When I attended
the Silicon Valley Reads kick off event, I had the chance to look at what was
going on at the theater. To my surprise a comedy group was coming through the
area and would be playing the next week. I attended the Upright Citizens
Brigade show last Saturday night, and I really enjoyed the entertainment I
received at the performance.
The Upright
Citizens Brigade show was two sections of hilarious long form improv. Four
performers warmed up the crowd by asking about the city of Campbell and things
to do locally. Prunes and bocce ball came up as well as having Seattle as a
rival city, even though it’s quite a distance away. I suppose we don’t have too
many rivalries going on within the Silicon Valley. A woman from the audience
was brought up and asked information about her and her life, prompting her to
try and hide that she left HP to join Apple in Sunnyvale. In the second part of
the show the troupe took suggestions based off text messages from the audience.
I have done long form improv at Comedy Sportz, so I understood what they were
doing with the suggestions, but it’s a bit hard to explain what exactly
happened on stage if you were not there. Therefore, here are some of the scene
ideas that were used in the show: kidnapping some people to present the latest
product, Montana tourists standing off against Florida street performers, an
overzealous private investigator, and a plane not being flown to Minnesota. The
performers were expertly moving from scene to improv scene and making sure to
have callbacks to get another laugh from the audience.
I really liked
seeing the Upright Citizens Brigade perform in Campbell last week. The group
has its main theaters in Los Angeles and New York, but they have a group that
tours around and brings entertainment to wherever they can. You can catch them
too, as they are having a show soon in San Francisco.
No comments:
Post a Comment