a notch on Friday. The night started with a game called "Hey Dude", a twist on the traveling message game "Telephone". Watching the original gestures be reinterpreted both physically and verbally was mildly amusing, but anyone who's played Telephone knows that the game loses meaning when people purposefully make easy, ridiculous embellishments on the original words and -- big surprise! The end result is something nutty. In this game, it's equally as lame to watch the truth in the scene derailed by someone going for cheap, easy laughs. Sam Bertken did this when he exaggerated things like "going to Frelon rehearsal" into "trying to dirty dance with girls to get them to come back to my room with me." It felt insincere and sacrificed the rest of the scene.

The majority of the show after that was comprised of a long-form game that started with one-word suggestions and developed into an expectedly loopy plot with crazy characters. Groups of three or four improviser interacted in short vignettes that established a story about a man who sold his soul to his brother. Cooper's rough and gravelly grandpa was hilarious and showed off his excellent pantomime skills; at one point he mimed setting out tobacco leaves and rolling papers, then told his adolescent grandchildren whoever could roll the fastest cigar would get to be an honorary adult for the day. The two grandchildren didn't do much besides repeat the same joke about cards 10 or so times.

Alex was equally funny as a rugged agriculture sage trying to teach more children how to handle themselves around a giant ox, played brilliantly by Dombos. "See Duke's a little bit of the MVP of the tillin' world. Lot of people tryin' to steal him. So whenever you're out there with Duke... you gotta pack heat." For all the laughs he got, it was obvious that without him the scene would be going nowhere. Ben's scene involving a stubborn woman not wanting to sit in a chair felt limp and static because no matter what energy he was giving, it just wasn't matched by those around him. The two freshman girls don't have the strong female presence Grace McGookey and Emily Harpe had, and the lack of physical comedy from study-abroad juniors Michael Chodos and Vince Kusiak kept things tame.

Perhaps the most telling part of the night was the introduction. As the lights dimmed and audience expectations were running high, a band of conspicuously unfamiliar impersonators took the stage and proudly declared, "We are Monkapult!" Everyone immediately understood the gag, which was both charming in its surprise and relieving in that we knew our beloved theater majors were somewhere hidden backstage. But after watching tonight's lopsided performance, it seems inevitable that Alex, Ben, Terry, and Dombos' graduation this spring will leave the team looking like a group of impersonators.