A Laugh a Minute

Comedy Sportz

A+Laugh+a+Minute

Ryan Birchfield, Photojournalist

Have you ever noticed those kids walking around in the red or blue long-sleeve T-shirts even though it’s 100 degrees outside?  Or perhaps you’ve seen the posters around campus with the terribly punny jokes on them.  Have you ever read the rest of the poster?

 

For those who haven’t, then it is time someone informed you about our school’s Comedy Sportz High School League team (hereafter abbreviated to Comedy Sportz HL). Comedy Sportz HL is full of the funniest kids on campus, who compete in improv comedy matches, and earn points for how much soda they can get to spew out of your nose while you’re laughing.  Unfortunately, they soon realized that measuring how much soda comes out your nose is entirely impractical, so instead, the audience decides which team was funnier by applauding for the team they liked best.  Bryan Green, the referee, is a professional improvisationalist (part of Comedy Sportz LA) and helps us hone in on the funny, dorky, and/or psychopathic tendencies.

 

One of the major training events for Comedy Sportz HL is GameCon. GameCon is a huge event in which all the high school teams in Southern California come, mingle, try not to laugh their brains out, and have a fun time.  At the event, members of the teams get to see a professional match put on by, shockingly enough, professionals.  When asked what he thought of the match, Ian Dembek (9) said that the “pro-match was entertaining, as it should be”.  Personally, I found it to be the funnier than anything I’ve seen on the Earth, besides one of YLHS’s Comedy Sportz matches, of course. After the match is over, we were taught some improvisational games and got to put our new knowledge to the test, by performing in front of our peers.  Unanimously, everyone agreed that learning new games was the second best thing at GameCon.  The first, of course, was the professional match.

 

Afterwards, I had the opportunity to interview some of our Comedy Sportz HL members.  When asked why they joined Comedy Sportz, I received a variety of answers.  Jessie Sardina (10) said that she joined because “[her] friend joined.  Holly Hao (10) said that she joined because she “got to make people laugh, and be ridiculous”, with the only downside being that it “took time out of studying”.  Quentin Valencia (11) (who assures me that he has no relation whatsoever to the High-School-That-Must Not-Be-Named) informed me that he’d “been involved with theatre since 7th grade, and [he] thought it would be fun”. Comedy Sportz is a fun experience that allows students to be more outgoing and take more risks.

 

If the idea of laughing (nearly) to death interests you, then you need to come and support the team at their matches once a month.  Ian Dembeck summarized every reason to come to a Comedy Sportz HL match when he said that it’s “cheaper than a movie, and more entertaining”.  If you haven’t come to one yet, what’s stopping you? Come see our lunch and night matches held throughout the year!