by Mariana Duque Contributor
On Friday, Sept. 28, Scatterbomb returned with their acclaimed improvisation show once again for the second time in the semester.
As usual, the team asked the audience a word in order to start the sketch. One person in the audience yelled “Mamma Mia!”, and they launched into a story with a twist.
When one member started talking about they how went to see Mamma Mia 2, sophomore Aeden Roney tapped their shoulder and took over the story from where the previous person left off. He accidentally ended up in the wrong movie theater, revealing it was– another tap by new member Brendan Hanney– Avengers: Infinity War, and said their grandma ended up being severely traumatized by the movie and really scared of Thanos, associating the character and believing in his existence.
This made the team switch to their physical sketches, where the characters were driving to visit their grandma, who now believed that Thanos was real and was dangerous, and was ultimately placed in a mental hospital.
“Grandma, you’re in here because you kept trying to avenge things,” said Hanney to Meredith Taylor, who was playing the grandma.
The scene switched to the visit, where that same grandma, mistaking a dog for Thanos, demanded his walker (played by Kevin Donald) that he has to pick it up and sign a ludicrous contract for the dog’s physiological needs in a public place.
The team brilliantly morphed this scene into a mother and her teenage children, who were in leashes, trying to shop in Walmart and later, led to a date of one of the teens.
“He can hold my leash,” said new member Sydney Waitt to Donald, her date. Donald turned to the audience, wiggling his eyebrows. The crowd exploded into laughter as the scene changed.
Suddenly, they were in a communal bathroom, where people were showering and singing melodiously. The majority in the theater bursted out laughing during this performance.
“I wonder why they got rid of the stalls in here,” said Jenn Bueti, as she pantomimed showering. Roney showered next to her and Donald and Hanney used metal folding chairs as toilets.
Then, Donald successfully tried to bring up a concept that was trailed off from the first moment of the show: a remake of the Mamma Mia movie but with dogs, properly entitled “Puppy-Pia”. In this particular scene, he talked to the dogs acting on set, while Roney and Erin McWilliams complained on that poor acting of the dogs.
This resulted on a human remake of “A Bug’s Life,” which the team delivered really well, referencing the film, such as the Disney attraction “It’s Tough to Be A Bug” and tweaking it into “it’s tough to be a human.” The room exploded with laughter. After the shot of the movie, they made an Oscar’s speech.
At the half, the team stopped and asked the audience for a situation from one of the people in the audience.
“Did anything crazy happen to anyone this week?” asked Donald.
The student told them that they got stuck in an elevator and filed a report and got five dollars off of their tuition. They continued from there into a couple getting free from debt and a lot of similar and different situations, until Donald stopped the show: he had noticed an earthworm in front of the stage.
As Donald took it outside of Hayden Hall to the grass, Roney, McWilliams and Waitt started talking as if they were in a scene, but held a conversation about the discovery of the worm. Donald came back in and they exclaimed “Kevin is back!”
“Is this a scene right now?” asked Donald.
As the scene was being executed, his evident confusion were something natural and relatable that bombarded the theater with fresh laughs, meaning that this group is extremely committed to their performances.
A few more scenes were performed, with the final scene about Roney fathering multiple children after a donation to a sperm bank. He ended up on the television show Maury, famous for paternity tests. The audience was referenced as his possible offspring. In the end, he was the father of everyone in the audience.
To end the show, Roney exclaimed, “Every one of my kids is getting a skateboard for Christmas.”
The group’s next show is next Friday, Oct. 5 in Hayden 100 at 8 p.m. with a special surprise: the team will be joined by Fordham University’s improv team, Stranded in Pittsburgh.
Taylor Brethauer contributed reporting.