LU Cackle Hour Hosts Comedy Show for Students

LU Cackle Hour welcomed students and CFAW attendees to their show on Saturday, Nov. 8 in DeMoss Hall 1284. The on-campus improv club has been putting on a show every semester for eight years since its launch in 2016.

“We like to get students to take some time off from their brain and have fun and laugh,” Christian Manwell, LU Cackle Hour club president, said.

The mentally relaxing environment does not come thoughtlessly, however. The club meets every Sunday for rehearsals. It may sound counterproductive to rehearse improv, but it is necessary because of the structure of the shows.   

“For the show, we have a set of games, and each of those games have different rules, and we decide who’s in what games,” Manwell said.

Improv games are a new concept to some students.

“It was really good. I didn’t know that they played games during it (the show), so that was really interesting to see,” freshman Emma Thompson said.

The goal of the improv game was to introduce a challenge or variable to a scene so that performers and audiences were kept guessing. Some of the games played during the show included Suggestions, Vacation Photos and Evil Twin.

In Suggestions, audience members wrote lines on pieces of paper as they entered the room for the show. Later, a pair of performers was placed in a scene together and took turns periodically pulling one of these papers out, reading it for the first time in character, and continuing to act out the scene.

Vacation Photos involved two actors discussing their recent vacation to destinations chosen by the audience. A larger group of actors wordlessly posed behind the two speaking actors to create a random scene based off the destination, and the two speaking actors then turned around, seeing the scene for the first time, and had to explain what the “photo” depicted.

Evil Twin involved four total actors — two who played the main characters and two who played their evil twins. The characters were placed in a scene together and the evil twins occasionally tapped in, replacing their character counterpart. The evil twin would then say a single line that created the most chaos and conflict possible, then tap out, leaving the character to deal with the consequences.

The night opened with prayer, and then Manwell explained what the audience could expect to see, sharing a sneak peak of some of the games that were going to be played. The actors constantly encouraged audience participation and lightheartedly teased spectators to goad them into adding to the show. The result was an intimate, playful atmosphere where strangers became honorary castmates, all thanks to the performers on stage.

The official cast for this show included Manwell, Vice President Ryan Newman, Faculty Representative Matthew Sereno, and club members Alexander Medina, Karis Jarvis and Zachary Johnson. These actors come from a variety of backgrounds, with some having no improv experience before the club, others with some theater experience and others with years of experience.

No matter their skill level, all the performers expressed an unshakable desire to continue improving their comedic talents. Every member of the club wanted to do more shows and to get more students involved.

“I just saw that it was available,” Newman said. “I mean improv is such a fun thing to do. It’s something that, if you can be involved in, I’ve only ever seen it be a positive influence.”

LU Cackle Hour’s next show is Dec. 6 at 5 p.m. in DeMoss Hall 1284, and they host open rehearsals every Sunday at 5 p.m. in DeMoss 3152. Follow them on Instagram @lu_cackle for more information.

Hughes is a news reporter for the Liberty Champion.