A student improv comedy group is generating buzz around campus performing sketches for “mature audiences” inspired by a popular TV show.
The group, Ironman Repertory Theatre Company, started in January and uses the kind of comedy employed in the TV show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
“I love ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?,’ so I would be interested to see how much like the show this performance will be,” Student Jennifer Hyde said.
The company will perform in McComas Lab Theatre on Thursday and Friday. MSU student Sam Hamburg is the producer and manager of the company. He said what the group does is-of course-make people laugh. The general improvisation, or sketch comedy, the troupe performs is basically a number of games that Hamburg and others get from TV shows and books.
Although the company practices the games to become familiar with them, the material within the games is always different during a show, Hamburg said.
He said the show, recommended for mature audiences, often heads in unexpectedly risqu directions. He said in the past authorities have censored the group, telling them not to venture into controversial territory.
Because the company is not sanctioned by the university, however, their weekend performances allow them the freedom to perform comedy “the way it’s supposed to be performed.”
“When we’re trying to teach the younger actors the ropes, there are innuendos everywhere,” Hamburg said. “We’re good, but we go south so quick it isn’t funny anymore.”
The group will charge a $5 admission for MSU students, faculty and staff attending the Sept. 18 and 19 shows. The performance will be the troupe’s first at the lab theatre.
Hamburg, who will graduate in May, said he hopes participation in the group will grow in coming years.
“I want to see it grow and strengthen. The group we have now is funny and talented, and I just hope that there’s a producer among them that will take them to new places,” Hamburg said.
MSU student Brandon Patton said the show sounds interesting.
“I’ve never heard of them before, but it sounds like something that would be a lot of fun to watch,” he said. “I hope I can make it to one of the shows.”