On Friday, Sept. 29, UNI improv troupe Some Assembly Required (SAR) performed in the basement of the Wesley Foundation. The room was filled with excitement for the first show of the year, and only standing room was left when the show started at 7 p.m.

SAR is a comedy troupe that performs short and long form improv, as well as special themed shows.

The first show of the year was titled “Cold Open SAR Improv,” and the performers in the troupe are UNI students. These include: Marielle Gaiser, Jake Manternach, Peter Flynn, Addison Johnson, Joe Gaiser, Craig Miller, Micach Criscuolo and Matt Schmidt. Schmidt was unable to make it to the first show.

The SAR performers said they all get along really well and that they love to work together for the sake of comedy.

“I just want to spread joy and help people laugh,” said Peter Flynn, freshman graphic design major at UNI and SAR performer. “This is a really great group of people to be with, and we’re all friends even outside of SAR.”

Friday night’s show consisted of six short games, and each one went for roughly five minutes — sometimes more, depending on audience reactions. Throughout each game, the performers would ask audience members to shout out certain objects or professions that could be used in the acts.

The first game was called “Sit, Kneel, Stand,” and the second game was called “Hey Coach.”

The third game was entitled “Film Noir,” which is a style of film coined for being full of pessimism, fatalism and menace. The idea of this third game was to use an object suggested by the audience in monologues. The object suggested was an apple.

The fourth game was called “Something You May Do on Your Afternoon,” which prompted the audience to shout out things like “go to church” and “sleep in.” Another popular suggestion was “grow corn.”

The fifth game was called “Sex with Me,” which, based on the reaction from the crowd, was clearly the favorite of the night. The game involved lots of audience participation, as attendees yelled out objects and professions.

The SAR performers then each had to take turns using the object or profession in a joke. The four suggestions that were taken by the SAR performers were: firefighter, barista and dental hygienist as professions, with a stapler and a lamp being the objects. Although the jokes were raunchy, they matched with the theme of the game, and it was a major crowd pleaser for many students.

“My favorite part of the show was the ‘Sex with Me’ game because it was so funny,” said Anja Buerger, an international student at UNI, studying business administration in her junior year. 

The sixth and final game played was called “Four Square,” which involved some of the performers acting out suggestions from the audience. Four performers were given four team pairings: performers one and two, two and three, three and four, and four and one.

Each pairing was given a suggestion by the audience that they had to use in their scene. The host for the game would yell “rotate forward,” and then the next pair would start their scene. Each pair would continue their scene when it was their turn again.

At the end of the show, the audience was asked to donate $1 to SAR. While the donations weren’t a requirement, the donations will assist SAR in achieving their biggest goal, which is to perform in New York City.

“I thought the creativity was pretty good, and it was funny,” said Mollie Sherman, a sophomore at UNI studying psychology. “It was wildly inappropriate, and that was hilarious. This was my first time at an SAR event.”

SAR performs all across the Cedar Valley and will be holding another show in October.

For more information about upcoming SAR events, follow Some Assembly Required on Facebook and use their hashtag #sarimprov.