Collegiate Times

Newly formed Virginia Tech comedy group Lolopolis will take the stage tonight aiming to wow audiences with highbrow humor.

The 12-member co-ed group will perform for free in the Theatre 101 Black Box Theatre at 7:30 p.m.

Created at the start of this semester, Lolopolis, which is a registered student organization, is quickly spreading its name across campus. The first show was just a few weeks ago at Gobblerfest, with this being the group’s second show. A third show is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 3.

Alex Beard, Lolopolis founder and junior theatre arts major, met with the Collegiate Times to discuss the group and the upcoming show, which has a “dating and relationships” theme.

COLLEGIATE TIMES: Why did you decide to form the group?

ALEX BEARD: I decided to start the group because I saw there was a void. There wasn’t an improv comedy group here and there hasn’t been since I was a freshman. I saw this as the perfect outlet to perform.

CT: Do you each do your own performances? Or do you do perform as a group?

BEARD: Basically, we perform as a whole. We decided our formula is to do sketches in between our long improvisation.

We will get a suggestion from the audience, which is normally something that happened to an audience member recently. We will then take that suggestion and stay as far away from it as possible, but take bits and pieces of it to create a story.

What we do is create a miniature play. We have two long-form sets of improv and three sketches that we have bookended. They will still be improvised but we have already figured out where we want the sketch to go.

CT: What is the difference between an improv and a sketch?

BEARD: An improv set would be something that is 100 percent made up on the spot; there are no predetermined values to the piece itself. For a sketch, we will write out the set ahead of time, and normally it will go through some kind of editing process. It is something we have really worked on for awhile. Usually a sketch comes from improv that we do from rehearsals. We will get an idea or stumble on something and say, “Let’s go more into that.”

CT: Where does the group draw inspiration for its jokes?

BEARD: Inspiration for the group, and for me particularly, comes from Andy Kaufman from Man on the Moon. I also look a lot at more obscure humor, like Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. I am a huge fan of Donald Glover, who is on the NBC show Community.

I look toward more obscure, but more highbrow comedy. I am not a fan of lowbrow. Poop humor is the best way to describe it. What we are going for is a highbrow level of comedy, like something that an educated college student would understand, but it isn’t a slap in the face.

CT: What made you become involved with comedy?

BEARD: Ultimately this is what I want to do when I graduate. I started doing improv comedy, which I was doing in short form in high school, and I really enjoyed it. There is something about creating something in the moment that sticks with me a lot more than a worked piece.

CT: What can the audience expect from your show on Friday?

BEARD: An extremely good time. People are really going to get the bang for their buck because it’s free. Moreover, I think they’ll really enjoy themselves.

Everyone will kind of be there and in the moment. The audience will be on a tightrope if you will. By experiencing that, I think they will get a lot more out of what we are doing, and what we are striving for, in terms of comedy and even theatre.

I think if it is something you haven’t experienced before, live improv comedy, then there is a huge difference between seeing “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” on TV and seeing it live, and I think everyone should experience that.

A version of this article appeared in the Sep 10 issue of the Collegiate Times.