Brendan Byrne ‘22
One of Salesian High School’s most unprepared clubs, the Salesian CIA, where the I stands for Improv, the A stands for association, and no one’s really sure what the C stands for, is a club revolving around improv, a type of performance where everything is entirely improvised, any lines and jokes coming off the top of the performer’s head. Lacking any preparation can make such a performance seem difficult, but contrary to what you may believe it can create some absolutely incredible moments that will kill an entire room of people with laughter.
The Improv club, lead by Mr. Dwyer, and headed by its president Gabriel Droz and Vice President Adonis Pippis, had initially been created for fun but soon was realized that with its rapidly expanding group of talented members, an excellent opportunity for some very entertaining shows was open. The most recent show by the Salesian CIA was on Friday, February 28th, and was a smashing success, leaving the audience very satisfied for what they had paid, which was nothing as the improv shows put on by the CIA are entirely free to attend. During that night’s improv performance many different improv games were played such as The Dating Game in which 3 performers act as characters while another has to ask questions and guess which impressions each performer is doing in the style of an 80s television dating game. Some impressions we saw that night were of Bernie Sanders, Emperor Palpatine, and a random Scottish citizen who had somehow wandered his way on stage.
Also making up the roster of many games played was Photograph, in which a group of people has to come together to create a still image of some scene using only themselves. Such scenes given to the groups were failing a test, and an alien invasion. Yet another game included in the performance was Switch, a game in which a scene is played out normally until a designated person would shout “Switch!” at which point the last thing said would have to be taken back and changed to something else. A new game added to the roster for this show was National Geographic, where a group of performers would act out a scene silently while another narrates as if it were a nature documentary.
During Friday’s show the scene was that of an Italian dinner where a long-lost brother returned home. Overall many people found the show very entertaining, the audience responding with loud laughs and applause to many, if not all, of the games. Being part of the show myself, I can testify that it is as much fun, if not more, to be apart of the show. Improv is a wonderful thing to be a part of and it’s always a blast to perform.
The Salesian Spectator 