(From left to right) Luke Hamilton, Quinn Mattfeld and Sabrina Bernasconi ham it up on stage during a recent
evening of improvisational comedy. The troupe now performs Friday and Saturday nights at Charley’s.
By Sara Jarrett
Oregon Daily Emerald
An impressive collection of posters
hang on the comedy club’s walls: Char
lie Chaplin, Charlie Brown and Charlie’s
Angels.
A “Hot Shots! Part Deux” poster with a
menacing Charlie Sheen pulling back the
string of a bow-and-arrow aimed straight at
the crowd highlights the center stage. His
biceps bulge below his squinted eyes,
which are surrounded by wrinkled camou
flage makeup, haphazardly smeared on his
face.
Underneath his image is the phrase “Just
Deux It.”
This silly backdrop seems to create the
perfect environment for Charley’s in
downtown Eugene. The bar/restaurant
plays host to myriad traveling stand-up
comedians, as well as the local improvisa
tion comedy group, Absolute Improv.
Spender Whitted, owner of both Charley’s
and Rock ‘n’ Rodeo, a honky tonk next
door, said he opened his business two
years ago because it was an entertainment
opportunity that no one else was doing
downtown.
And there seems to be a reason for that,
on the stand-up acts’ side of
things at least. Charley’s
stopped booking travel
ing comedians altogeth
er in favor of Absolute
Improv. The
group,
now in its fourth year of existence, draws
in 20 percent more patrons than individual
acts do, Whitted said. Beginning this week
end, instead of just performing on Friday
nights, Absolute Improv takes the stage
both Friday and Saturday nights at 8:30
p.m. for a $5 cover charge.
Three women and three men from the
13-member troupe performed Jan. 21 to a
packed house — an energetic, mostly col
lege-aged crowd. Good thing, too, because
what makes the troupe stand out from most
other comedy outfits is its interactiveness
with the audience.
Before each skit, the members ask the
crowd to yell out answers to questions like,
“What location are we in?” or “What pro
fession do [we] practice?” Other troupe
suggestions include, “Name a topic that
should get more news coverage” or “Name
a catastrophic event.” Just about anything
yqu can imagine is a possible subject mat
ter.
Improv comedy thrives on a captivated
audience. This form of entertainment is
“completely on the spot — fully made up
in front of the audience’s eyes and fully
based on audience suggestions,” Michael
Govier, original member and the group’s
current organizer, said. “You never know
what you’re gonna get.”
While this is generally the truth, the
troupe agrees that they have heard cer
tain answers more than enough
times. People in the audience
think it’s funny when they
yell out things like “hemor
rhoids, diarrhea ... and
other potty humor,”
troupe members agreed
while talking in their
dressing room after the
show.
The repetition factor is
the most daunting task of an
improv comedy group. If
members are constantly giv
en the same topics from
the audience, how do the
skits remain fresh?
“We try to get differ
ent suggestions by com
ing up with new ways of
asking them,” one mem
ber said. For example,
sometimes they will
change their approach to
asking for three words that
begin with a certain letter in
stead of asking for a specific
answer.
During the skit “Wish it
Were in the News,” for in
Iv- stance, the group asked the
audience to yell out words
Absolute Improv gains a bigger following and is rewarded
with an extra evening of stage time to elicit laughs from
audiences at Charley’s Restaurant and Bar
that begin with the letter D. From the ca
cophony that ensued, they managed to cre
ate a farcical news story about Celine Dion,
the dog diva.
Drawing the most raucous reaction from
the crowd that particular
night was the skit “Hesita
tion,” which took place in
side Secretary of State
Madeline Albright’s womb
(an audience suggestion).
One actor fluttered around
the stage with his arms
pinned to his sides, letting
his hands flap. “I’m Made
line Albright’s egg,” he
said.
Another actor then came
piercing into the scene. He
was the sperm. The dia
logue that followed was
nothing compared to the
bizarre place they were supposed to be
swimming in.
Not every skit was that hilarious,
though. During “30 Second Stand-Up,”
the troupe bombed pretty hard. The point
was to perform 30 seconds of stand-up
comedy, joking about different topics the
audience yelled out.
This exercise seems incredibly hard, so
it’s no surprise that jokes such as “What’s
up with the Backdoor Boys — we know
what’s going on there,” and “Kris Kringle
in the house — ever go down the chimney
and the bitch ain’t got no cookies?” came
out.
The sketches could have been funnier
however, if only the .
I audience had offered
more interesting
ideas. During “Fixed
Expression,” for in
stance, the location
presented was a bin
go hall. One must
ask, how do you
make playing bingo
funny?
Despite drawbacks
related to the audi
ence aspect, Ab
solute Improv con
sists of intelligent
people wno are wen
equipped to think on their feet. They
have knowledge of a plethora of trivial
and important topics, and the members
are naturally funny.
The show is hit-and-miss, though. You
never know what you’re going to get from
skit to skit.
• Words to the wise: get to Charley’s early
and sit in the front, stay away from the
mundane potty humor, and think about in
triguing topics to yell out before going.
Azle Malinao-Alvarez Emerald
(From left to right) Tyler Boeh, Sabrina Bernasconi and Quinn Mattfeld carry out an improv skit.