Highly Improv-able: Comics take Turns ‘Disturbing the Piece‘

Aug. 6, 2003

Move over, Drew Carry, because there‘s a new act in town and it‘s funnier than most of the stuff you see dragging a laugh track on TV.
It‘s “Disturbing the Piece,“ a literal laugh-a-minute show at Shimmer‘s nightclub in the Traverse City Holiday Inn each Monday night. The all-improv show features six exceptionally talented young performers who spend 90 minutes thinking on their feet, honing absurd ideas into giggles, guffaws and belly laughs with their razor-keen wits.
Each Monday, cast members David Avis, Turner Sato, Jessica Cerutti, Dan Farkas, Michael Gauthier and Christine Gwillim take turns leaping into comic situations suggested by the audience. Performing a series of more than 20 “games,“ five members of the troupe interact to tell a comic story.
During a recent show, an audience member recounted what he had done for the day, starting with breakfast and a shower, going to his job as an information systems specialist, and coming home for an evening of video games. The cast then constructed a hilarious opera of his day, sung to the strains of Mozart and Handel‘s greatest hits. Another skit focused on what happens when your parents show up at your frat house party in slo-mo to the theme of “Chariots of Fire.“
“Before every game we ask the audience for a location, a name or an event to work with and then do the skit on the spot so that the audience can see us improvising right off the bat,“ says David Avis, who organized the current company with partner Turner Sato.

ROOTS
Avis and Sato met as cast members of Princess Laura‘s Improv A-Go-Go in the summer of 2001. When Laura Wilcock moved on to San Diego for other showbiz opportunities, the two decided to establish their own company.
“Laura said to keep the show going because it‘s the only improv around,“ Avis says of the popular TC comic and singer. “We‘re still in touch -- she gives us a lot of advice on how to deal with audiences and venues. She gave us a great push.“
The is the second season for Disturbing the Piece, and a loose theme for the group is that of “Camp Dyesoone,“ a riff on a summer camp slasher flick. Despite the theme, each show tends to be an anything-goes event. “We try not to pigeon-hole ourselves so we don‘t have to follow the same theme,“ Avis says.
That philosophy keeps lots of zany moments in flow. “Last summer, members of Second City jumpted onstage with us, and that was really big for us,“ he recalls. “It was kind of like being the local band joined by Aerosmith.“
Cast members come from community theatre or college acting programs. Avis, for instance, has been performing improv for several years in several companies, while Turner has performed both dinner and community theatre productions in Lansing, Kalamazoo and Traverse City.
“I had done some dinner murder mysteries before trying improv,“ Turner says. “I like improv because I can see the art in it -- that‘s what keeps me around.“

THE RULES
Unlike most comedians who rely on raunchy humor for laughs, the local troupe steers clear of blue material. They also tend to avoid political humor, another mainstay of many comics. Instead, the focus tends to be situations of importance to people in the comics‘ 20-something age group, such as their take on the Dating Game, as played by celebrities.
How do the actors manage to come up with witty material on a second‘s notice?
Turner and Avis note that teamwork is the main ingredient for laughs. “The most important thing about improv is to make the other players look good,“ Avis says. “It builds trust so that no one‘s going to look stupid onstage.“
There are also three rules for successful improv:
• Don‘t respond to a fellow actor‘s line with a question. “Because you try to work each scene by adding more information in, and questions don‘t move the scene forward.“
• Don‘t deny what a fellow cast member says. “Denials don‘t move the scene forward.“
• Use the phrase, “Yes, and...,“ which accepts a cast member‘s statement and moves the scene along.
How do they handle hecklers, a common hazard for most comedians?
Turner notes that people who shout inappropriate things are usually trying to get a single laugh. Almost every audience comes up with a request for a “dildo“ or a “penis,“ for instance. Improv members don‘t want to get bogged down in dildo humor week after week, however, and have grown adept at fencing such subjects into thin air.
“People who come up with off-the-wall things are usually those whose family has told them for years that they‘re funny and they feel that this is their time to be a little louder than usual,“ Turner notes. “We let them have their laugh and move on.“
Indeed, when you catch the show, it quickly sinks in how hard it must be to be funny all night long, and not just for a single laugh. The most amazing thing about the show, perhaps, is not the humor, but the speed and imagination at which the Disturbing the Piece crew spin the laughs around.

Check out David and Turner‘s Disturbing the Piece Improv II every Monday from 9-11 p.m. at the Holiday Inn, TC. Coer charge is $7.