Laughter rippled through Metcalf Hall Friday night when Second City, the renowned comedy club based in Chicago, performed its latest routine to kick off Boston University’s Parents’ Weekend Friday night.
For two hours, the six-person ensemble performed sketch comedy, musical numbers and improvisational comedy.
“I was impressed,” College of Arts and Sciences freshman Will Stouffer said. “I liked the improv more. It seemed more original.”
The performance appealed to a diverse audience, Programming Council Special Events Coordinator Jessica Howe said.
“There were parents, I saw grandparents, siblings,” the College of Communication senior said. “I think that everyone understood humor on a separate level, but at the same time had fun and laughed at something on stage.”
The show marked one of the first performances that the newly formed traveling group has performed together, troupe director Pat O’Brien said.
“It was a very different setting than what we did it in Chicago,” he said. “This was doing it on the road for a specific crowd of parents and kids. We made it a little bit cleaner and changed scenes to make it intentionally geared toward this audience.”
Jordan Klepper has been part of the group since May.
“It was a great crowd out there,” he said. “A lot of us are new with Second City, so this is our first half-year. But Second City in general does a lot of college shows.”
The mixture of sketch comedy, improvising and singing kept the crowd energized, Klepper said.
“I think improv is new every time, so you can surprise each other more often,” he said. “It was pretty exciting right off the bat that the audience seemed with it.”
Improvisational comedy was a favorite not only with the audience, but the cast members as well.
“I prefer improvising just because it’s so much more fun,” cast member Rebecca Hanson said. “I feel a little hindered by a script sometimes. When I found out about improv, I just took to it.”
Although most of the performance relied on the quick wit of the comics, a few singing numbers were scattered throughout for musical variety.
“I sang in high school and college and stuff like that, so it just helps that I sing,” Hanson said. “But it’s not a requirement.”
The event was a “huge success” for the Council which planned the event, Coucil Public Relations Coordinator Anika Gupta said.
“We had a pretty full room … I think about 1,200 people turned out,” the College of Communication junior said. “It looked like a really good night.”
Some of the heartiest laughs came from tweaking the show to apply to BU, O’Brien said. Some scenes were inspired by suggestions from the audience, including a scene where two cast members had to guess the phrase “Superfluous Robots Defenestrate” through a charades debate.
That particular scene was the favorite of Joanne Henrick, mother of CAS freshman Stephen Henrick.
“It took even this clever group a while to get the last word,” she said. “The talented and quick-witted cast gave voice and movement to our everyday fears and concerns.”
