Liquid Fun Presents: Stephanie Duffy and the Three Little Tobins

long-form game

I love improv. J’aime l’improvisation. Me gusta el teatro improvisado. I LUV IMPROV!!11!! OMG WTF LOL.

I miss the days when I could get into the Market Theatre at Pike Place Market for $5 to see Unexpected Productions perform their renowned Theatresports shows. Luckily for me, there’s Liquid Fun, Boston University’s premiere improvisational comedy group. These guys (and a few girls) are funny. They create scenes based on suggestions shouted out by audience members, which threw me at first. At Seattle improv shows, even the drunk attendees raise their hands. Ah, Boston.

On October 8 at 7pm in CAS B50, Liquid Fun performed a compilation of improv skits entitled “Stephanie Duffy and the Three Little Tobins.” Don’t ask me what this means, but hey, it’s creative. The rotating cast included Matthew Duffy (CAS ’12), Alex Pomerantz (CAS ’12), Will Huebner (CAS ’12), Ari Stern (CAS ’13), Delaney Moghanian (CAS ’14), and The Quad‘s own Noah Eberhart (COM ’13), who sported a pair of spectacular lavender pants.

boris' kitchen
Members of Boris' Kitchen perform a skit. | Photo by Lauren Michael.

Boris’ Kitchen, a sketch comedy group from Brandeis University, opened the show with a series of skits. There were some highlights, like the harmonica guy whose rendition of “Lean on Me” has Top 40 written all over it, and the use of the tune “Ashokan Farewell” (made famous in Ken Burns’ PBS documentary/miniseries The Civil War) to accompany a soldier’s raunchy letter home to his wife. As a whole, they yelled a bit too much for my taste–but then again, I like Ken Burns’ films.

Next up were four members of Liquid Fun (aka “Funners”) performing a staple game of Pan Right/Pan Left, in which the actors rotate through different scenes whenever the moderator tells them to “pan right” or “pan left.” It became readily clear that these performers must have excellent memories or the games wouldn’t work. For those who haven’t figured this out, improv is really hard.

Next the Funners played an endowment game, complete with Abraham Lincoln jokes that made me giggle. Then they took a stab at long-form, where the performers took one word–“velociraptor”–and in about ten minutes had turned it into a scene about talking horses. It was hard not to be impressed.

After this was another short game, a particular favorite of mine because of its extreme difficulty. In this game, three actors perform a scene at a location suggested by the audience, only each actor provides the voice for another actor’s character. It’s insane. This game especially showcased Pomerantz’s talent for physical comedy as he portrayed a runner determined to run and jump over a heavily-guarded swimming pool.

long-form game
Stern (R) pretends to hide behind a poster as Huebner watches in awe during a game of long-form. | Photo by Lauren Michael.

Next, the Funners asked the audience for a book or a magazine, and thus John Updike’s Rabbit Run became the inspiration for the next scene. In this game, Huebner could only speak in lines from Rabbit Run. He hilariously inserted phrases like “the claws of the bear sound like rain outside” into a scene that I’m pretty sure involved a duck, a vanilla cookie, and a boob job. Next time, I’m bringing my copy of L’Etranger. It’s in French.

Following this, the actors began another round of long-form, this time involving aboriginal sea monkeys. The scenes progressed from whale hunting to turnip-eating to a hide-and-seek competition.

After a few more short games, the Funners proceeded with Survivor. In this game, each time the troupe performs a scene, the audience gets to eliminate one actor. As in their last performance, Stern was the last man standing, this time for his portrayal of Candyland crime-fighter Gumdrop Gary. The show ended with the Liquid Fun classic, Sex With Me, a gem of a game that can really only be understood by attendance.

For details on upcoming shows, visit http://blogs.bu.edu/liquidfun/, or friend “Liquidd Funn” on Facebook.

About Lauren Michael

Lauren Michael (CAS '15) is majoring in international relations and minoring in French. She's working on her Keystone project in the Kilachand Honors College--just ask her about Scotland! She adores The Mountain Goats, the Song of Ice and Fire series, Amsterdam, and a lot of other things. Her goal in life is to flood the Internet with corgis. Watch out. DFTBA!

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