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performing comedy in Chicago. While
comparing MSU’s improv scene to
Chicago’s, Tessmer said, “There are as
many if not more people doing improv
here as … the entire student population of
Michigan State. It’s an incredibly massive
scene that has layers. It’s a generationally
built infrastructure. For decades and
decades and decades, people have been
doing this work.”
Improv at MSU simply does not share the
same infrastructural luxury. The scene has
made progress, but the reality of academia,
student responsibilities, and a four-year
turnover impede opportunity to maintain a
sustained audience within the community.
“If you have a young, dispersed scene,
your audience can never get used to it,”
said Wilcher. Forming a community around
improv becomes an uphill battle when
theater spaces are in high demand and
most college improvisers perform once a month.
Tessmer went on to speak of the fondness
he had for his time in the MSU improv
scene but felt the tension of limited
comedy performance options. “There’s a
tremendous social pressure that comes with
doing improv, especially if you want to be
accepted in a group,” Tessmer said. “You
feel like you have to look okay with things
you’re not okay with. And that’s something
men have to be aware of.”
This is to say, of course, there is a certain
nuance. Male-driven comedy spaces are not
in-and-of-themselves toxic or problematic.
More so, young people are not always
steadily equipped with the language or
experiences to call out micro-aggressive
behaviors and mindsets. Problematic
behaviors can become an accepted social
norm especially when the options for
alternative comedy spaces are limited.
Now in their second year as a team, the
performers of Man Overboard find comfort
in their approach to comedy. It is an
environment created and led by thoughtful
women and non-binary leaders in
which improvisers can follow whatever
comedic impulse they have nestled within
themselves. “[Man Overboard provides]
a place where you can come and play
and be creative without being graded or
judged,” Wilcher concluded.
Man Overboard, on Monday afternoons,
will offer a rehearsal in which women and
non-binary performers are able to sidestep
the mindset of needing to be perfect
improvisers. They can be weird and they
can stumble because there is no pressure to
prove to anyone else they are worthy
of doing comedy.
They just are.
Aaron Applebey is a media and information
senior with minors in public relations, film
making and LGBTQ+ studies. In their free
time, Aaron maintains a passion for creative
writing, performing comedy and watching
movies. Follow @ajapplebey across the
socials for chaotic midwest ramblings.
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