“What are you doing!”, “I’m hanging ornaments from the Christmas tree!” A player mimicked the rushed coordination of reaching up and dangling imaginary decorations into the air, muttering audibly to herself along the way. The performance incited a wave of laughter from the audience. In the Mustang Theatre Forum, laughter, cheers, and applause filled the hall of the first match of ComedySportz in 2021.

With a $5 admission price, on October 15th, ComedySportz welcomed a large group of students together in the Yorba Linda High Theatre at 7pm. The emcee, Jordan Moreno, greeted the house with the familiar black-and-white striped shirt of a referee, explaining the game. Two teams of three, clad in red or blue, would participate in a series of games. The audience’s favorite of the round would secure the round’s points until the whole match was over.

On the blue team was …. And on the red team, …. To begin the match, the team captains, Jake Napier and Max Greene were charged to dash out of the theatre and find a blade of grass. The first to return with such would win the right to choose the first game. And then there’s the whistle!

Max Greene returned first and his team chose the first game to be “What are you doing!” where a participant from either team entered the arena in a one-on-one with the other. One player yelled out  “What are you doing!” and the other was to respond with a task. The former was then charged to mimic the action of such in the air — and of course, make that as funny as possible for the audience. ComedySportz is improv, after all. 

An attractive feature of the event is not only that students love to laugh, but ComedySportz is also an interactive event. “What are you doing!” was played with a Christmas theme, shouted from multiple members of the audience. And in subsequent rounds, Emcee Jordan reached again towards the crowd for game ideas: Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth;  a haircut; former president John F. Kennedy; Cinnabon; the dentist — you name it. Math was even thrown in the mix when Jordan asked the crowd for their least favorite subject, and subsequently the players onstage mimicked a nostalgic childhood scene of a parent teaching his son elementary school mathematics — in a comedic performance all the while. The game would finish 23-27, with the blue team emerging victorious.

ComedySportz comes off of over a year of competing over Zoom — dubbed “Zoomprov.” Jake Napier (12), who manages ComedySportz, commented on the team’s return to the real stage after so long. “It was a little rusty at first but I think we got into the hang of it and adjusted well back to being on stage,” he stated. “The audience is a big part of ComedySportz. Last year, since we weren’t able to see or hear the audience, it was really tough to know if they liked our jokes, if they were laughing at what we were doing.”

Players and fans alike will look forward to this year of improv returning to the real stage. Stay tuned for further ComedySportz updates by following the team’s Instagram account, @ylhscomedysportz!