ComedySportz Jersey Shore puts on a show you can’t miss. Unlike most comedy shows, this improv spectacular is two hours of family-friendly fun every Saturday at 7:30 pm. All ComedySportz locations are so committed to keeping the show PG-rated that there is a penalty for swearing or doing anything lascivious. It’s also the one show where kids are encouraged to scream out whatever random idea pops into their heads.
While many kids may be a turnoff for some people, it shouldn’t be because the show isn’t juvenile and avoids going for cheap laughs. Except for games intended to be punny, performers receive the groaner fowl for lame puns. Once you eliminate the potential for lewdness and easy jokes, the improv performers are forced to rely on their wits for laughs.
On opening night, ComedySportz Jersey Shore brought in guest judge Doug Neithercott from ComedySportz Twin Cities. As emcee for the evening, Doug dressed like an “employee of Foot Locker” and explained that two teams of three performers challenge each other to improv games. Unlike Whose Line is it Anyway?, the points matter because the winning team walks away with a trophy.
How is the winner determined? Throughout the night, audience members using their judging shovels, which can be purchased for $3 a pair, to vote for the winner of each round. Whichever team receives the most raised shovels wins that round.
For the first night, the red (Ocean Grooves) and blue (Asbury Snarks) teams each had six members. However, only three team members were on stage at one time. For the first half of the night, the Asbury Snarks featured Phil Gravuer, Trish Tyler, and Gina Gennari and the Ocean Grooves featured Julie Sinkoff, Emily Olson, and Scott Mihalick. For the second half Ria Torricelli, Mel Gallagher, and Adam Cox represented blue with Ariel Rak, Susan Kleiner, and Grace Modla representing the red team. During the show, AJ Swamy helped out on the guitar for musical games and Joe Coughlin announced.
The great thing about improv is that the show performed on November 23 will never be seen again. Future games will be different. The red and blue teams will swap members and bring in new performers. Yet there are some staple games of short form improv that are frequently played. Below is a list of games played on opening night at Shore Thing Theater with short descriptions.
What You Got? – Two teams compete in this dance game. The audience provides a suggestions and performers must incorporate it into dance moves. For example, the blue team danced as though they were performers in the play Cats, whereas the red team went with knocking your stuff off a table.
Replay – One team performs a 15-30 second scene. Then, the audience provides three styles, such as film noir, fantasy and opera. Whipped cream flavored recipes that are a family secret.
Synonym Rolls – Performers are stopped mid-scene and must come up with synonyms for the last word they said. For example, blue whale became bus of the sea.
Musicians Revenge – Guitarist AJ Swamy accompanies the performers on guitar. When he plays, the performers must sing. When he stops, they must change back to speaking.
Columns – Two volunteers sit in chairs. When a performer taps on the shoulder of a volunteer, that person says the first word that comes to mind and must justify it in the performance.
Six Activities – The performers take normal suggestions, such as football for a sport, and receive suggestions from the audience to make it more absurd. By the end, performers who had left the room prior to suggestions and didn’t know what was going on, had to guess that a chipmunk was used as a football in a game against a group of hotdogs as their teammates could only mime and speak in gibberish.
Da Do Rap Rap – A basic rhyming game in rap form. Performers rhyme first names with words. Whoever fails is eliminated until there is one person left.
Spotify – The performers make up songs about the volunteer on stage. If the volunteer doesn’t like the song, they skip the song on the “playlist” and a new performer takes over.
Four Square – Three performers and an audience volunteer rotate. There are two people in each scene which starts with a one-word suggestion from the audience.
Google Translate – Two performers start with a scene. Next, two performers turn that scene into gibberish as two performers who had previously left the room watch. Finally, the performers who left the room must retranslate that scene into English.
185 – The point of the game is to make puns. For example, Susan said “185 elephants walk into a bar. That’s strange your hours are truncated.”
ComedySportz Jersey Shore runs every Saturday night at Shore Thing Theater in Ocean Grove.
