Improv Club

Note: As of the 2023-24 school year, Improv Club is no longer active.

Officially, the club is a club. For improvisation. We practice on Wednesdays and Sundays from 8-10 in (hopefully) Kresge Recital Hall, and perform two shows a term! Come visit us, you don't have to do anything but watch if you don't want to. We're very cool that way.

Sort of a cult but not really. Open club with like a million people who like each other... too much? Nah, that's impossible.

A little bit of a cult, like a little more than GQ, a little less than Frisbee. Favorite Cult Activities include but are not limited to:

Bunny Bunny (goomba goomba), Shock Off, King Bob, That One Spring Rehearsal We Don't Talk About, Storm, Ritual Chanting around a Sleeping Matt Cagle, Walking to McDonald's, and Ancient Astronaut Theorists.

Originally an underground organization started by Isaac Miller and Casey Samoore, Improv Club gained official club status with Student Senate in Spring 2011.

From deep within the club's bowels several harrafying creatures have emerged, such as the Sexy Manatee, the Drunk Bitch, Potato Man, Andrew Cook, Officer Ralph, Katy and Mom, and The gremlin.

I love these people. We're all a bunch of messes trying to figure out who we are like stumbling blobs of jello who only recently gained sentience through a strange magical procedure--But we're doing it together and I wouldn't have it any other way. <3, Someone who's going to do great things.

Leadership

2021-2022

Presidents	Cas Stopa and Tyreal Haywood
Vice Presidents	Lucy Weyer and Esme Garcia
Treasurer	Abigail King
Secretary	Marcella Dolezal
PRs	Lyn Scherer and Sarah Wallenfelsz
Project Manager	Matthew Nevin

2020-2021

Presidents	Kasey Jones and Alexis Brown
Vice Presidents	Jasmine Lamb and Tyreal Haywood
Treasurer	Esme Garcia
Secretary	Lizzie Brazelton
PRs	Cas Stopa and Sarah Wallenfelsz

2018-19

Presidents	Emmet's Mom Jaki Herrmann and Tricdog (Tricia Duke)
Vice President	Alex Kellogg and Tegan Doherty
Treasurer	Evan Berkey
Secretary	Simone Boyd
PR	Catrin Katherine Asteriadou and Ern
Project Manager	You'reGoingToDoGreatThings Matt Cagle and Lennon Again Joey Peterson

2016-17

Presidents	Theresa Murphy and Trevor Marshall
Vice President	Josh Althoff and JC Stokes
Treasurer	Natasha Caudill
Secretary	Alex Kellogg
PR	Jacob Elliott and Hannah Lee
Project Manager	Katrina White

2015-16

Presidents	Michelle Secunda and Theresa Murphy
Vice President	Trevor Marshall and JC Stokes
Treasurer	Michelangelo Pori
Secretary	Karli Shields
PR	Jay Greve
Project Manager	Julie Wertheimer

2014-15

Presidents	Michelle Secunda and Philip Chau (Although Phil went on to the big world and the chain of command ended up leaving Jay Greve as temporary president while Michelle was abroad fall term.)
Vice President	Jay Greve
Treasurer	Jamison Kaczmarek
Secretary	Kate Suits
PR	Julie Wertheimer, with T-Spillz as interim
Special Projects Chair	Bryan Valencia

2013-14

Presidents	Andrew Cook and Alyssa Gill (Together Aldrew Giok, Andyssa Coil, or simply &)
Vice President	Jay Greve
Treasurer	Roman Magid
Secretary	Natalie Polechonski
PR	Julie Wertheimer and Michelle Secunda
Le Duc D'Improv	John Budding

2012-13

President	John Budding
Vice President	Duncan Cochran
Treasurers	Andrew Cook and Alyssa Gill
Secretary	Andrew Cook
PR	Alyssa Gill
Les Ducs D'Improv (Our official improv post-bac title)	Casey Samoore and Isaac Miller

2011-12

President	Casey Samoore
Vice President	Nick Sheridan
Secretary	Andrew Cook

2010-11

President	Casey Samoore
Interim President	Skylar Arend
Vice President	Nick Sheridan
Treasurer	Lauren Bradley
Secretary	Skylar Arend

Notable Events

2011: Official birth of Improv Club.

2013: John Budding invents "Improv Fest."

2013: Flunkprov is invented.

2013-2014: First Improv Club co-presidency.

2013-2014: The new format of improv club: Two weekly workshops, and "Friday Fun Day."

2013-2014: Improv Bot is nowhere to be found.

2013-2014: 24 Hour Improv Fest is invented.

2013-2014: Trevor Marshall becomes T-Spillz.

2014-2015: "Bring-a-Bro" day is invented.

2014-2015: "Special Projects Chair" is introduced as a new position. Also, the Vice President position is edited, making VP the Improv Club historian.

April 2015: Improv Bot is found at the Student Senate table during carnival of clubs and is restored to his rightful place.

Show History

2020-2021: Rocky Horrow with Sigma Nu Oh No, Milk! Teletubbies Live Improv after Dark

2019-2020: Underground Snail Vendors Are you Ware of how Bees Work? Improv Adter Dark

February 27th, 2015: Improv presents Gondola with the Wind at 8pm in the Trustees Room. During the show there is a scene about an octopus yelling at a human. The other improvisors make sure the octopus looks anatomically-correct. The two-character scene ends in a group hug between about five people.

February 6th, 2015: Improv has their first show in the brand-spankin'-new Alumni Hall's Trustees Room at 8pm. The show's title is God, Beyonce, and Benjamin Franklin Walk into a Bar. This includes a game of Goon River, in which Bryan Valencia plays a gondolier who rides his gondola everywhere... although there is no water. It was probably thanks to Karli Shields, the crooked mayor.

November 7th, 2015: Improv puts on What a Strange Apocalypse I've Found Myself in in the Ferris Lounge. They start it off with some light goofing around to get the energy up. Improv has a bell for this show and it really helps with everything in general. During a game of "Small Town," Brady Comenduley says he has three moles in his mouth: one for every person in the town... even though there are four people in the town... (Dun dun DUN.)

October 10th, 2015: Improv puts on the first official show of 2014-2015 at 8pm in Kresge. The show is called Not a Tourist Trap, but it definitely is.

September 13th, 2015: During Orientation week, a small, ragtag bunch of improvisors put together a little show (aptly titled Improv Show) on the CFA patio.

2013-2014: During the shows held in Kresge, improv club experimented with different show openings. The skits during "Napalm in the Jello" worked well. Improv club would sometimes do random improv before the show, including clapping, making beats, and chasing each other across the stage. Unfortunately, although the latter was very fun for the improvisors and got the energy up, it was deemed too confusing because none of the audience could tell when the show was actually starting. The club eventually settled on just a good ol' tableau to open each show.

May 16th, 2015: Improv holds Senior? I Hardly Even Know 'Er! in Kresge at 9pm. It is sad to say goodbye to our seniors, so the younger members of the club surprise them by covering them in streamers at the end of the show.

Improv Fest was held elsewhere this year...

February 21-22, 2015: Improv club holds the first-ever 24 hour improv fest in the Roger Taylor Lounge. This includes a list of phone numbers for each hour that we can call to bring in reinforcements. Brave improvisors turn on their ringtones and drift off to sleep, hoping they can nap for at least an hour before being called in again. Every time you go there it feels like you never left. There was a lot of Capri Sun, and around 4am no one was there and we lowered our quality standards and there was a scene about a ship's court case against a giant squid and somehow we kept having scenes about outer space. I hear lots of drunk students showed up around 2am. All the while we were taking donations; these were put into cups with exec members' faces on them. At the end, "Clueprov" was held, in which the person with the most donations would kill the person with the least donations in a half-hour-long game of "Scenes in a Building." The legends tell that Clueprov proceeded as follows:

- The suggestion "Old Main" was given as the building.

- The exec members started off with monologues; notable characters include a LARPer, a janitor, a teacher who was supposedly a ghost, an activist who was really an undercover journalist, an orientation leader, a smoker, and a girl with an overly-intense attachment to the Lincoln chair.

- Scenes that followed included a search for the ghost teacher, a reveal of the activist's true motives: to interrogate the ghost teacher about the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, a sacrificial burning of the Lincoln chair, a confrontation between the janitor and the undercover journalist, and, finally, a confrontation between the journalist and the ghost teacher...

- During the confrontation between the journalist and the ghost teacher, the janitor stepped in to expose the journalist just as the ghost teacher was exposing the truth about how long he had really been there. The ghost teacher then turned to the janitor and said "Isn't that right, mister Abraham Lincoln?"

- The undercover journalist turned to the janitor with a horrified expression, and the janitor (Alyssa Gill, who'd had the most donations), who was also the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, murdered the journalist (Michelle, with the second most donations).

- The characters then came out and each did a final epilogue-monologue. And, according to the Janitor, the Ghost Teacher, and the Journalist, you can still hear them playing cribbage in the halls of Old Main to this day.

January 31st, 2015 at 8:30pm: Improv club can't decide the title of the show, so we hold TBA in Kresge.

October 26th, 2014 at 8:30: Improv holds their second show of the season, There's Napalm in the Jello in Kresge. For this show the club broke off into three sub-troupes: Longform troupes "TGP" and "The Caesar Salads," and the shortform troupe "Secret League of Giants." Notable things from the show include an opening skit about the contest for dominance between the three troupes and an ending skit that involved everyone in the club dying from napalm in the jello they ate. TGP also brought us the story of the suction cup wars. During the post-show party, the second annual "Caseyface Scavenger Hunt" was held. To this day no one knows the winner.

October 5th, 2014 at 8:30: Improv starts off with another bang for the 2013-2014 year, holding the hit show We're Back in Kresge.

May 17 and 18 were Knox Improv Club's final two shows of the season, both came under the title "Two Things You Can't Do At Applebees." For the first time in a long time The Water Game was played, much to the delight of audiences. A good way to ring out the year, the show was held in the Rog Lodge.

May 1st, 2013: Flunkprov happens for the first time. It happens on the CFA patio. Flunk Day confirmed.

April 13, 2013: Knox Improv Club held the first ever (annual?) "Improv Fest," in which Monmouth College and Western Illinois University joined us for a full day of workshops, culminating in a large show with performances by all three colleges. We performed in Kresge, and hit a record audience count!

February 2013: Oddly Specific

January 2013: Bill Cosby Slowly Melting, which has Andrew Cook's favorite show title ever.

October 28, 2012: The second show of Fall Term: Misplaced Manhood/No More Narwhals in the Alumni Room. There was a great turnout.

October 2012: Improv starts off with a BANG with the first show of the year, UNCONTROLLABLE SASS. The show was held in Ferris Lounge and on parents' weekend. The room was packed, and as a result there were people who had to stand in the hallway and look through the open doors in order to watch. The room also got very hot, but that was mostly a result of the incredible attractiveness of the improvisers.

May 2012: Improv holds The Outskirts of Canada in the Rog Lodge. It was intimate, but pretty not-bad!

April 2012: Improv returns to studio theatre for Shapes Are Great!, directed by Andrew Cook. It featured four troupes of four or five performers, each specializing in a longform structure--Musical Montage, Genre, Clowning, and Close Quarters.

February 17 and 18, 2012: Improv does a couple classy-ass shows entitled THIS IS NOT A GUN in Old Main's Common Room and Alumni Room. They went pretty well--surprisingly, people were willing to trek through the not-snow to such an unconventional venue for lulz. After the great success of Saturday night's show, Andrew Cook transmogrified into the Drunk Bitch when he saw the light of the full moon.

January 24, 2012: Improv Club performs at a stand-up open mic night in the Roger Taylor Lounge. Longform. Shartfarm. Ahrange groves.

October 29, 2011: Improv Club holds its official fall show INFINITE SUMMER CAMP in the Rog Lodge. Various shartfarm games were played as well as four longform games. It was our first show to feature KICKIN' POSTERS of our own design. It was held as a charity event. Audience members were encouraged to bring cans, which happened. They also were able to pay $1 to stick their hand in a giant bag of candy and grab as much as they could. As of November 8, 2011 there was still at least half of the bag left, and it's probably still in Yellows 1 somewhere.

October 10, 2011: Improv Club participates in an event held by Quiver to advertise for their magazine and provide a hilarity to Gizmo-goers. Various members of the club performed five shortform games at intervals.

May 2011: Improv Club holds a small show in the newly completed Rog Lodge. Notes were taken for future improvements, and the upstart club developed schemes for a new, shinier production.

April 2011: Improv performs during a mic check at Lincoln Fest. "A gig's a gig's a gig's a gig." --Casey Samoore

January 2011: Ben Lee directs Improvapalooza and its sequel Improvapawinner in studio theatre. 'Twas a huge three-part show involving shortform and longform games, and loads of people came out of the woodwork to be in it--30ish of them, to be (in)exact. As of April 2012, this is still the largest cast of any Club show yet. ORANGE GROVES.

Winter term 2011: Casey Samoore is away on urgent business being hit on by Barcelonian hookers, so Skylar Arend runs Club as interim prez.

November 2010: As Isaac Miller siphons talent from the Club proper, club president Casey Samoore and some club members volunteer land a gig in Joey Firman's studio theatre production, OPENstage. Things went good, as I hear it!

October 2010: Isaac Miller directs Blood and Vodka and its hit sequel Blood and Vodka in 3-D in studio theatre. Both involved sa variety of shortform games and a Bastard Harold to end the night. The performers were Isaac Miller, Nick Sheridan, Ben Lee, Ernie LoBue, Katie Johnston, John Budding, and the lowly freshmans Andrew Cook and Alyssa Gill. The first weekend of shows featured improvised monologues delivered from an Eastern European perspective, but when this was deemed potentially offensive, Isaac changed things up: 3-D featured monologues about blood and various types of alcohol.

A picture from Improvapalooza, circa January 2011: