By Tom Stankewicz
The Loy Norrix Improv Team “IT” took the stage for the second show of the year to a packed choir room on March 11. This year’s “IT” team has added several new team members to bolster the already hilarious cast.
This year’s team is led by returning members Stuart Wheaton, Sarah Sherman, and Natalie LaCroix and joined by newcomers Adam Johnson, PJ McCrary, Josh Johnson, Nora Carpenter, Maurice Sanders, and Bazsa Miller.
The team plays a variety of improvisational games that rely on quick and clever team members. Anchored by the seniors, Miller, Wheaton, Adam Johnson, Sanders, and LaCroix the team is a good mix of youth and experience.
The “IT” team played an assortment of games involving the audience and team members. A perennial favorite is “Blind Lines,” a game that had the audience submit lines before the show that are randomly picked and then crafted into a scene. Another classic is “Challenge,” with Maurice Sanders as the judge. In “Challenge,” Adam Johnson and Nora Carpenter were pitted against Stuart Wheaton and Josh Johnson in a heated battle to convince Sanders whether Star Trek or Star Wars is better. In the end Sanders sided with Star Wars and declared Johnson and Wheaton the victors.
One of the funnier games of the night was “Party Quirks,” starring Adam Johnson as the party host, McCrary as the overly sweaty guy, Wheaton as Lady Gaga, and former team alums Kellan Martin as a foot-smeller, and Ty Steffler as Ke$ha. Since the audience suggests the character’s quirks, everyone is in on the joke except the party host. The goal of this game was for Johnson to guess who his party guests were.
Junior Mary Farner enjoys this type of game. “It is fun to know more than they do while they’re improvising,” said Farner.
Senior Bazsa Miller’s favorite game from the show was “Last Letter Scene.” In this scene, Wheaton and Miller improvised a scene using the last letter of the last word the other person said to start their next sentence.
“I enjoy it because it’s a lot harder to play than most people think, and it gets some good laughs,” said Miller.
Miller also enjoys hosting games because of his ability to project well. He believes the show went very well and was especially happy because the team successfully implemented two brand new games, “Byrone” and “Zulu.” “Byrone” is a game suggested by “IT” alum, Brian Craig. It involved improvising a sales pitch for a product the crowd suggested. “Zulu” is a story telling game, when the host clapped, the team members had to act out the current part of the story.
Finishing with tradition, the team ended the show with the classic game “Do-Run-Run.” In this game every team member had to sing a rhyming phrase to the rhythm of the song. When a player got stumped or failed to rhyme, they lost the game.
Strong game hosting by Bazsa Miller and Adam Johnson really carried the show along, while enthusiastic and funny team members made for an altogether very funny experience. The team will perform one more show this school year, which will include an introduction for next year’s new team members.
