Improv: Tantrum

I laughed a lot for a good 90 minutes tonight. A lot more than in most other 90-minute segments of my days. The improv comedy troupe Tantrum (of which a fellow Hallmarker is a member) performed tonight, as they do every second Friday, at the Westport Coffeehouse. So we went. And we laughed.

I don't know where these people in this troupe get all of their hilarity. Well, I know where they get some of it: all their material is sparked by audience responses to questions on which these performers, using a knack for callbacks and clever references, build unscripted, elaborate strings of vaguely associated skits each of which starts with very little and quickly congeals into the funniest thing you've seen since like two minutes ago when they did that other thing that was so hilarious.

The best skit tonight was one in which the troupe conveyed a dream version of the events of one audience members' day, acting out everything from a ticking biological clock, a violently wounded parolee, an amputated arm, a desk job, and a boxer named Zoey. All from the real life events of one woman's day, hilariously re-enacted by all 7 members of Tantrum as a dream. And all so well improvised and so funny.

PS: In addition to the second Friday shows at Westport Coffeehouse, you can also catch Tantrum for free at the "Talking Out of Turn" three-part series at the Plaza Library. There's one this Wednesday, March 18 at 7 p.m. and one on April 15.