Improv Group ‘Schlock’ Takes To The Stage

The+Schlock+actors+got+into+a+heated+exchange+during+a+skit+called+New+Choice.

Julia Conant

The Schlock actors got into a heated exchange during a skit called “New Choice.”

Julia Conant, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Can you act out an entire bank heist in four seconds? Can you carry on an entire conversation using only two phrases? Can you make up your own Beastie Boys-esque lyrics in a matter of seconds? The members of Central’s improv group Schlock can.

On Thursday Oct. 17, Schlock performed their second improv show of the year in Davidson Hall. The five members of the Schlock eBoard and four newcomers to the improv group performed various improvised sketches.

They started by asking the audience for the name of an unlikely superpower and a predicament. The audience suggested “Milkman” as the superhero and the dilemma was that all of the world’s apple juice had gone missing. This sparked an entire quest to find the apple juice, with other unlikely heroes such as “Backhanded Compliment Man,” who said things like, “You’re almost as good as your older brother” and “You’re looking better than you usually do.”

Another game the improv group played was called “Good Bad Worst.” For this game, one person had to come up with an issue they need advice on. After that, one person gave good advice, another gave bad advice, and the third gave the worst advice they could imagine. One person’s dilemma was that his friends wouldn’t agree with him that a hot dog is a sandwich. The person bearing good advice suggested trying to see the argument from the friend group’s point of view. The person with bad advice suggested adding hot dogs to the Subway menu so that he could go to a sandwich shop to get a hot dog. And the person with the worst advice said to kidnap the friends’ families and send a ransom note asking, “Still think a hot dog isn’t a sandwich?”

Soon after came a game called “World’s Worst.” The audience gave suggestions such as “teacher” or “bartender” and the members of Schlock had to act out what the world’s worst version of that thing would be like. One of the audience suggestions was a delivery driver. As it so happened, the improv show was supposed to have food from Sodexo, but the food never came. So of course, one of the members of Schlock stood at the front of the stage and said “Hi, we’re Sodexo, we’re gonna deliver your food.”

As the night came to a close, the group played a game popularized by the improv-based television show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” called “Scenes From A Hat.” One person read out prompts such as, “If ‘Sesame Street’ characters were college professors” or “Things you can say about CCSU, but not your significant other.” When the prompt was, “The last thing you want to hear before you go to sleep,” the Schlock members gave answers such as, “Nighty night, you just might not wake up” and “So I see your feet are sticking out of your sheets.”

Schlock performs an improv show every month, and they meet on Tuesdays from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in Maloney room 109 and on Fridays from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in Davidson 123.