The troupe first called up audience member Nick Edises '13 to ask about life at Bowdoin
“Do you pronounce it Boh-DOYNE? It’s Boh-DIN? What happened to that second “˜o,’ did you decide to just cut it?”
Thus began a recent Saturday-night improv performance at Bowdoin by the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre TourCo, a comedy troupe based out of New York and Los Angeles that has produced such stars of comedy as Amy Poehler and Ed Helms.
The four actors who performed for Bowdoin students were Nate Smith, D’Arcy Carden, Craig Rowin and Aaron Jackson.
For their show, the actors first called up a student from the audience for an interview about Bowdoin life. Nick Edises ’13 told Rowin about living in Chamberlain Hall, working for Career Planning, getting lost on campus and staying home from the Ivies concert. The actors’ skits then featured these situations.
The student-run group Entertainment Board, or eBoard, which sponsored the show, wanted to bring a comedy act to Bowdoin during reading period to give students a laugh during a stressful time in the semester.
“We started looking back in October,” explained eBoard Co-Chair Michael Hannaman ’13. “We got ahold of [UCB] and they agreed to come up.”
“They’re a little different from things we’ve had in the past,” added eBoard member Ruiqi Li ’13.
Students were big fans of the show. “I thought it was really good,” said first-year John Lagasse after watching the performance. “They should come back,” agreed Audrey DeFusco, also a first-year.
The UCB actors appreciated Bowdoin’s enthusiasm. “It’s fun when a crowd is as responsive and energetic as this one was,” Carden said after the show. “The audience is a big part of an improve show, and this audience was awesome.”
Story and photos by Margot Howard ’13
