Student Federation voted Thursday to recognize the Ad-Liberty Improvisation Club as a campus organization.
The club began informally last fall when junior Alex Buchmann and sophomores Daniel Drummond and Jacob Bull began meeting in Simpson Residence’s basement to put on improv shows.
Since then, the club has grown, and now consists of eight regular members who perform together. The shows are made up of a series of improvisation games played before a live audience.
“If you’ve ever seen ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ it’s similar to that,” Buchmann said. “Everything you see throughout the night is a combination of games played, but all the games are based off a suggestion from the audience, and the game is totally made up on the spot on stage by our performers.”
The shows are not only enjoyable for the performers, but also for the audience.
“The show is free, but the comedy is priceless,” Buchmann said.
Those in the club have found joy in participating.
“It’s definitely a combination of such a cool opportunity and a neat activity,” sophomore club member Elise Clines said. “The people there are just really good people who are just trying to do clean humor and give kids an opportunity to participate as well as enjoy comedy.”
The club tries to include audience participation because that brings some of the surprise into improvisation.
“It was fun because we’d give people who wouldn’t normally get up in front of people a chance to do improv, and it was actually really funny,” Bull said. “So those were highlights for me, to see guys who wouldn’t normally go up, or girls who wouldn’t normally go up, and kind of force them up stage, and that was cool.”
Students interested in joining Ad-Liberty as regular performers should attend their Wednesday night practices and should contact Buchmann for more information.
This semester they meet every other week on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. in Olds Residence’s lobby. Buchmann said he hopes to have set shows in the future, perhaps in a larger venue.
“We’re up and coming. We’re excited for what the future holds, excited to explore comedy and kind of bring comedy to Hillsdale’s campus, in a club,” Buchmann said.
