Funny People: Lobster Club

In 2011, Nick Lavrov ’15, Nicky Robinson ’15, Preston Kemeny ’15 and Yegor Chekmarev ’15 had a vision: a no-audition improv group at Princeton.

“We wanted to do improv comedy and the only way to do it was to make a new group for us to perform in,” Lavrov said.

Their vision manifested as Lobster Club, the first and only no-audition improv comedy troupe on campus. It was founded around the same time as the ¿Shruggers? organization, which would eventually become a no-audition coalition with Lobster Club as its flagship organization, according to ¿Shruggers?president Ethan Gordon ’17.

“The intent is to provide a space for anybody interested in performing arts to have the opportunity to explore all that the performing arts have to offer,” Gordon said. “[It’s to] help combat an underlying culture of selectivity that’s especially prevalent in performing arts communities really all over Princeton.”

Running a no-audition performance group has its challenges, particularly in preparing for shows.

“We need[ed] to figure out what would a good system be for no-audition but for still putting on shows,” Lavrov said. “You can’t just have someone perform in shows without ever having done anything before.” To ensure this, Lobster Club members are required to attend at least two-thirds of practices in order to perform.

In some respects, Lobster Club functions as both a performance group and a group that builds improv skills.“There’s no experience necessary,” Lavrov said. “We have a lot of people in our group where this was their first time was doing improv.”

“We put emphasis on teaching the skill of improv, so our workshops are open and anyone can come to them,” he explained.

At the same time, the no-audition format made necessary a division between members new to improv and more experienced members.

“[We had to build] a leadership framework that would allow us to keep being able to teach improv to new people while also allowing older people to develop their skills,” Lavrov said.

Since its founding, Lobster Club has grown increasingly prominent on campus. “It’s a dormitory name,” Gordon said, who noted that ¿Shruggers?has also been expanding.

“Last year, we started Acapellago, a no-audition a cappella group, and this year we’re starting Sans Comic, which is a no-audition sketch comedy group,” Gordon said.

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Overall, Lavrov said, being in Lobster Club has been an enjoyable experience.

“Before being a senior, my favorite things were getting to do improv and perform in front of people and getting to watch other people grow with me,” Lavrov said. “As I learned more improv, these other people were also learning improv … and that was really cool to see.”

After becoming a senior, however, Lavrov's favorite aspect of being a part of Lobster Club has changed. “It's definitely getting to meet freshmen,” he said.

“When would I ever meet a freshman?”