Friday, Aug. 27, marked the official beginning of the Brandeis 2010 to 2011 academic year, with the campus' four improvisational comedy troupes performing a half hour each at our beloved coffeehouse, Cholmondeley's. As a frequenter of the university coffeehouses, an improv enthusiast and a student of comedy myself, it was a comforting homecoming for me to attend.The room was abuzz with excitement. Chum's was packed, perhaps the most crowded it ever gets throughout the year, with people coming and going throughout the night and a crowd of about 110 people in the room at any given time standing-room only.

Normally, each of Brandeis' improv troupes (TBA, Bad Grammer, Crowd Control and False Advertising) perform independently, booking slots at coffeehouses hosted by other clubs or having exclusive semester-end shows. The only other times they unite are at monthly Improvaganzas, which take place the last Thursday of each month, when members of the different groups improvise with each other indiscriminately. However, Friday night's comedy performances included a mix of all the troupes, offering each a chance to showcase itself, a rare sight at Brandeis. A large part of the show was self-promotion, with the groups announcing their audition dates and times, all scheduled for this upcoming week; the pressure was on.

TBA was up first, warming up the crowd with several short-form games. The group does both short and long forms of comedy, as well as improv-inspired sketches, meaning that they often intersperse their improvised scenes with scripted vignettes, called sketches, resembling those of Saturday Night Live or Mad TV. This show concentrated on improv, in which they played a line game of "My dick is so -," asking the audience to fill in the blank with adjectives and then making one-liner jokes. After that, they performed a long-form off the suggestion "Hot fudge," and David Ronn '11 presented a monologue about his love for fondue without ever mentioning the word itself and instead describing a vague dipping process. The group had only four improvisers performing, all of whom were male. Much of the humor involved gay couples and homoerotic tension, but improvisers were able to make it feel original by sporting foreign accents, spy action and hints of racism.

Next up at bat was Bad Grammer, a group that also performs both short and long types of improv, but focused on short form at the show. Short-form games, similar to what you would see on Whose Line is it Anyway? are more structured, with audience input and clearly defined rules but are also more gimmicky, limiting the amount of emotional depth the characters can reach within a five-minute scene. Bad Grammer had the most audience interaction of the night, with crowd pleasers such as the game "Survivor," in which multiple improvisers start a scene but are voted off one by one by the audience. The improviser who receives the most applause must exit the stage, leaving the remaining characters to reproduce the scene, forcing them to take on multiple personalities. In the end, there is one improviser-in this case, Talya Davidoff '12-who had to stay onstage and alternate between four characters. Bad Grammer is known for its mascot, the "Catapus" (combination cat and platypus), whose name they encourage the audience to call out when they need to signal the improvisers.

Third up was Crowd Control, Brandeis' youngest comedy group, celebrating its fifth birthday this year. Crowd Control is now one of the University's biggest groups, coming out in fine form with nine performers. The group specializes in long-form improv (a group of interconnected scenes inspired by a single suggestion) but plays short-form games as well. Crowd Control began their half hour with a long-form, diving into scenes involving rappers, femininity and just how far someone is willing to go to save his cousin. The group got the most laughs when characters from initial scenes came back in later scenes, repeating catch phrases and maintaining odd characteristics, such as extremely high and low-pitched voices. Their show wound up with a line game of "I once dated a -," in which the audience supplies a noun for the improvisers to play upon, ending on a joke by Paul Gale '12 about the sitcom Friends, based on the suggestion "paleontologist."

The last group of the night was False Advertising, which has the distinction of being Brandeis' only musical improv group. The troupe, whose pianist graduated this past year (they are seeking a new accompanist) performs musical as well as nonmusical long form, demonstrating their versatility. They show off their flexibility often in the form of gymnastics-offs between troupe members Jeremy Slosberg '11 and Zane Relethford '13, each of whom can fit both of their legs around their necks and perform other amazing physical feats. The group started off its set with a bang, asking an audience member, "Where is the worst place you could lose a hamster?" and basing the rest of its long-form off her answer, "a strip club." Although it lacked musical instruments at this show, the group still managed to weave some singing into its long-form Friday night as Ari Salinger '12 created a character who sang while he worked and then coerced his co-worker, team member Heddy Ben-Atar '11, into singing along.

When all the performances had ended, the audience reluctantly left Chum's, having enjoyed an evening of improvised fun. Friday night's show was a good sampling of the world of comedy Brandeis has to offer. Anyone who has an interest in joining one of the groups is invited to come to auditions this week or check out the open rehearsals that some of the groups hold weekly. Here's to improv! Clink!

Editor's note: Zane Relethford '13 is a Justice copy staff member.