ASHLYEE HICKMAN
A&E Assistant
Kala Eubanks/Staff photographer
Imagine walking on a stage with the task of entertaining a crowd on the spot — no lines, no reshoots, just hit or miss comedy. The Pepperdine Improve Troupe (PIT) does just that, and the good-humored group has it down to a science — a very funny science. For PIT seniors Kari Miller, Lissette Jean-Marie and Dean Curosmith the funny just comes naturally.
How did PIT start?
Miller:
PIT started about seven years ago by a group of students who saw that there wasn’t an improv group on campus. They knew that this was a great way to entertain people as well as improve their acting skills. So they decided to form a team and it’s grown since then. They brought in the two people who [advise] the PIT — Tracy and Allen — and they’re professional improvisers in L.A. They’re our comedic parents.
Jean-Marie: They birthed us in their comedic wombs to be funny ourselves.
What’s your favorite aspect of PIT?
Curosmith:
It’s definitely the group dynamic because I hate performing. I hate showing up for anything except for the people. No, really it’s the people because for a whole year you get to work really closely with this tight knit group of people. You get to see what makes them tick and their strengths and weaknesses. You get to become like a family.
What is the process of improvising?
Miller: The whole basis of improv is really learning to listen to other people. One of my favorite lines that you hear about improv is ‘make everyone else look good’ — just worry about that and then everyone will look good. I think many people come out to improv shows and think, ‘They’re just out there to be funny,’ but that’s not the purpose. The purpose is to create a story, listen to each other, feed off each other’s energy and from there, then you make something and funny stuff comes out of it.
Does improv have any “real life” benefits?
Jean-Marie: It makes you a better person because some of the improv rules like ‘accept offers that are given to you,’ and, ‘don’t look back on past mistakes,’ are things that if you apply it to life it makes life a lot more fun.
What do you think is so unique about what you do?
Curosmith: It’s like living the perfect life when you’re on stage because you get to be someone you’ve never been before. If you make a mistake, you just embrace it and you just take it on. People love it. If a scene is bombing and something is going wrong the audience loves it and they start clapping even more. How many times in your life does something go wrong and someone says [clapping] ‘I love that, that’s awesome’?
Who do you use for your inspiration?
Curosmith: God.
Miller: He was the greatest improviser — he improvised the world.
Jean-Marie: For me it’s Conan O’Brien, as many people know I’m obsessed with him.
Curosmith: I take a lot from Dane Cook and Conan O’Brien.
Do you see yourselves on the stage of Saturday Night Live?
Miller: It’s been one my dreams I’ve had since I was, like, ten.
To you what’s the most comical aspect of college life?
Curosmith: People’s reactions to the smallest things, like, ‘We have a test on Tuesday? Ugh.’
Miller: I’d say the dating scene — that is hilarious to me because the people that aren’t dating are like ‘Who’s dating? Are you dating? Are you dating anybody? How’s it going? Are you …’ They’re trying to live through that person’s dating experience. And the people who are dating are clinging to each other, like, ‘No one touch this one.’
Curosmith: The Facebook Mini Feed for some reason. I wasn’t on Facebook until last month maybe and then it came on two weeks after I got on and I was like, ‘Oh, this is interesting, what is this?’ Everyone else was up in arms about to kill their brothers. I mean, is it really that big of a deal?
Miller: We were walking through campus and you could hear people shouting, ‘mini feed.’
One of the hardest things in the world is to be funny. In fact, there is a sort of conundrum. How do you achieve the funniness?
Curosmith: I don’t think any of us are funny.
Jean-Marie: I’m planning to be a dentist or an accountant.
Miller: We don’t mean to be funny it just sort of happens. If you go on stage and say, ‘I’m going to be funny,’ you freeze. You just won’t be. You just have to go on stage with a blank slate and be ready for whatever comes. I think it’s the best way to do it.
PIT’s next performance is set for Oct. 14 during Parents’ Weekend. The group practices each Sunday for three hours and PIT usually performs twice a month in the HAWC.
10-05-2006
