Famed troupe Upright Citizens visits

If someone were to randomly walk into the DeWitt lobby last Friday night at 7:30 p.m., they would have found a long line of chattering Hope students waiting to rush into the large auditorium. It twisted and turned its way around the entire first floor. What was everyone waiting for? The Vanderprov and Upright Citizens Brigade comedy night.

The doors abruptly opened at 8 p.m. and students flooded in to await the show, which began a half hour later. Nearly every seat in both the lower level and balcony was occupied. Since the show last winter, Hope students have been eager to experience the improvisation groups once more.

Vanderprov is the student-run improvisation group at Hope. They are a group of about twelve students who put on a show every month of the school year, which is always highly anticipated. But couple them with the professional Upright Citizens Brigade group and the enthusiasm skyrockets. As was mentioned by the Student Activities Committee at the show, the Upright Citizens Brigade was formed by actress Amy Poehler.

The show began with Vanderprov, who performed two skits. The first was a three-person skit which involved random prompts for each character to substitute words with another idea and the other involved audience suggestions for categories, which partners would act out together. After performing both and getting laughs out of the audience, the team returned to their seats to await the main act.

For this performance, there were five men from the improvisation group. They started off by focusing on Hope and receiving our reactions on campus staples including the Pull, Nykerk and Good Time Donuts. Later, after asking for volunteers, the team interviewed Rachel Brumagin (’19) onstage. Each team member asked multiple questions about her life in order to create skits from her answers.

Throughout the night, the team delivered hysterical skits that had everyone in attendance laughing. One of the most memorable moments was when they recreated students attempting to be cool, while slipping on the hail-ice from Jan. 16. There was also a skit with President Knapp walking into the cafeteria and acting like a celebrity, which the audience found hilarious.

For the last half of the show, the group pulled text messages from crowd members that were odd and out of context. Topics they drew from included a dead deer over someone’s bed, an automated deal on phone plans and cannibalism. As they walked off at the end of the night, the improvisation team was met with tumultuous applause.

All in all, it was an enjoyable evening for everyone in attendance, judging from the smiles and chuckles. The high anticipation from last year was clearly satisfied. Perhaps SAC will book them again next year.