The atmosphere in the small room beneath the stage in McComas Hall is anything goes. The spontaneous group of actors who form the Mississippi State University student improv and sketch comedy group “Runnin’ With Scissors” trickle in and get ready to work on Friday’s show. “Runnin’ With Scissors” will be performing at 7:30 p.m. in McComas Hall and admission will be $3.
The group started with a bunch of guys in theater who wanted to do something more, Eian Stoutenburgh, one of the student members, said.
“We have performed at places like Big Daddy’s, Rick’s, The Hunt Club and Pollywogs and this year we have a schedule where we perform once a month on campus,” Stoutenburgh said.
Sketch comed, is a relatively new addition to the group’s performance, Alston Averit, member and director, said.
“We’ve done improv for so long we figured sketch comedy would bring something new,” Averit said, “the sketches are great.”
The group and their shows are sponsored by Theatre MSU.
The group meets a few times a week and they have written 10 sketches, of which three will be performed Friday night, Dustin Lefors, member since the beginning of this semester, said.
When asked what the worst or most discouraging moment has been, most of the group can’t remember anything bad enough to remember.
“There was this one time when we did something that wasn’t funny. You hear the crickets on the occasion that something doesn’t work,” Jason Comans said. “But when everything clicks it’s a type of high from performing that you can’t get from regular theater because you know what’s going to happen. It’s more of a risk, but when it works its awesome.”
Will Cooper joined the group this semester because, like many of the other members, he saw the group perform and instantly decided he wanted to be join.
“I love acting and making people laugh and I’ve known a lot of people in the group. I saw some shows and decided to audition,” Cooper said.
Houston Longino, who has been with the group for a year now after seeing an ad on the wall and auditioning, remembered an unexpected audience reaction.
“There are several scenes where I have to die and bang my head on a desk. Well I didn’t realize how loud it would sound to the audience so I hit it pretty hard and I had people coming up to me after the show asking me if I was okay,” Longino said.
“Sometimes we end up making fools of ourselves, but I guess that’s kind of the point,” Comans said as other members amused themselves with a gorilla mask and a plastic skull.
When asked to name a particularly crazy offstage incident, the entire group “pleads the Fifth.”