Those of you who have noticed an advertisement for “Home Alone 6” and have no idea what “Off Center” is, it is not a promotion for a new movie with our favorite child star Macaulay Culkin. The poster was for Off Center’s two-day improv show that took place at 9 p.m. in Bissinger on the weekend of Oct. 24 and 25.
As is typical for an improv show, both nights of the show were completely different. The difference normally comes from the fact that the suggestions, improvised lines, and content tends to change, even when the “games” remain the same.
However, Off Center did short form improv on Friday night and long form Saturday night.
In short form, the games are very similar to Whose Line Is It Anyway?, where the actors are given small suggestions in the form of a word or scene, and they have to build a story around it.
“Comedy Cube” was a game in which the actors were given four different suggestions. The actors formed a square on the stage and cycled through sides of the cube with one suggestion on each side. The two actors facing that side slowly develop a plot or scenario until they are told to switch, and the cube turns to the next scene.
Another skit performed in short form is “Party Quirks.” In this game, the “host” of the party leaves the room and three “guests” are given identities consisting of who or what they are coming to the party as. The host then has to guess who they are as each member comes in and acts out the role.
The long form consisted of more complicated improv exercises. This includes interviewing and questioning audience members in order to come up with more content.
One of the activities involved interviewing sophomore Veronica Pidduck about her life before Stevens. The skits that followed were exaggerations and stories based on things Veronica said. The most prevalent of these was the confusion people have between the rival schools “MATES” and “MAST.”
One of the newest additions to the show was an improvised song. The audience gave a suggestion of one word and from that, the actors had to create a song from the piano vamp.
For anyone who attended that night, they certainly left Bissinger with that song stuck in their heads. The suggested word was “woods” to which the lyrics created were, “I’m walking in the woods and I see a squirrel/ it’s the most beautiful thing in the entire world.”
Like most Off Center shows, snacks and drinks were provided, as well as several boxes of pizza with different kinds of toppings.
The great thing about the short form is that it allowed newer members of Off Center improv to get a chance to perform for the first time in a show. It will be great to see these new members progress and live up to their great improv veterans such as Off Center’s Captain Hook Sean Kelty and Mr. Smee Zach Kastner.
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