Laughter is the best medicine, and little brings more laughter and joy to campus than Furman’s improv troupe, Improv!able Cause.
Improv!able Cause performs improv, or unscripted comedy, shows revolving around games inspired by audience-provided prompts. Actors use the prompts to create scenes that “are hopefully funny,” as described by Club President Elaina Penn ‘27.
Penn came into her position this semester after, as described during shows, a successful coup against the former, now disgraced, President Tate Denham ‘26. Both Penn and Denham joined the troupe as freshmen.
Despite her current position of power, Penn was almost not in the troupe at all.
“The night they were supposed to have auditions, I got sidetracked,” Penn said. “I was like, oh shoot, I missed improv auditions. I guess that’s not going to happen.”
However, thanks to what Penn claims was divine intervention, the auditions were rescheduled, and she was able to join.
Improv has been a part of former president Denham’s life for much longer. Doing improv in high school theater kindled a love of the craft that Denham carried with him to Furman.
“I remember playing the Dating Game and totally losing myself in a scene,” Denham said. “It felt genuine, and it was so natural to me.”
The Dating Game, one of the former president’s favorite prompts, is one of many that the troupe performs. It involves three “goobers,” as the actors are called, on stage playing contestants in a dating show while another is sent to wait outside. Based on input from the audience, one actor is given a character, another an occupation and the final a quirk that the actor outside must guess through their interactions in the scene.
The Dating Game is an example of short-form improv, which usually involves only one or two scenes lasting a few minutes. Long-form, something the troupe is experimenting with, involves multiple scenes and spans around 30 minutes.
An example of a long-form game is a ballard, one of Penn’s favorites. Two actors begin a scene on stage, and at any point, another actor may tap in to swap places with a current actor. This continues until every actor has been in a scene, with the first character returning in the last scene. One of Penn’s favorite ballards involved woodland creatures running an underground mafia to store food for winter.
Beyond prompts, improv shows also provide a variety of other chances for audience participation, including the banana lottery, in which bananas are hidden underneath seats for lucky audience members to find, and volunteering to be game props.
Improv!able Cause not only offers entertainment to those in the audience but also to the members of the troupe itself. Both the current and disgraced presidents remarked that their favorite memories have been with the troupe, from spending time together after shows to finding out they were accepted to join.
For those interested in auditioning next year, there are some specific qualities that make someone a good fit for improv, according to Penn and Denham.
Denham views active listening as one of the most important skills to have in improv.
“Being able to listen is far more important than being funny. If you listen well, you hear connotations and unspoken ideas that your scene partners are communicating to you, and you can do something amazing by bringing those to life,” Denham said.
Penn believes improv actors must be able to let go of embarrassment.
“I think [you need] a willingness to let go of ego and be foolish on stage because you don’t have time up there to think,” said Penn. “Someone who’s willing to just be goofy on stage and not care what people think is really wonderful.”
Even though some personal qualities are important for improv, other campus affiliations are not, according to Denham and Penn.
Improv!able Cause reminds students not to take life too seriously and helps them forget about the hustle and bustle of college life. Through their own willingness to be silly, they remind us that “life is silly, and there is comedy wherever you look,” Denham said.
