Close your eyes. Imagine a man walking down the street. He stops, pulls a piece of paper from his pocket, and looks at it. He checks what's written on the paper with the number on a house in front of him, and goes up to knock on the door. A woman opens the door...
Are your eyes still closed? Yes? Then think, quick... what color was the man's hat? Black, blue, brown?
Who said the man was even wearing a hat?
If you pictured the man wearing a hat, then your brain supplied an image to fit some basic criteria; or, to rephrase, you just did a type of improv. Improvisation like this is only a simple exercise, because, of course, no one really cares what color the man's hat was. However, some Tufts students have elevated this simple process to an art form.
To put it in another way, if you were to shout, "Hey, look at that gorilla!" somewhere on campus, people might be a little wary. But there is one group of people in which someone will not only agree with you, but add, "Oh, look, he's wearing a top hat!"
That group of people is commonly known as Cheap Sox, the university's only improv comedy troupe. The group originated in 1985, when a show was put together as a one-shot deal. It turned out to be so popular that a comedy improv troupe was formed, later adding the signature pink bowling shirts that the group wears during performances.
Sean Cusick, a senior member, describes the group as "just a bunch of kids in pink shirts getting up on stage and making shit up." He also ventures to say that Cheap Sox has one of the broadest audiences of any student group on campus, since comedy appeals to just about everyone.
A four-year member of the troupe, Cusick had never heard of improv before coming to Tufts. He has since become one of the group's two directors. Though he is a director, Cusick says, "There is no way to lead an improv comedy troupe. It's an extremely cooperative effort." He describes improv comedy as acting without thinking - letting your brain go, and figuring it out afterwards.
Cheap Sox rehearses about six hours a week for their improv shows. Though it may seem an apparent contradiction that improv is 'rehearsed,' Cusick and the group's other director, Jeremy Wang-Iverson, claim to be something like basketball coaches.
"A basketball coach can't predict exactly what will happen during a game, but he or she can plot out what might happen, and plan for it," Cusick says. As directors, Cusick and Wang-Iverson try to do the same thing, by practicing exercises and games that emphasize a certain skill with which the group might be having trouble.
The troupe usually has one big show per semester and several smaller ones on campus, and also participates in comedy festivals like Improv Boston Cheap Sox's 11 members all have to work together to put on a good performance. The members this semester are senior Sean Cusick, Shannon Choy, and Johanna Neumann; juniors Rachel Evans, Gaby Buonassi (abroad), and Jeremy Wang-Iverson; sophomores Charlie Semine, Melissa Holman, and Rah-nee Kelly; and freshmen Graham Griffen and Allan Rice. Kelly, Griffen and Rice are newcomers to the comedy troupe.
When asked what the group looked for during auditions, Cusick said there were really three qualities. Described as "Plays well with others," the first characteristic basically means that, when someone else in the group says, "Oh, look, there's a gorilla," you don't say, "I don't see a gorilla." Cusick says, "It's really easy to kill the scene that way." Members of the troupe have to be able to cooperate to keep a scene alive.
Second is spontaneity. Members have to try new things and put themselves on the line, trying to create genuine characters and get into the action.
And what's third? A sense of humor. Not only does one have to be able to let his or her brain run wild and make things up on the spot, but it would be nice if some of those things were funny, too.
Cusick says that while going onstage and making people laugh can be incredibly rewarding, it can also be scary. The group's members have to stand up during a performance and hope that an idea comes - if one does, others will follow.
Quoting Mick Napier, an improv comedy director from Chicago, Cusick agrees that, "Improv is being totally confused and not knowing what the f*ck is going on." If that's what improv comedy truly is, Cheap Sox at the very least can make "not knowing what the f*ck is going on" incredibly entertaining.
