False Advertising, Brandeis' oldest improv troupe and its only musical one, took to the Merrick Stage last Thursday for its annual Spooktacular Halloween show. The group always celebrates Halloween with a different theme, this year's being You're A Dead Man, Charlie Brown. The improvisers went all out with makeup and costumes to embody the characters of the Charlie Brown gang but with haunting touches of bloody death attached to most. This unique blend of horror and comedy was well-received by the audience, who laughed loudly at the opening act, in which Linus (Jeremy Slosberg '11) narrated the story of how each member of the cast met his or her death. The characters entered the stage one at a time and silently acted out their deaths as he announced them, doing so in an over-the-top and melodramatic fashion that befitted the show.

Although this was the only part of the night that was scripted, one of the biggest laugh-getters occurred when Schroeder (Louis Polisson '12) fell to his death atop his keyboard, his head causing one of the instrument's pre-programmed musical tracks to play. Even when you try to escape improv, you wind up doing it.

The opening act culminated in all of the characters rising from the ground, crawling downstage in a zombie-like manner and echoing Linus' last words, "Writing and waiting, writing and waiting." The group dove right into the improvisation then, calling on a member of the audience for a suggestion of "the worst thing to lick." Upon receiving the word "cactus" as their prompt, the improvisers created and performed a long-form sketch that spanned a number of themes. Abandoning their Charlie Brown characters, the players took on numerous roles throughout the night, producing laughs, particularly with their uses of physical humor.

In one scene, Michael Zonenashvili '13 played Zane Relethford's '13 son, sitting on Relethford's lap and climbing all over him, putting himself in awkward physical positions. Relethford responded to his son's movements by telling him to settle down, prompting other members of the group to enhance the humor by calling for a flashback to the son's first date. Relethford left the stage and Matt Eames '13 went on as Zonenashvili's prospective date, ringing the bell to his house only to be greeted by Zonenashvili launching himself into Eames' arms and grabbing hold of him, maintaining the same physical awkwardness of the previous scene. Another flashback involved Relethford being surrounded by the rest of his children all assuming monkey-like positions, clinging to his body.

Other examples of False Advertising's skill at physical comedy included Slosberg's and Eames' embodiment of Siamese twins, fused together to cut down on health costs, and other improvisers' interactions with the one prop onstage, a black box. Ari Salinger '12 and Zonenashvili performed a scene in which they struggled to push one another off the box, silently. Zonenashvili ultimately won, breaking the silence by proclaiming "This is why we're best friends!" as he turned to Salinger for a high-five.

Heddy Ben-Atar '11 and Salinger continued this thread, chasing each other onstage and accidently knocking into the box when they heard a voice coming from within it. The voice, played by Zonenashvili, who remained offstage, ordered the children to lift up the box, but then yelled at them for actually considering doing so. Ben-Atar and Salinger, at first fearing the box, decided to sit on it to suffocate it, Salinger breaking the silence with a poignant "He's dead, we can play again!" following Zonenashvili's character's death. The long form ended on a heartwarming scene of a capella singing involving Salinger and Relethford.

A birthday announcement followed, with the group calling the birthday girl onstage; they sang her "Happy Birthday" and peer-pressured her to eat the birthday cake they had baked her, berating her for not eating quickly enough.

The group's musical long-form, titled "Just Business Acquaintances," was the highlight of the show. Polisson, the group's pianist, took the stage once again, providing musical accompaniment for the improvisers as they all performed the fast-paced group number "Business."

Relethford and Ben-Atar created the plot by establishing Relethford as a phone salesman for a credit card company and Ben-Atar as his boss. The absurdity of the situation unfolded as Ben-Atar told her employee he had to smile while talking on the phone in order to brighten the customer's day and with Relethford protesting that the customer couldn't see his smile over the phone. At the same time, Ben-Atar was unintentionally sabotaging his conversation with the customer by telling him to put the client on hold each time she wanted to give him advice.

Slosberg and Michael Shemesh '14 picked up this strand in a later scene, in which Shemesh played a persistent salesman and possible scam-artist who called Slosberg to sell him a box-set of Rob Schneider movies. While Schneider jokes are often overused, Slosberg and Shemesh were still able to squeeze humor out of the joke by singing a duet that largely amounted to a list of Schneider's roles in movies and their commentary on them. The rest of the group joined in the scene, singing harmonies as they danced across stage behind the improvisers.

Although the focus of musical improv is not usually on singing ability, Andrea Verdeja '14 shone as a singer in her scene with Salinger, playing an abusive wife juxtaposed with his silent, subservient role of husband. Her voice as well as her quick wording sustained the scene as she sang about his failure to bake her apple pie. Although he was silent in this scene, Salinger demonstrated his skill at rhyming and wordplay in other scenes, rhyming "solitaire" with "easy chair" in reference to Ben-Atar's activities while at work and making up other memorable lyrics.

False Advertising's improvisers put on a very quick-witted and lyrical Spooktacular show. The group's particular skill at awkward physical comedy and its ability to relate scenes to previous ones (known as making callbacks) made their show a success, and their enthusiasm and passion was evident throughout. Happy Halloween!

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