By VARSHA BADAVIDE
Staff Writer
On August 31, the theater filled with enormous cheers and applause for UHS’s Comedy Sportz team, who graced the stage with their first match of the year. Performing for a full theater, the Comedy Sportz team entertained through the use of games utilizing improvisation and audience suggestions, which encouraged plenty of audience participation.
Led by this year’s captains, seniors Neiman Araque and Charlie Feuerborn, the blue team and the red team competed against each other, playing games where they had to come up with entertaining performances based on any single word or scenario. The match started with a game called One-Word Laugh Out, where the two captains exchanged one word back and forth until one of them made a specific audience member laugh.
Araque, who has been doing Comedy Sportz since his freshman year, shared that his favorite part about Comedy Sportz was “honestly just being able to have fun with friends. To be able to entertain a crowd by just making up stuff and having a blast is a rewarding experience like no other. I couldn’t enjoy Comedy Sportz without the crazy, wacky people you meet along the way.”
As the two teams continued to compete against each other, they played a variety of different games, such as “Emo Symphony,” where the host of the show conducted each member of the red team to act based on an emotion in a certain rhythm, and “Interrogation,” where two members of the blue team had been accused of a crime and the other two members tried to get them to confess and mention certain words suggested by the audience. The audience cheered loudly for both teams during and after each game.
During halftime, sophomore Annika Thiim shared her thoughts on Comedy Sportz, saying, “I always enjoy it! Last year I really enjoyed it and came to every match. I think it’s a great time and always look forward to it.”
As the match came to a close, the team played a game involving props, where a member of either team would gain a point each time they made the audience laugh using the selected prop. The theater was filled with laughter as the two teams produced one comical scene after another. The matched ended with a dance party game, in which all the members came together and danced to randomly chosen songs. Every time the music stopped, all the members froze in the dance move they were doing, and a few members were chosen to enact a scene based on what position they were in.
Even though the game ended with the blue team winning, all the Comedy Sportz members looked as if they were having immense fun just entertaining the audience. The audience, too, was filled with laughter, applause and cheer for everyone on the team.
After the scrimmage ended, sophomore Jeraldine Ang expressed that she “always thought they were really funny and a great way to spend time with friends,” and that she “will definitely be going to more matches.”
Sophomore Sydney Spencer, an avid member of the Comedy Sportz team, shared her enthusiasm about Comedy Sportz, stating that joining the team was the “best thing I’ve ever done. It may seem weird and unusual. We not only have a great team but you enjoy yourself.”
If you would like to be part of the fun and join the Comedy Sportz team, auditions are being held this upcoming Monday. The next Comedy Sportz match will be on Friday, September 21.
“Join and come see us,” said Spencer. “It’s also something I did the first match of my freshman year and instantly fell in love with.”
