Cannibals, Lean Pockets, and dead goldfishes abounded last night when Zamboni Revolution, a student improvisational comedy troupe, performed to a packed Panasci lounge.

Most people think of the TV show ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ when they think of improvisation, however, Zamboni Revolution’s production proved itself to be a far different beast. David Young, director of Zamboni Revolution and a senior television, radio and film major, said the group has instead changed its style to long-form improv.

‘It’s got more of a team spirit and free spirit because instead of being set in different games, you can go up anytime you want,’ said Monica Hoge, a Zamboni Revolution performer and a junior film drama major. ‘When it works, to me personally, it’s so fulfilling.

Zamboni Revolution’s long-form performance was more substantive than the short-form style of ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ Taking advantage of the additional time to create a multi-dimensional scene, the troupe effectively invented the personalities of their characters, the relationships with other characters, conveyed the objectives and motivations of their characters and established the whereabouts of the scene.

‘When we perform improve, we want to create a real world,’ Young said.

The performance was hilarious, soliciting raucous laughter from the audience on multiple occasions. Zamboni Revolution is blessed with seven very funny, very talented performers who successfully correlated the different scenes in the performance, making the show that much funnier.

In one particularly funny scene, the group even managed to do convincing flashbacks, not an easy feat without the benefit of a flashback blur-effect. The troupe even managed to transform the mundane, such as a visit to the doctor’s office, into pure hysteria.

Best of all, though, were their monologues, one of the more difficult improvisational performances, although the soliloquies could have stood to be a bit longer. The humor tended towards crudity more often than not, but then again, who doesn’t enjoy jokes about educational pornography for kids?

‘Sometimes it’s clean and sometimes it’s dirty,’ Hoge said of the act. ‘But, hopefully always, it’s fun.’

Zamboni Revolution’s performance was especially impressive considering the cast going into the show was a relatively new one. Auditions for new members were held just three weeks ago and, of the seven performers last night, three were new. In addition, the group only did one long-form show before last night’s performance. Despite limited practice time, Zamboni Revolution has successfully branched out its previous short-form roots.

Published on October 14, 2004 at 12:00 pm