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Volume CXXXIII, Number 4 |
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Improvabilities: behind the madness
MONICA GUZMAN
Staff Writer
The Bowdoin Improvabilities group is back in action this
year and ready for some unrehearsed fun. Four new members--sophomores
Hari Kondabolu and Brian Lorits, and first-years LaTricia Sealy and Jason
Long--were added this year. "They were selected in accordance with
the following criteria," explained veteran member Matthew Roberts.
"(1) Are they kind of funny? and (2) Are they weak and spineless
like us therefore leaving the delicate political balance within the group
undisturbed?" New members: for meeting those daunting expectations
a proud school salutes you.
Improvabilities will dazzle Bowdoin audiences in their first
scheduled performance on Thursday, October 11. That same weekend, they
hope to have a workshop with the famed improvisational group Second City,
who will be performing on Parents' Weekend. Though Roberts admitted that
Second City is "the greatest improvisational group in the country,"
he added that Improvabilities is "very excited about this wonderful
opportunity to meet one of the truly pioneering organizations in comedy
and expose it as a fraud."
The following are in-depth profiles of the individual members, brimming
with talent, that constitutes Improvabilities:
Hari Kondabolu is one of the new cast members on the Improvabilities
this year. People sometimes ask him, 'Hey H-man, why are you so goddamn
funny?' First, he responds, 'Don't ever call me H-
man.' Then he explains that he's funny because he's crazy. "I have
severe psychological problems," he says unapologetically. "Now
will someone please tell me why my pants are on that koala bear and why
he's eating all my Corn Pops!"
Nick Hiebert is a junior and is beginning his second year with the group. He loves spending time at practice just messing around. Shows are sort of icing on the cake. "If we get other people to laugh that's great; I just love that fact that we consistently crack each other up. That's what I really enjoy about the group - however selfish that is."
Jason Long comes from the exotic and distant land of Southern Maine.
"Please come to our shows," he begs, "or I may have to
spend my time reading."
Matt Roberts is a junior from Falmouth, Maine beginning his third year
with the group. Though frightfully unfunny, Matt always manages to make
the other members laugh out of the fear that if they don't they'll damage
his extremely fragile self-confidence and send him into a fit of seething
rage. "I'll do it!" he says, clutching a gnarled teddy bear.
Matt also participates in drama and in his spare time, he enjoys playing
guitar and complaining about the Red Sox.
Clint Huston is one of two seniors on the team. "I have a big forehead
and I
believe this is the source of most of my humor," he says. "He
enjoys meat helmets, watching people kick their feet in the air, and breathing.
"I have no
allergies and firmly believe in the truth. If I had one wish, I would
use it."
George Hubbard is well known as an international man of enigma. He now
resides in Australia doing research for the Improvabilities. His favorite
past times include the world-renowned game show Physics Phun Phor Phriendly
Pharmers. His enjoyed foods include cheese. George can be recognized by
the constant chatter of spectators saying, "Eight-year olds dude."
Just to set the record straight, he is not an activist against"enjoying
the high life."
LaTricia Sealy was known as Trishy because of her "innocent appearance."
This quickly changed when the truth was revealed… LaTricia stuck
until friends
realized how un-cool it is to call people by the names recorded on their
birth certificates. Here are the names she will most likely respond to:
LaTricia, Lattie, La, Trisha, Trish, Tushy and Tushi (there IS a difference),
Tush, Tush-Tush, Trixy-Trish, Sash, and Sashe (pronounced sash'ey). One
could also get her attention by spontaneously losing a limb.
Cabul Mehta is a junior from just outside Boston and lives in the fabulous
dream world known fondly as "Camp Bobo." He spends much of his
time
trying to graduate by May 2003, but in his spare time he likes to socialize
and figure out why his computer "keeps making that turtle-like buzzing
noise." In addition to being the best looking member of the group,
he brings to it his innate organizational skills that keep it alive with
vigor. Cabul's future plans include "working like a drone in the
city" and becoming the main reason Matt complains about the Red Sox.
Brian Laurits is a goat herd management major whose dreams and aspirations
include the Olympics, flying helicopters, and joining the band "B*witched"
for their upcoming world-wide come back (it will happen...oh yes, it will
happen). He hopes someday to be married and have kids, but chances are
that he won't, so he'll settle for whatever he gets.
Liz Wendell once played hide and seek. She was so good at hide and seek
that no one found her, try as they might. So they stopped playing but
did not tell her. And so she sat in her parents' closet inside the dress
bag, patiently. And she did sit and wait. Dinner passed. She took a nap.
At last when it had reached the wee hours of the morning, she emerged
disgruntled and unsettled. She will never play hide and seek after that
fateful day of June 3, 2001.