Local improv group gets ready to take show on the road
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
If you listen to the explanation of how the improv group “Funkin’ Wassels” got their name, you can definitely understand the group’s motto: “No Script? No Set? No Problem.”
Playing one of numerous games during the group’s first show, member Dan Casey got a contribution from the audience he just could not read.
“Dan was given ‘Funk and Wagnalls,” said Frank Korb, explaining it was an American publisher of dictionaries. “He couldn’t read it. What he thought it said was ‘Funkin’ Wassels.’”
“And the name kind of just got picked up then.”
Originally starting with a small group of about eight members, the improv troupe has grown to 10 – not all of whom are on stage at the same time. Since its original auditions late last summer, the group has evolved to include Korb, Julie Patten, Dan Casey, Rob King, Bob Jensen, Morgan Sisson, Marion Araujo, Bill Corey, Rachel McLafferty and Deb Davis.
Davis serves as the group’s producer, while Corey originally founded the group and has served mainly as its Master of Ceremonies. Even that, though, is starting to change.
“What we’re working on now is getting him out from behind the desk,” Korb said. “It takes an awful lot to organize the show, and Bill does an incredible job at that.
“But he really enjoys being part of the action.”
The group will perform this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Malthouse Theater in Burlington as a fundraiser for the Haylofters. Tickets are $10, and the show is billed “for mature audiences only.”
Corey intended the group to be a one-time-only performance troupe when he held auditions last year. But as he’s discovered, Funkin’ Wassels has been worth keeping around.
“When we first talked about this, this was just going to be a one-time fundraiser thing,” Corey explained. “A couple of days of having a good time.
“Then we sort of realized a couple of months after that show that we really liked it,” he added. “We’ve really been able to fine-tune the stuff we’re good at. I think the show has gotten a lot more polished since that first September.”
The troupe is roughly sketched around the television show “Whose Line Is It Anyhow?” with games like “Moving People,” “Scripts,” “Questions Only” and “Party Quirks.”
The latter involves getting a character attending a party with an odd characteristic – say a ballerina who has lost her balance. One member plays the party host, and has to guess what that trait is.
“Moving People,” meanwhile, involves troupe members who can’t move unless the audience participants can clue in to move them as they are working through the game.
It turns into some contortions sometimes, Korb admitted.
“I’m flexible, but I’m only so flexible,” he said.
All the games require quick minds, plenty of humor and a “fly by the seat of your pants” demeanor.
“It’s really come a long ways,” said Korb. “There’s a lot more to improv than just getting up on stage and saying the first thing that comes to mind.”
The group has performed a number of shows over the last year, including several fundraiser dates. The next step, said Corey, is to stretch the wings of the collective group.
“What I’m hoping for is that we develop a reputation for being just funny people that can make a good time out of anything,” Corey explained. “Then take this show and take it on the road. Do other shows, and maybe make a little money off of it someday.
“It’s not all about the money,” he added. “We’re doing this for the love of performance.
“But it’s always nice to get paid to do something you love, right?”
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