Mock Turtle Soup’s next show will be Friday, Oct. 5, at 8 p.m. in Lee Hall on the Clemson University campus.
Dying is easy; comedy is hard, according to an old saying. But comedy without a net has to be painful. So thankfully for Clemson-area folks who want their humor without scripts or applause signs, Mock Turtle Soup exists.
Normally in this column, I rave or vent about some far-off cultural landmark, something that in no way whatsoever has anything to do with South Carolina. You don’t see much call for “entertainment” in these parts except for the occasional Van Damme double feature or Truckasaurus. But Mock Turtle Soup (Clemson University’s only improvisational comedy group) give hope to those of us who yearn for a Godard festival or a concert by the original members of Pink Floyd. They represent the best expression of desperate art for desperate times. Oh, and they happen to be funny, too.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I am Facebook friends with a couple of MTS members. I am even real-life friends with Alyssa Mander, a longtime member of the troupe. And, starting last February, I have survived the intolerable conditions of the group’s usual haunts (Lee Hall on the Clemson campus, whose auditorium makes a Turkish bath feel like Antarctica by comparison) in order to enjoy the shenanigans that make up a typical MTS show. Now, improv got a nice lease on life thanks to “Whose Line is It Anyway”, but MTS are homegrown (which means no obnoxious Drew Carey smutty jokes). And they bring it, usually once a month.
In conversation regarding the troupe, Alyssa informed me that they’ve been selected to travel to Las Vegas in November to attend a major comedy festival. And, that they were one of only a handful of comedy improv troupes throughout the nation’s campuses to be invited. That is what we call in the business “a very big deal.” Or, in Spanish, “el es un dealio muy grande, mis hombres.”
Audience participation is a key to any good MTS show, the interaction between the performers and those in the seats is sometimes the funniest stuff. Like I said, there’s no script, but there are a list of games that the troupe plays which rely on audience suggestions to fuel bizarre flights of comic fantasy. Except for the occasional unimaginative prompt from a dense patron (“pretend you’re a mime trapped in a box” —my suggestion from one of the first times I attended the show), it can open the window for MTS to kick ass and take names, comedy-wise.
The next show is at Lee Hall, Friday, Oct. 5, at 8 p.m. As your doctor, I strongly advise that you check it out. Keep in mind, though, I’m not a medically licensed professional. Also, the MTS shows are often better than my bland attempt at humor just now. So be there, or be square, bitches.
