After nearly a year with minimal live in-person entertainment, the idea of a continuing improv comedy troupe might seem difficult, considering there are basically no opportunities for audiences to join together in the same theater space. Nevertheless, the Cuyahoga Falls-based Point of No Return (PNR) improv troupe celebrated their 19th anniversary with a live show featuring cast members past and present over Zoom and Facebook Saturday evening, February 27, performing for a small but excited audience.
Similar to their stage performances in the Newell Theatre at the Quick Cultural Center, PNR’s digital show began with actors requesting suggestions from their Zoom audience via chat, blocking audience audio and video to provide a streamlined show. By incorporating these suggestions into improve games, unrehearsed stories were formed, including a man being taxed on his uncle’s eBay sales, a polka about bats, and even a will reading for a woman’s aunt who made tomato sauce.
“There’s something about being on stage, or even in a Zoom show, with other people where you’re interacting and working with each other and bouncing off each other comedically. It’s satisfying even when there aren’t a ton of laughs,” explained Ruben Ryan during a Fallscast interview last October.
Like past anniversary shows, the troupe was as full on this evening as they normally show, often introducing audiences to new cast members as well as many previous actors performing again for one night only. Producing digital shows has been difficult for PNR to traverse over the last year, with many actors still unsure about their comedic chops online. Still, a cast of ten showed up, including several members who have not performed in previous online shows.
“It’s very difficult doing comedy for people when you don’t know if they’re laughing. It’s surreal because you just put it out there and you’re like ‘I hope people are laughing at this,’” Ryan stated in his interview.
“I still think it’s important to constantly be pushing that envelope,” he continued. “In many ways, virtual entertainment is probably the future anyways. Not that I think live entertainment will ever stop [but] I think live entertainment is so visceral to the human experience that we’re going to continue to do it.”
PNR plans to perform more digital shows this year, with more information about shows as they are planned.
For more information about Point of No Return Improv, visit their website. Our interview with Ruben Ryan can be heard on Episode 20 of the Fallscast.
