The actors take the stage and not one of them knows their lines. They don’t even know what the story is about until the audience tells them. It’s not an elementary school play gone horribly wrong. It’s “Making It Up as We Go Along,” LSU’s improv comedy show.
The improv comedians make their way back to the LSU Union Colonnade Theater this year with some new members and some old ones. The improv show debuted in the fall of 2001 and has entertained many audiences since.
This season’s competitors consist of eight student teams hoping to make the finals Nov. 9. The teams compete in 13 shows, more than three weeks, in order to determine a victor.
All the members of the production have been honing their improvisational skills for the last six weeks and it shows. The show starts off with a choreographed song and dance number from all the teams and host, but then they make up the rest of the show with help from the audience.
The show is similar to the hit show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” Actors are expected to take suggestions from the audience and form some sort of story around it. Each skit has rules administered by the show’s host.
Four teams of four students compete in four rounds, each differing in style. Sometimes they are forced to act out a pop-up storybook or advertisements for products that don’t and shouldn’t exist. The teams compete for the applause of the audience and a panel of judges scores them. At the end of the show, the host declares one team the victor and gives them the “Crawfish Etrophee” to hold until the next show.
“I’ve been to see it twice this week and I really enjoy it. It looks like it would be really fun to be up on stage and try some of it,” said Chris Landry, psychology freshman.
The host of MIU:2, David Charles, keeps the show lively between improvisations by cracking jokes and taking suggestions from the audience for the next skit. The show also features a keyboardist to offer some background music for the skits. Both of them also have to make it up as they go along.
The show entertains the audience most of the time. Some of the ideas from the audience don’t yield results as good as others, but the good improvisations outweigh the bad. The audience laughs as much at the actors on stage as it does at it own suggestions.
“I’ve been doing this for a while and it gets better every year,” said Brenton Francois, a general studies senior and MIU:2 member. “We’re not doing Shakespeare here. We’re just out to make people laugh and have a good time. We’re full of tasty goodness and all about helping sick puppies.”
MIU: 2 has shows for the next two weeks at 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On Nov. 9, they will host the finals at 7:30 p.m. in order to decide who gets the coveted “Crawfish Etrophee.” With tickets costing $4 and the show running about two hours, MIU: 2 is cheap, good entertainment almost anyone will enjoy.