The Business of Comedy

Reprinted with permission by the Indiana Alumni Magazine.

The Business of Comedy

ComedySportz Indianapolis keeps it clean, entertaining, and enriching

By Bertrand Teo

The sparse activity along Massachusetts Avenue—one of Indianapolis’ designated cultural districts known for its ethnic restaurants, rare gift shops, art galleries, and bars—on the Saturday night of May 15, belied the energy in unit 721, the home of ComedySportz Indianapolis, an improv comedy group with a distinctive IU flavor.

Inside, a huge digital timer on the wall shows the seconds ticking off until the 10 o’clock show begins, and servers take orders for meals. Items on the menu include sandwiches named after the members of the comedy group (David Fuller Chili Dog, Lynn Burger Cheese Burger, etc.).

In its 17th year, the comedy group’s performance is a staple for many young families based in the Circle City, thanks to a fusion of good, clean family-friendly entertainment, with a sporting atmosphere. As the longest running show in the city, according to its Web site, the group’s corporate business arm’s projects have enabled it to keep churning great weekly performances.

“ComedySportz is a flawless commercial packaging of improv,” says Dave Ruark, BA’90, one of the original owners of the comedy group. “It’s a fast-paced show based on a sports metaphor that most people can relate to immediately. Everybody likes competition, and everybody likes to be involved.”

A regular ComedySportz show emulates sports traditions of the singing of the national anthem and a point system to award winning teams with the affectionately termed Meaningless Trophy.

The game sees two teams of three comedians pitted against each other in improvisational games that require contestants to develop scenes, characters, and compose song lyrics in real time, in the style made famous by the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway? Some of past short-form comedy skits have seen performers (or “playerz”) simulate activities such as waltzing with Britney Spears, hang gliding over an oil well, and playing basketball in a suit of armor.

“The show changes all the time,” says Lynn Burger, BS’85, a current owner and treasurer of ComedySportz Indianapolis. “People come back again and again, because it’s never the same show.”

The show format was incorporated from the World Comedy League Inc., the Milwaukee-based umbrella organization of all ComedySportz chains. World Comedy League licenses the name ComedySportz and the format of the show to cities in the U.S. and Europe.

Jeff Clawson, BA’03, a member of ComedySportz Indianapolis, says that being able to incorporate that format and a policy of a clean, non-vulgar show works for a market like Indianapolis.

“A couple, for instance, will have no worries taking their child to the show during a night,” says Clawson. “Most nights, about 20 percent of the audience members are kids.”

Over the years, the management—many who hail from IU—has expanded the business to include a business-education arm that offers corporate training that provides workshops for corporations to improve their internal communications.

Known by the acronym GUTS (Group Unity Training Seminars), the group’s business-education arm seeks to help employees in a company and even students in high schools find solutions working to build their confidence in working as a team.

“The skills that we learn here are very transitional to the corporate world—listening to one another, improving communication skills, and team building,” says Ed Trout, BFA’86, an owner of the group. “In any performance we do—much like a company’s operations—every person functions as part of a larger group. Your work and perspective matters to the group.”

Keith Roach, BA’02, a ComedySportz player and a writer-editor for the IU Office of Creative Services, was talent-spotted after taking one of the group’s workshops. He says that the skills acquired from doing improv helps him in his daytime job.

“There are tenets of improv that have helped me in my writing and injecting a little humor into it,” he says. “Performing with the group is a good outlet for me to express myself, especially when I’m working on a tough project.”

Roach’s passion for improv was nurtured at IU when he attended the intensive freshmen seminars and witnessed an improv group, Pumpernickel, perform at one of the sessions. He auditioned shortly after and performed with it till his junior year before giving it up to focus on school.

With ComedySportz Indianapolis being voted as the site for the World Comedy League Championship, an international ComedySportz competition, the group is set for new heights.

July 2011 will mark the milestone for Trout and company, who will host the games and workshops. ComedySportz teams, comprising more than 200 improvisers from all over the U.S.; Manchester, England; and Berlin, Germany, will gather in Indianapolis for the three-day weekend event.

Bertrand Teo is a senior at IU Bloomington majoring in journalism. He is the editorial intern for the Indiana Alumni Magazine.