“Sex with me is like graduation—it’s coming, it’s coming!” one of the seniors on the Committee for Creative Enactments (CCE) shouted during a segment of “The Line Game” towards the end of this weekend’s performance. The CCE held its showcase, “Let’s Get Retired in Here,” staring and honoring its senior members last Friday in Fulton 511. In one of their last performances, the seniors left nothing off the stage, displaying a collective ingenuity and comic sense emblematic of the CCE’s cumulative and impressive talent.
While there were a couple improv games that failed to captivate the audience at first, the seniors turned the few lackluster beginnings into some of the best moments of the entire performance. When one member struggled, his or her partner did an excellent job of keeping the scene going. Having worked together for a couple of years now, the seniors know which pairs work best together and which don’t. The groups for each game were wisely assembled and allowed the group dynamic to shine through in the various scenes.
Although almost every game had at least one or two hilarious moments, a few of the games went on a little too long and lost some of their appeal. There was one game in particular, where audience members wrote down words or phrases that the CCE members would have to integrate into their dialogue, that went on for entirely too long. For one game, a few audience members must have written “Up my bum” on at least 10 or 15 of the cards and the phrase incessantly popped up throughout the scene. It was funny to hear the first couple of times they said it, but it quickly wore out its welcome. The performers even started interjecting the phrase even when it wasn’t on a card and the audience started disregarding attempts at the running gag. A few games went on in this manner and it would have been nicer if the CCE had ended the scene before the jokes got old.
There were a couple games that stood out as the highlights of the show. “Nth Word,” where the audience got to decide how many words each member in the scene can use at a time, featured Sister Mary Joseph and her fellow nuns worshipping God in a very peculiar manner. “Two-Line Vocab”—which limited two members of a trio to two lines of dialogue chosen by the audience—had Mario and Luigi making a pizza with their flustered third brother. A few of the rotations in “Pan Left, Pan Right” brought on a huge amount of laughter from the crowd as well. These scenes made for some of the more impressive and dynamic moments in the show and were rarely marred by silence or repetitiveness.
The CCE is made up of a dynamic and well-rounded group of comedians, but a few members truly stood out. Sara Daley, A&S ’15, would interject herself into a scene perfectly when it was getting a bit repetitive. Chris Aguiar, A&S ’15, has an outstanding range of impersonations and voices that he could whip out in any scene and his quick wit kept these scenes running really smoothly. Zander Weiss, A&S ’15, stole the spotlight in every scene he was in. Especially with “The Line Game,” Weiss could return several hilarious lines for each scenario thrown at him.
The closer of the show “The Line Game” was the best moment of the whole program. All the CCE seniors gathered on stage and each member would finish the sentence, “Sex with me is like…” with whatever the audience gave them to work off of and a closer. Some great lines like, “Sex with me is like math: I’ll do it on a desk, not finish, and be sad,” and, “Sex with me is like cannibalism: it starts with the toes,” left the audience crying and cringing in laughter. The CCE could have made this game their entire show and it would have been just as entertaining.
“Let’s Get Retired In Here” did a wonderful job of commemorating the outgoing senior class. All senior CCE members were given individual time to show what they contributed to the group and the group’s camaraderie was especially evident to the audience. These seniors recognized the significance of this specialized showcase and really took advantage of the time they had to display both their collective and individual comic talent.
Featured Images By Arthur Bailin/ Heights Editor
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