Knowing Cleveland weather, there are few things a sane person would stand in the blistery cold for. But scores of students waited over an hour for IMPROVment’s first alumni show.

IMPROVment is a short-form comedy troupe, started in the fall of 2003 after the People’s Improvisational Society (PImpS) failed at being resurrected the previous year. The organizers at the time took the best from the PImpS and recruited talent from another group called the Make-You-Laughers and created IMPROVment. While in 2003 they only did two shows in a semester with an attendance of roughly 15, they are now packed full at each of the shows they put on, which now count at more than 40 a year.

IMPROVment president Aaron Byers attributes much of IMPROV’s appeal to the set-up of their games. “We play games based on scene work, as well as endowment, or guessing, games. IMPROVment is unique because of our use of music, which most troupes do not do,” he said.

The show last Saturday night, starting at 10 p.m and stretching to 12 a.m, was definitely one of a kind. For the first time, the alumni were invited back to perform in, as Byers commented during the show, “their natural habitat,” what we know as the Eldred Black Box Theatre.

“I came up with the idea of the alumni show last spring after seeing one at Ohio State,” Byers said, “Because I knew that many improvement alumni have continued to perform and take classes in Chicago and elsewhere, I decided to let them show what they had learned.”

Bringing in the alumni wasn’t exactly an easy process. “It was plenty of work,” Byers explained. “The most difficult part was figuring out how to contact everyone. After that, the response was tremendous. Putting together the actual show was challenging, but I knew that no matter what I did, ultimately the improvisers would be amazing.”

The show was first taken away by a new improv troupe, The Thunderlips and the Submissives, of whom IMPROV alumni T.J Gainely and LaJuan Foust are members. The troupe warmed up the crowd with some skits about squirrels – “a bunch of coked out squirrels,” that is.

The alumni, coming in from many different places “around the globe, but mainly America,” introduced themselves. As many of the returning talents were from Chicago, sketch comedy written by the alumni, popular in that area, was included in the show. Sketch comedies are essentially short scenes up to about ten minutes long that are performed on stage revolving around a central idea.

Then the show progressed into the normal IMPROVment show, with the alumni aiding in the games. “I like to think that improve games have been handed down from generation to generation, taught and perfected around campfires with plenty of smores action going on.” Byers commented. These included serenading an audience member named Mud, guessing games in two scenes – a rave and a dating show, and Irish drinking songs, and perhaps the best Quidditch that kept the night alive with laughter.

Morgan Hill, a freshman at Case Western Reserve, attended the Saturday night thrill. “The cast is fantastic. I have no idea how they manage to come up with some of their ideas, especially when put on the spot like that,” she noted. However, she and the rest of the audience aren’t the only ones that enjoy the show.

The cast, too, enjoys putting on the performance as much as we love seeing it. “I enjoy the camaraderie. I have absolute trust in my teammates, on and off the stage,” commented Byers. “While performing, you have to make yourself incredibly vulnerable. It is much easier to do when you know that you have 13 other people who have your back and will accept anything that you give them. We’re always there for each other, much like a family.”

The show as a whole was fantastic. It was light, it was fast, it was hilarious. It was even full of herpes. “The best thing about the show is the entire cast,” said Hill. “The worst thing about the show is the length. It’s too short.”

So, if you’re trying to de-stress after a week of exams, papers and late nights, find out if there’s an IMPROVment show on for the weekend. It’s good for laughs and general mental health. And, as Byers puts it for everyone, “there’s nothing I don’t enjoy about IMPROVment.”