According to Myra Bhathena ’22, Under The Bed has been working on making more complicated scenarios in their games with longer storylines.
Incorporating the word “sandals” suggested by the crowd, Violet Enes ’21 stepped forward and pulled the one-liner, “I like my sex like I like my sandals: with more than one strap.” This game, titled “Innuendo,” left the audience cracking up as they continued to suggest other words to the performers such as “rice” and “a cappella.”
“I think ‘Innuendo’ was new to the show this year, which I think a lot of people really liked at the end. We didn’t do that in the first show, but it has been done and practiced a lot in the past,” said Under the Bed (U.T.B.) member Myra Bhathena ’22.
“Innuendo” was one of the many games played during the U.T.B. show held last Saturday night in Susie’s. As an improv comedy group, shows involve playing games with members following basic rules and coming up with content on the spot. According to U.T.B. Head Harry Kahane ’20, the group decided to go with a general theme of Valentine’s Day this year.
“We’ve never done a show themed all the way through before with all the different games… For ‘Experts Challenge,’ it was on the subject of love in general, [and we played] ‘Late for a Date’ as opposed to ‘Late for Work,’ and also ‘Party Quirks’ with couples instead of guests. We gave it a shot, and considering we had never done it before I think it was great,” said Kahane.
According to U.T.B. member Nick Picchione ’20, the humor in the game “Late for a Date” was received especially well by the crowd. The game involved a U.T.B. member leaving the stage and the audience proposing an excuse for being late for a date. The member then returned and had to figure out what the excuse was by watching the gestures of other U.T.B. members hiding in the back.
“I’d say a lot of jokes in the game, ‘Late for a Date,’ especially when the date turns around and sees what all the workers in the background are doing, are always super good because they’re always super unexpected and the audience never knows what’s coming. The shock factor really helps that,” said Picchione.
Creating a concentrated narrative for the audience to follow was one of the aspects of the show that U.T.B. worked on during practice. According to U.T.B. member Matt Veneri ’21, focusing on creating a narrative is the best and most effective type of comedy.
“The biggest thing that people find funny is if you can create a story. So [the game] ‘Montage’ does a really good example with that. We create a story based on one event that the audience gives us and then we build it from there. I find that the best comedy is when we can build on that story, because half the reason why the audience is laughing is because they find it impressive,” said Veneri.
Audience member George Lathrop ’22 thought that U.T.B. did a good job of incorporating audience interaction during the performance. During the show, one of Lathrop’s audience ideas was heard and integrated into the game.
“They actually used one of my ideas for [‘Late for a Date’], which was using ‘an avalanche’ as an excuse for being late. I just shouted ‘avalanche’ when they asked for ideas, and I thought it was super cool that we were able to interact with the performers so well. I loved how it wasn’t super planned and restricted, how it was mostly improv, and that we were able to voice our ideas as the audience,” said Lathrop.
