Vidushaks, koi shaq?

We came, we made them laugh, we conquered their hearts.

Yes, that's 'exactly' what we did. There were some comic quips from us, and a few giggles 'n laughs from the (paid and threatened) audience. It was a perfect example of symbiotic existence.

Allow me to give you a sneak preview ... errr ... after-view:

We started with advertising. Facebook, personal blogs, IM status messages. Our name was on every electronic media one can ever think of (alright let's not get carried away here). CSGO and other organizers sent out a mail to all CS students claiming that it would be an 'unforgettable' performance. Most people were told that AP3Mar and AC29May would run the LA Marathon, 26.2 miles I might add, that very same morning. Many people just turned up to have a fleeting glimpse of the crawling duo.

Our shameless publicity paid off and we had 3 special guests - Eddie, Nick and Amanda, theatre students at USC who are majorly involved in Second Nature Improv and Consortium Sketch comedy troupes, came to see just us! [believe it or not, they liked our show :-)]

Second, we made sure we came in and went out of Ground Zero in our huge group of eight approximately every 10 minutes. Ta-da it worked like a charm. People wondered, "Why?" We told them, "We are warming up!" Curiosity is the parent of attention.

Now that we had their attention, we opened our third card. We made the audience shift towards the stage. Meanwhile, we ourselves crowded around the stairs that led to the stage - just to get them all curious, all over again.

There was no more that we could do but perform and we did. AP3Mar and AC29May showed (off) their LA Marathon medals, and the audience took the bait. They wanted us to perform now. Enough stalling already!

Our first game was "World's Worst". All we do for this is get on stage and try to be the world's worst >whatever<. AC29May took suggestions from the audience and what do we know, we get to be the "World's Worst Garbage Man". It was moderately funny (wow now someone's boasting). We heard a few laughs. We also heard one girl shout "OH MY GAWD - They are so funny!" (which reminds me we still need to pay her $10).

Next game was "New Choice". It's a funny one (like the rest of them). Two performers get on stage and start a scene. When the director says 'new choice' the performer who spoke last, thinks of a new phrase and the other performer continues the scene with this new phrase, completely disregarding the previous phrase. Our choices were 'Area 51' and 'Strawberry flavored cereal'.

After that we all got on stage one more time and played "freeze backwards" ... which turned out to be "freeze backward or forward - the audience doesn't know what is happening anyways". It was funny (duh!). What's the game, you asked? It starts off with two Vidushaks on stage and they start a scene (double duh!). After a decent scene building, other Vidushaks start freezing them, taking the scene back in time.

For example: Tonight I am having macroni with pasta sauce.
>freeze<
Tomorrow night I will have macroni with pasta sauce.
>freeze<
I am buying pasta sauce. Wonder what I'll do with it.

You get the idea (huh! like I care). So our suggestion from the audience was 'Hot Desi Chicks - an endangered species'. IT WAS FUNNY (and I am not lying this time).

Last but not the least, we performed "ABC genres". A scene is enacted, and then paused. The director then takes a genre suggestion from the audience, and the same scene is enacted in that other genre. How was it? Was it funny?

How was the performance as a whole? Did people actually laugh? What did we guys say? What did we do? Did the audience ask for more?

Inn sawalon ke jawab, aur apne baaki bin-poochhe sawalon ke jawab jaanane ke liye dekhiye :: Vidushaks, koi shaq?! - An 'unforgettable' performance by the Indian Improv Group at USC. Coming soon to a server near you.