No theme required: Comedy group Quipfire!'s show opens this weekend

A tip from the members of the improvisational comedy group Quipfire!: come to their performances with props and ready to yell.

The group will perform its February show this weekend, starting tonight and running through Saturday night at Theatre~Intime.

Because of the spontaneous nature of improvisational comedy, every Quipfire! performance is unique and impossible to predict.

But after watching a rehearsal and spending an hour with Quipfire!'s most experienced performers, I feel safe making one prediction for their new show: it's going to be funny. Really funny.

"My mom says the shows are great," Tom Crowley '03 said. "You can put that in there."

Quipfire!'s audiences have been known to crowd the aisles and even the stage of Theatre~Intime so tightly that the fire marshal sometimes makes an appearance. But they also know what to expect from Quipfire!'s shows: a mélange of improv games, with the audience's contributions expected and requested.

"People need to know that it's always going to be different, but it is consistently good, consistently funny," said Blythe Haaga '04, who recently was elected artistic director of the group.

While the group constantly adjusts new games to be used in performances, some constant favorites include Entrances and Exits, in which each player has a magic word causing them to enter and exit the stage, and Four Ways to Die, which involves each player dying sometime in the scene from a strange affliction selected by the audience. An example from rehearsal: death by pickup sticks.

Another popular game is Acronym, in which each player begins a phrase using an acronym provided by the audience: the acronym FBI might elicit "full-blown intestinal disorder," according to Brian Barrett '03.

The games are constantly changing from show to show and year to year — some old games discarded and new games picked up from tours and from other improvisational groups.

The Quipfire! members are a group of 10 of Princeton's funniest students, selected from the 60 to 80 would-be comedians who try out for the group each year. In fact, Quipfire! has become so competitive that several of its members tried out multiple years before they were offered a spot in the group.

Other Quipfire! members, like Scott Eckert '03, have been a part of the group almost right from the beginning of their time at Princeton. Eckert, as the previous artistic director of the group, still plays a major role in coordinating the shows but insists that the shows are very much a product of the efforts of the entire group. "I think I'm the archetype really, never having done any theater, a wide-eyed freshman, and I saw the Quipfire! freshmen week show, and I was wowed and amazed by the Quipfire! show, and I knew I had to be on the Quipfire! stage," Eckert said. "It's the most important thing that's happened to me in my Princeton career and possibly in my life. You can put that in italics or something."

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While all the games performed at the show will be entirely unrehearsed, Quipfire! members have been busy with practices in preparation for the show, working on techniques for funnier, smoother games and discussing how to improve the scenes.

For Hugh Strange '04, working on reacting to other players is a challenge he focuses on, especially since, like many Quipfire! members, he has little experience in theater.

Quipfire! chose 'Chicago' as the theme of the show, but members agree that randomly chosen themes generally appear minimally during the show and, often, only in the printed program.

As the show draws near, Quipfire! members have been busy with last-minute preparations, mainly working on focusing and staying calm.

"It's very Zen," said Robert Kennelley '06, one of Quipfire!'s newest members. "You have to relax on stage. Don't think about being funny, just be funny. The buzzword is focus. You can tell when someone's trying to think on stage."

What about the times when Quipfire! members just don't feel like being funny?

"You use drugs . . . just kidding," Kennelley said. "Improv makes you happy."

Haaga agreed. "The 10 of us get together, and I forget it. You can't stay in a bad mood," she said.

As the seniors start their final semester as Quipfire! members, they are beginning to consider both their own future plans and plans for the group.

"Every year, the group's so small that there's this feeling of crisis, like we're not going to cut it, but we always step up." Eckert said. "Everyone's hilarious, or they wouldn't be in it."

Although most of the seniors aren't sure if they will pursue improv further, Haaga intends to continue performing and participating in improvisational comedy after she graduates next year by taking workshops and auditioning for improv troupes.

"I can't see myself giving it up any time soon," Haaga said.

(The Quipfire! show will be taking place tonight, Friday and Saturday at 9:30 p.m. at Theatre~Intime. Student tickets are $5.)