What made you want to join Guerrilla Troupe?
I was previewing Baylor Theater as an incoming student. There was an event called Meet the Majors and a lot of people in G Troupe happen to be theater majors, so they’ll use a small group of the G Troupe members to put on a small show for us. I was a junior in high school and I instantly I knew I wanted to be a part of this. Everybody loved them. The event was supposed to be for prospective students but everybody in the theater department showed up just to watch G Troupe.
What do you hope to achieve from G Troupe as far as career aspirations?
A couple of guys and a girl all moved all moved up to Chicago this past year doing stuff for Second City, which is a big improv school up there. I hope to follow the same footsteps, move up to Chicago and continue doing improv. I’d like to write or maybe even shoot for SNL!
How do you all know how to feed off of each other when you’re onstage in front of an audience?
A lot of that is the rehearsal process, just playing with the same people. Just having those friendships build over a long period of time, and having the connection. You’ll know how people work after a while. That’s why we have new people in the troupe, but they’re not in shows for a while, just so we can have more time to get to know them. It’s a lot about trust up there, and trusting your partner.
The question everyone always asks is how much of your shows are planned or scripted?
None. The only thing we have is what games we are going to play. That’s it! The thing is, is if we scripted it, it wouldn’t be funny. We aren’t that good of comedy writers!
How would you describe G Troupe to someone who has never seen a show before?
We are bunch of fun guys and girls. Our mission is to make people laugh. We do pretty well most of the time. I love how carefree it is. If something goes wrong, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll always have tomorrow. I encourage people to come because it’s just a fun time, so bring your friends!
What has been your worst/most embarrassing moment onstage doing improv comedy?
We had this game called “Beastie Rap” and it’s the game we usually start every show with; it’s a rhyming game. I was feeling so confident and I went up there, and I think the word was smelly? And Tiffany was who I was rapping against and she rhymes the word, I rhyme it once, she rhymes it again, and then I couldn’t think of another one! So I only did it one time. Then you just beat yourself up the next 15 minutes of other words like, jelly or Chris Kelly! You could beat yourself up forever.
What has been your best moment onstage doing improv comedy?
There is a special moment where we play the last game, and it’s usually “World’s Worst” which is my favorite. We get suggestions from the audience on little papers and read them off as “world’s worst-” whatever they wrote, and then someone has to say a joke. Mine was “world’s worst honeymoon” and I said “Honey! I got tickets for the Titanic!” and it was a good enough joke to end the show on and that’s just a great feeling.
Tell us one thing about yourself.
Growing up, I was really shy I couldn’t talk to people. I couldn’t go up to the cashier to order popcorn at the movie theater. My grandpa gave me a joke book because he was really funny, so I started telling these jokes. They weren’t even good jokes, they were out of a joke book so they were really bad. But I remember as a kid, for once feeling like I could make friends and it was because of my grandpa. I learned how to be funny and how to make jokes because of him. He’s been the driving force. So if at one point or another someone thought I was funny, I guess we can thank him!
