The theatre at the Lamppost was mostly lit by Christmas lights strung across the ceiling as the audience waited for the improvised comedy to commence.

Last Friday, one of UNI’s improv groups, Half-Masted, had their “Gorilla” comedy show at the small coffee shop/theatre on Seerley Boulevard.

The “Gorilla” in the show’s title referred to the prize that the winning half of the group got if they won the audience’s vote, which was a month spent with a person in a gorilla suit. In the end, Mason Greer and his group won the prize of the “Gorilla.”

This kind of absurdity is common for improvisational comedy. It fit well with the energy of the performance.

For those unaware, an improv show consists of a series of games where the opposing teams of performers must make up their comedy on the spot. Nothing is planned beforehand. The performers must be quick on their feet with a wifty retort or a new direction for the scene.

The general rule of thumb: do not say no to anything. Go with every sketch. That is the main idea behind improv.

While I’ve enjoyed Half-Masted shows in the past, this particular venue seemed to be working against them. This was meant to be their family-friendly show as well, so they couldn’t curse or touch on risqué material.

The second thing that worked against them was that they were not operating on a full crew on Saturday night. I’ll admit, I have my favorite performers from the group. I missed the energy and humor the absent members brought to the show, however, the group put on a solid performance.

True to form, the sketches were not all that long. This is a good thing, as it keeps not only the audience but also the performers’ attention. If a sketch were to be too long, the audiences would lose interest and the performers would run out of things to say.

Also true to form, there was a lot of audience participation. The scorekeepers and judges were audience members and a majority of the topics used for the sketches were taken from audience suggestions.

One of the best sketches was “Freeze.” Two performers would act out a scene together until the audience yelled “freeze” at which point the performers stopped, another performer tagged out one of the originals, assumed the exact same pose they had been in at the time of freezing,  and once they unfroze they took the scene in a new direction. Once again, this was successful because the individual scenes were quick and had to end at a moment’s notice.

There were some sketches, however, that didn’t seem to go anywhere.

There was a game called “Baseball” where a performer conversed with her team and tried to flirt with a member of the audience. It seemed a bit too gimmicky for my taste.

There was another sketch towards the end that seemed to fall completely flat called “Movie Reviews.” Here the performers reviewed and acted out a movie that didn’t exist.

The reason this fell flat was because the topic was suggested by a young girl in the audience and there wasn’t much to be done with the idea of Cinderella having both shoes broken.

By the end of the sketch, the performers were relying on screaming and physical humor to get laughs. But then again, they were catering to a younger audience, and that type of humor goes over well.

In light of all this, it seems like the show as a whole could’ve been better if the group didn’t have to censor themselves. Then again, that’s what you get with family-friendly material.

I’ve seen Half-Masted on campus when they didn’t have to be family-oriented, and the shows were far better. Maybe it’s just the dirty comic in me, but improv is best when the audience is shocked.

This is not to say that I didn’t laugh during the show at the Lamppost. The group had their moments, but the show as a whole mostly felt overly censored.

Everything I’ve seen from Half-Masted in the past has been a great performance, but it seems that the smaller crew and censored show seem to be working against them.