Improv 201
Boomerang Comedy Theater
Baton Rouge
June 26
The first time you do something new, it’s easy to get your friends and family to come cheer you on. When you’ve reached a new career milestone, the same people love to congratulate you and reminisce about how they knew you when. But most skills in entertainment – singing, dancing, comedy, and yes, improv – are formed in the countless hours in between when nobody is watching. A nine o’clock 201 improv show is a peak into that work.
At the 201 Improv show at the new Boomerang Comedy Theater location, there were a few old faces from Boomerang’s other classes/longform improv groups and a few new faces. Boomerang cofounder Angi Noote explained that once you take a class at the theater, you can audit it for free at any time.
It was a smaller crowd for the last show of the day. Boomerang had already hosted two other shows, one that was so full, they had to move chairs to accommodate the crowd, but the audience of about 10 people sounded like 50 at times. The space feels smaller than their old location, the door opens right into the stage space, but they’re making it their own. Similar to the 101 shows, the 201 showcase consisted of the students playing different improv games, hosted by Noote. She’s a little more hands off with it but still calling trios to the stage for the different scenes.
In one game that felt more like a traditional improv scene, Curran and Matt act as a couple at a restaurant. Their suggestion was “break-up,” so Curran was trying to broach the topic in the most roundabout way possible. Their waiter, Amanda, was coming in to interrupt them periodically. Matt, for his part, slipped Amanda the ring to put in the dessert, making the scene so much more awkward and so much funnier.
Curran was great in the show, even though there were some limits to what she could say.
“My dad’s in the audience,” she said, slightly mortified by one of the prompts and the direction her classmates had taken their comedy.
While playing a round of World’s Worst, in which performers receive an audience suggestion of an occupation and take turns acting out the world’s worst version of that job. The prompt was pole dancer. Curran stepped up and called back to the earlier moment with, “My dad’s always in the audience.” Which earned a big laugh.
The 201ers are putting in their hours to hone their craft, and people are supporting it, even if that means a little awkwardness along the way.
