By VARSHA BADAVIDE
Staff Writer

The UHS Comedy Sportz team hosted their annual Halloween match on Friday, October 26, this time playing against El Toro High School. Though it was somewhat shorter than past matches to accommodate a football game right after, there was still plenty of great improvisation done by the Comedy Sportz team.
The main focus of the Halloween match was to get people to donate cans for the canned food drive in order to receive free admission.
“We like to have themes for our matches,” sophomore Julia Rooney said, an avid member of the team. “In the past we’ve done costumes and things, but really, honestly, this match…was an excuse to do something special like encourage students to donate cans.”
The Comedy Sportz team members received ear-splitting applause as they were introduced for the first half of the match. There were many new games played in this match that had not been done in the previous few matches, such as Cat Tag Monologue, where the players had to deliver a monologue on a random topic chosen by an audience member. When the team member delivering the monologue was tapped by someone else, they would immediately stop and the other member would continue the monologue from where they had stopped. This game had been especially well-received by the audience, as the players of the team came up with hilarious jokes and scenarios as they were delivering their monologues.
Another new game that was played in this match was Stunt Double, where the players would act out a scenario suggested by the audience. Two of the players would improvise a story, and then randomly call out “Stunt Double!” Then, the other two members of the team would take their place and continue with an overdramatic, exaggerated version of the story, while action music played in the background. The audience especially loved this game, with a huge round of cheers resonating through the theater as the “student doubles” acted out their scenes.
“It was funny!” sophomore Ariel Hurwitz said. “I really admire the players. It takes a lot of confidence to get up stage without knowing what you’re going to do.”
In the second half of the match, the entire Comedy Sportz team played a story game based on an audience suggestion: cold soup, which they narrated in a horrific way. Their vivid descriptions incited enormous laughter from the audience, who were deeply engrossed in this seemingly trivial story about cold soup. With a few more well-improvised games, the Comedy Sportz team ended their Halloween match on a high note, and huge rounds of applause and cheers from the audience.
“[My favorite parts of the match were] the last segments, where they [the team] were making puns on people’s names,” sophomore Jenna Doherty said.
Rooney revealed that the part she had enjoyed most about this particular game was watching the newcomers to the team, who were introduced last match, perform.
“I was really proud of the newcomers! I’m proud they’re becoming such great improvisers!” Rooney said.
The next Comedy Sportz match will be taking place at the end of the month, November 30.