Crowd Control, Brandeis' youngest improvisational troupe at six years old, held its end-of-semester show last Sunday night in Cholmondeley's. Crowd Control's specialty is free-form improvisational long-forms, in which they perform multiple scenes inspired by a single monologue based off an audience suggestion. The troupe's 10 members celebrated the semester by performing two sets of long-forms and two line games, one of which was a tribute to the group's four graduating seniors: David Dawson, Paul Gale, Ethan Mermelstein and Herbie Rosen.

To open the night, Naveh Halperin '12 sang and played five original songs he devised, including one piece he improvised onstage. Halperin started the show off strong, with comedic and poignant numbers. Characteristic of Halperin's music, the songs showcased his ability to make light of serious and even tragic topics. An example of this was a tribute to bacterial infections written as a love letter from the bacteria to himself. The upbeat, fast-paced rhythm contrasted with the subject matter, resulting in quirky, wonderful music. In addition, his improvised piece, which was inspired by audience suggestions, had the quality of a pre-written song, replete with rhymes and a cohesive stream-of-consciousness narrative.

After Halperin's act, Crowd Control took the stage, starting with the line game, "I make love like I" and then launching into a long-form based off of the monologue delivered by Rosen.

The highlights of the show were the two-person scenes, which occurred during the group's long-forms. "Their situations were real. Their humor was real," commented audience member and improviser Emily Duggan '15 after the show.

While many of the scenes featured five or even six improvisers, the strongest scenes, and the ones in which the improvisers looked most comfortable onstage, involved just two people at a time. Each started with silence as the improvisers became acquainted with their imagined environment before talking with one another. Gale and Sadrach Pierre '13 created one such scene, in which they took on the roles of a father and son eating breakfast and discussing life. The simplicity of the scene, marked by its lack of jokes, tapped into the truth of parental relationships, and the scene's hilarity came from its believable characters.

One of Crowd Control's greatest skills is its ability to call back lines and characters from previous scenes. "It's like they start at the beginning, then jump to the end, and then fill it in," audience member and improviser Zane Relethford '13 told JustArts. "It's fulfilling for the audience."

The majority of the scenes involved callbacks of characters, games or catchphrases. For instance, Mermelstein initiated the game of instructing his daughter, played by Lili Gecker '13, to ask for money in increments rather than in lump sums. So, when Gecker and others bullied Dawson, they demanded he give them money in increments. This game recurred throughout the long-form, and it was invoked by different characters to good effect.

After a multitude of characters, puns and one-liners, the show ended on a high note, with Crowd Control taking advantage of the fact that it was April 1 to tell audience-members that the last person to leave Chum's would get a special mystery prize. I write this as I lie beneath the blue couch in a darkened and locked Chum's, awaiting my prize.