Quick On Their Feet Expect The Unexpected When ‘Cream Of Wit’ Performers Take The Stage

Two people are up on a stage facing a crowd - with absolutely no idea of what they will do next.

A member of the audience calls out an idea - “Apples!” - and one of the performers pretends to be in an orchard picking apples. Eventually, one of the apples falls and hits him on the head. He stumbles around in a daze.

The other person solemnly intones, “Nine years later, in the mental hospital …”

And from there, the story takes off.

This is “Cream of Wit,” the improvisational theater and comedy show from Spokane’s newest improv company, Unexpected Productions. The Seattle branch of Unexpected Productions has been knocking ‘em dead in the Market Theatre at Pike Place Market since 1991. Last summer, one member of that Seattle group, Mark Thompson, moved back to Spokane and decided to organize a Spokane branch of Unexpected Productions.

Thompson held auditions and recruited a seven-member troupe of local performers. They have been performing every two weeks or so ever since, usually at Spokane Falls Community College’s theater building.

Thompson, who is pursuing an English teaching certificate at Eastern Washington University, said he had no trouble finding people willing to stand up on stage without benefit of script. In fact, he said he had to narrow the field ruthlessly, to weed out the prospects who simply considered themselves stand-up comics or show-offs.

“People say to me, ‘I just love making an ass out of myself!’ ” said Thompson. “That’s not the idea. The whole idea of punch-lines and oneliners kills the idea of story. Our purpose is not just to be funny, but to tell funny stories about life.”

So he picked out different kinds of performers, performers in whom smarts are transcendent over shtick.

“These are people who can easily recognize the elements of story, who know what makes a story work, who know what makes a movie work,” said Thompson.

Brandon Tully, 24, is a good example. Tully, one of the more accomplished members of the troupe, is not a ham, not “wacky,” not one of those people who is perpetually “on.”

“Most people in the group are pretty quiet off-stage,” he said.

But Tully has studied post-modern criticism and writing. He said it helps to know the distinctive forms of all kinds of literature, all kinds of movies and all kinds of drama. For one thing, you never know when the audience will call out “Film noir!” - thus requiring you to act out the story of Snow White in the film noir style.

Gretchen Oyster, 24, another member of the troupe, is also an English literature student at EWU. Although she is an actress, she has found that improvisation can have bigger rewards.

“This is an opportunity to create anything, to play any kind of role,” she said.

With this freedom comes terror. How would you like to stand on a stage and be forced to wing it? Yet seasoned performers like Tully find it not terrifying, but liberating.

“I don’t even have stage fright with this,” said Tully. “As an actor (in a play), I get much more frightened.”

And when it all clicks, it’s a joy to behold.

“It doesn’t happen very often - I’m really critical - but when it does, it’s really pleasing,” said Thompson. “You’ve created something artistic, right in the instant.”

This makes it a great audience experience, too. We feel privileged to see something created especially for us, out of thin air, never to be repeated.

And when it doesn’t work? Well, at least the audiences are forgiving.

“The audiences are a lot less critical because they want it to succeed,” said Thompson. “They want to have some fun.”

Thompson is the first to admit that the Spokane troupe still has a way to go before it lives up to the best of the genre’s standards. Some scenes go on too long, some veer into dead ends, some don’t ever jell into real stories. Thompson is still working with the cast, adding and subtracting members, holding three-hour rehearsals in which he endlessly drills them in techniques and theories.

He has also taken the group over to the Seattle production, where they have had the chance to work with “the best improvisers in the country.” The Seattle group routinely sells out a 246-seat theater, twice a week.

“I hope to bring something to Spokane that’s of equal quality, that will keep the audiences coming back to see something new,” said Thompson.

There is clearly a market for improv in Spokane - after all, HIJINX, Spokane’s 5-year-old improv troupe, has been performing to enthusiastic crowds every Friday at 8 p.m. at the Masonic Temple downtown. Thompson performed with HIJINX for three years before moving to Seattle, but he says that “Cream of Wit” is different, more like improvisational theater than straight improvisational comedy.

Thompson eventually hopes to build Unexpected Productions up to a 14-person cast performing twice a week in a downtown location. This week, you can catch “Cream of Wit” on Friday at the SFCC Theater.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ON STAGE “Cream of Wit” will be presented at 9 p.m. Friday at the SFCC Theater, Building No. 5. Tickets are $6 (or $5 for students with ID), available at the door or by calling 747-7045.