With its newest recruits all suited, or white t-shirted, up, Scatterbomb has set itself up for a strong year. The improv group, which held two workshops within the past two weeks and welcomed three new members to the club, had its second show of the semester Fri. Sept. 25 in Hayden Hall.
The show, which was named “Scatterbomb Goes Clear,” had overarching cult-related sketches, creating a night of long-form improvisational comedy.
“I was really excited because we did something that we don’t usually do,” RJ Liberto, senior vice president of the club, said. “We didn’t write an open, but we kind of organized it a little bit more to have a theme, more cult-y. It actually went very, very well.”
The show opened with the members entering the room dressed in the same outfit of white shirt and jeans, while senior president Sam Martin, dressed in a suit, represented the leader of the cult.
The members performed sketches involving the Church of Scatterbomb, a sketch all in Spanish about a lost cat, a couples therapy sketch, a segment with the newest members and a long carnival sketch with various cuts.
“I guess it was a rush. It all happened all at once and now it’s over, it went so fast,” Kevin Donald said. “It felt like it was only the first 15 minutes and then we were walking off the stage.”
Donald was one of three new members of the club, with junior Matt Clark and sophomore Madison Blecki joining him. Blecki was unable to perform in Friday’s show.
“I’ve never done improv before the two rehearsals we had, but even in the last two weeks I’ve gotten to know these guys really well and I feel pretty comfortable with them already,” Donald said. “It felt like I was just joking around with friends.”
The new members, and the characters they played, were a hit with the audience members.
“The new people were so great!” Siobhan Connor, an audience member, said. “Matt and Kevin were awesome and I’m really excited to see Madison next time.”
“They’re hilarious. Kevin and Matt are very talented improvisers,” Liberto said. “I was really surprised that for their first show they really came out of their shells and really just brought it home. I was really happy with their work.”
There was nothing but praise for the new members of the club, as well as the show as a whole. “This is actually one of the best I’ve ever been to,” Connor said. “I have gone to all of them in the past two years and this one I laughed the hardest at definitely.”
The ending carnival sketch, which lasted approximately 20 minutes, included every member and spanned different periods of time with many cuts to different scenes, including the original carnival scene, a cut to the Salvation Army, a flashback to the clown’s time at Harvard and a cut to a carnival funeral.
“The audience was fantastic. Everyone was in really high spirits, high energy,” Liberto said. “I thought it went better than planned. We don’t really plan much because of the whole nature of improvisation, but what did end up happening was absolutely fantastic.”