Brandeis' improvisational comedy troupes were on display for Theater Sports, a pseudo-competition involving members of Bad Grammer, False Advertising and To Be Announced. The night started a little slowly, but once the performers hit their stride the laughs kept on coming. Rather than traditional improv, as we are used to seeing, the members of the three groups became three teams. The three teams, Flamingo Fever, My Blue Cardigan and The Passion of the Reinharz, "competed" for the four judges - two members of TBA, and one each from False Ad and Bad Grammer. The judges were often arbitrary, and the competitive portion of the night was just a funny side dish to the on-stage performance.

Emceed by False Ad's Weldon Kennedy '06, the games began after a brief attempt at the Hokey Pokey. The judges had the power to end any scene preemptively, which was a power they did not utilize often enough. Mostly, Theater Sports was entertaining, with only the occasional bad skit interspersed. However, the judges could have improved the show by curtailing some of the poor efforts so the groups could go on to a funnier act.

The first game, played by Flamingo Fever, was called "Clue." It was similar to the board game, where the players had to get other members of the team to guess a murder weapon, location and occupation through gibberish and symbols. Perhaps the judges were being kind for the first skit, but this game would have been an opportune time for the judges to flex their muscles by cutting this weak performance short.

After the slow start, however, the teams all settled in and the laughs began. My Blue Cardigan played a game that involved, among other things, a C-Store purchase in Shakespearean language. To finish off the first round of action, The Passion of the Rheinharz played the game "Schizo," where Raphi Rosenblatt '06 comically portrayed one character switching between three very different scenes.

The "challenge" part of the show came after the first round, where each team had an opportunity to challenge the other two teams to an improv game. The first team challenged the other two to perform scenes with some type of time constraint. The second group of challenges involved music, and luckily two out of three were vetoed by a judge and ended prematurely.

The last set of games included an audience member, and the best of the three was Flamingo Fever's "Dating Game." Misha Miller-Sisson '07 gave a hilarious rendition of the Terminator. When False Ad veteran Michael Popper '05, who was playing host, put his "applause-o-meter" behind the stoic Miller-Sisson, the crowd roared their approval.

Bad Grammer, who are normally as overlooked as every team in the AL East except the Yankees and Red Sox, showed why they should be allowed to play with the big boys. This show should push them into the limelight and hopefully attract as many people as the other groups. While they do not have the publicity and support that False Ad and TBA have built to this point, they were extremely funny and deserve to be held in the same regard as the other improv groups on campus.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the show was not who was involved, but who was not. While the judges were taken from the three groups, some of the funniest members of the groups were not included in the games because of their positions as judges. However, Josh Gondelman '07 of TBA and Mark Samburg '07 of False Ad were two judges who still managed to get laughs. After Rosenblatt's "Schizo" performance, Gondelman quipped that he "changed personalities faster than Martha Stewart on camera." After a scene paying tribute to all the Super Mario Brothers fans in the audience, Gondelman commented "large pizza, eight dollars. Nostalgic ethnic stereotypes, priceless." Samburg, was the "French Judge," and played the part of the hard-to-please, profane and discontented judge perfectly.

While there were lulls in the amusement Theater Sports was a night of good entertainment. Potential students were able to see some of the best comedy Brandeis has to offer. The fun atmosphere fostered a warm and inviting environment for the would-be Brandesians, and left all in attendance with a smile.