The ComedySportz team will compete against Monte Vista High on
Saturday
Hollister – ”Balers and those who love them now have a new team to cheer for.
San Benito High School students have put together a competitive comedy team and this weekend will be their first taking on kids from rival schools in a display of guts, glory and hopefully gags.
“These kids really are funny,” said Christina Plank, SBHS drama teacher. “You’d be surprised at what they come up with when you let them say anything, and that adolescent humor is still something that translates really well for adults, too.”
Improvisational comedy is just that: Performers make up scenes and jokes on the seat of their pants, often using ideas suggested from the audience, just like in the popular television show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” The team is affiliated with ComedySportz, an international league of student and adult improv teams who have been entertaining audiences for more than 20 years. Performers are competing for trophies and the SBHS troupe has their eye on the national ComedySportz high school tournament in late spring.
“The shows are run sort of like a baseball game,” said Plank, nodding to the team’s ‘Baler jerseys. “The teams compete, have innings, there’s a referee that can call a foul, that sort of thing.”
The first Saturday of each month, the team goes to the ComedySportz theatre in San Jose to train with a professional coach and students from other teams in the area.
“It’s really cool; we learn so much,” said senior Dina Silva, team president. “They tell you how to keep things moving, to keep from being nervous, what to do if you get stuck; it’s a great experience.”
Many of the students also are involved in the drama department’s regular season, and Plank says the skills they learn with ComedySportz are invaluable even when the actors are performing serious scenes in scripted plays.
“As an actor, the most terrifying thing in the world is forgetting a line,” she said. “But if you’ve had enough improv experience, you can make something up that will get the job done and be appropriate in the context of the scene.”
Many of the team members said improv comedy is a nice break from school and other extra curricular activities, and a few said they preferred it to regular plays and musicals.
“It’s a lot more fun and relaxed,” said Sarah Smith.
Best of all perhaps is that the students are putting on a show their grandmothers can attend. Family-friendliness is a ComedySportz mandate, and performers who cross the line of good taste get “brown-bagged” – they’re forced to wear a bag on their heads and take a shameful time-out.
This week’s competition against Monte Vista High School will be the first of many.
“We’ll be doing this until April,” said Plank. “I think the best thing about this program is that it can continue for years, no matter which students are here or who the drama teacher is. I hope this will become a tradition.”
