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Life & Arts

Troupe makes each laugh original

UH-based improv group uses long form 
that got Belushi and Murray starts

by LEE CLARK
The Daily Cougar

While staged performance productions might satisfy some theater aficionados, there are always those who enjoy something original in every production. Scatter!, a UH-based improv troupe, makes sure that each of its performances is a one-time only event. 

Scatter! was started this semester by Matthew Archambault, a theater graduate student, and fellow theater students.

Archambault, a self-proclaimed comedy nerd, wanted to give those students interested in pursuing a career in comedy an outlet through which they could practice their craft. 

"In order to jump off into comedy and get on shows like Saturday Night Live or The Daily Show, you have to start with long-form and build up your chops there," Archambault said.

Scatter! performs long-form improv as opposed to short-form. Short-form improv, which consists of short scenes structured around a game and spawned from an audience member' s suggestion, was made popular by the hit TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway? Long-form improv is also started with an audience member' s suggestion, but the scenes are interrelated to form a cohesive 30-minute show.

"Long-form is a play that belongs in a comedy club or comedy that belongs on a stage," Archambault said. "It' s not a night of theater, and it' s not going to the comedy club. It' s something in between."

Improv has a large following in the nation' s three biggest cities. New York is home to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, whose most famous alumna is Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live. Chicago is home to Second City, which produced a slew of comedians, from Jon Belushi and Bill Murray in the 1970s to Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert in the 1990s. Los Angeles is home to the Groundlings, whose famous alumni include Phil Hartman and Will Ferrell. 

"I am big on the New York scene," Archambault said. "I am a big fan of Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and the Peoples Improv Theatre. Scatter! is modeled after the New York scene, but the improv scene is kind of the same in the three major cities."

In order to create a vibrant scene for Houston improv, Scatter! teams up with Massive Improv, an improv theater company that provides a venue for local performers. 

Massive also features improv classes.

Scatter!, which includes several theater students, is just one of many teams from the greater Houston area that performs under the auspices of Massive.

Massive threw the first ever Houston Improv Festival Feb. 24 and 25 at the Midtown Arts Center. Three-hundred people watched Scatter! perform along with seven other groups. 

The festival led to an opportunity for Scatter! to gain further exposure. A member of the University of Texas-based improv troupe Gigglepants saw the show and invited Scatter! to perform three shows one weekend in May.

Scatter! is also looking to perform with other Massive groups at Austin' s nationally famous Out of Bounds Improv Festival during Labor Day weekend.

Massive hosts improv performances at 7:30 p.m. every Sunday night at The Mink, 3718 Main St. Scatter! is a house team for Massive, which means it usually performs every week. 

In hopes of growing a large improv fan base in Houston, Archambault encourages people from backgrounds other than theater to get involved in improv.

"All you have to do is gather people you know," Archambault said. "After you find a good coach and take a class or two, you have your ammunition. The next step is to put it together and have a lot of fun."

Theater senior and Scatter! member Timmy Wood said excitement runs high during performances.

"We bring all this energy when we get on stage. It' s like this explosion of comedic energy, and that' s why I think our troupe is great," Wood said. "We give the audience a punch in the face … but a good punch, the kind of punch that makes them want more punches."

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