Pitt-based improv group takes the stage for comedic entertainment

Ruckus, a Pitt-based improvisational comedy group, kicked off its last performance with its weekly ritual: a butt race. On their butts and hands, two members of the group slid down stairs in a lecture hall in the Cathedral of Learning.

Ruckus is a team of 15 actors who entertain with impromptu comedy sketches and games, using audience suggestions. Ruckus performs every Saturday at 9 p.m. in G-24 of the Cathedral of Learning. 

On Saturday, the performance contained bouts of the ridiculousness prompted by audience suggestions to act out various situations, such as Goldilocks camping in hell.

In this activity, actors stood in line and told the improvised tale of Goldilocks, Mama Satan and Papa Satan. One actor began, and the next would continue by tagging out the first actor in a rapid-fire game of storytelling tag. The story ended with a flame-shooting battle and the promise of a camping trip. The audience applauded through cries of laughter.   

The audience also howled during the Good, Bad, Worst game, during which actors gave advice to audience members on questions posed, such as, “How do I date my brother’s girlfriend?”

Ruckus formed in fall 2012, according to member Lucy Clabby. Graduate student Rick Walker decided Pitt needed an improv group. He held auditions, and the original Ruckus troupe was formed.

Although Ruckus performs each weekend in the Cathedral, the group has also made it into some comedy clubs such as Union Pig and Chicken in East Liberty and Steel City Improv Theater in Highland Park.

Clabby, a sophomore theater arts and fiction writing major, said Saturday shows have drawn a crowd of regulars for the improv troupe. Attendance usually averages at about 30 people.

According to Ruckus member Steven Boyd, a junior majoring in English literature and math, once the show is over, everything is forgotten. 

“In the memory books, improv doesn’t exist. It’s all about context. It always has to move on. Even if it’s a great moment, you just have to make another one greater later on,” Boyd said.

Ruckus plays many different games throughout the performance, including musical games, such as making up an entire improvisational opera on the spot.

Lex Benedict, a Ruckus member who graduated from Pitt last semester, said his favorite game is Good, Bad, Worst because of the character it has helped him develop.

Benedict said he’s been playing a “Spanish guy, Juan” recently, and the character prompted an entrance applause two weeks ago.

“[The game is] good because it challenges you to come up with different scenarios,” Benedict said, adding that suggestions often include “middle school dances, salsa [and] grocery stores.”

For all the members of Ruckus, the most important line to remember as an improviser is, “Yes, and.”

Clabby explained the rule, which is the “first thing every improviser learns.” 

“If your co-star gives you something, you never say, ‘No,’ to that information. You agree to that information, and you add something to it. So it’s just a matter of agreeing upon the world you’re existing in and giving your partner more to work with,” Clabby said.

For Erica Lange, a freshman computer engineering major, what makes membership in Ruckus great is knowing she has that one weekly hour dedicated to fun.

“It’s nice to know that not only do we have that hour and rehearsal time that we have to have fun. We’re [also] giving an hour to every audience member where they have to have fun,” she said.

For Louis Markowitz, a freshman theater arts and English literature major, improvisation allows him to do things he cannot in regular life.

“When we’re doing improv, we get to go places we never get to go, and we get to say things no one should ever get to say,” Markowitz said.

Clabby also added that during improv, she is able to forget about everything else and reach a state of peace.

“It’s almost meditative. It’s the purest form of existence. You’re just present,” she said.