Written by Erin Lobner. Media by Paige Lunde.
If you weren’t in LaDue Auditorium on October 21, you missed out on an absolutely hilarious performance. Greenville College’s resident improv team, Joyous Chaos, held their first show featuring their newest members. Keep reading for a breakdown of two awesome skits and an interview with the whole team.
The show itself was fantastic, with the audience of students, parents, and alums erupted in laughter during each skit. One great skit was “Complaint Department”, in which Roman was a store clerk, and Mikhaela, Johnny Hinton, and Tristin Campbell were unsatisfied customers. The three customers had to return mystery items chosen by the audience, and Roman had to give clues so they could figure out which item they had. This time, Tristin had Hillary Clinton’s missing emails, Johnny had a cactus on fire, and Mikhaela had a shakeweight. The cactus on fire was a bit tricky to guess, but props to Johnny and Roman on that one.
The final skit was “Narrate,” which involved the whole team. Jason “Skippy” Borntrager provided the perfect background music as Mikhaela and Roman narrated the story about a petite little girl (Austin Simmons) who met a ginger man turtle (Eddie Allison). They got a pet aardvark (Logan Murphy), but he was stolen by a witch with weird fingers (Tristin Campbell). The little girl and the turtle went to a wizard (Justin Langley) to help them find the aardvark. They went on a quest (which required a lot of cheek kissing) and got to the witch’s castle, where the little girl’s ogre dads (Bryson Davis and Noah Kneer) made an appearance. Suddenly, a sparrow who liked to pinch people’s butts (Johnny Hinton) came out, got the whole group, then died. The smell of death lured the witch out of her cave, and the turtle and little girl got their aardvark back.
So, clearly, it was an interesting night! The other skits were just as entertaining as those two, and the new members did a great job at their first performance, especially considering some of them came straight to the show from choir concerts and baseball games. And shout out to the team’s emcee, Jacob Gooden, the managers, Becca McLemore and Shiowa Hansen, and again to the piano player, Skippy.
The week before the show, the team agreed to take time out of their practice for an interview. Co-captain Mikhaela Romoser was unable to attend the practice, but when asked why she joined Joyous Chaos, she said, “I was actually too terrified to audition freshman year, even though I had been involved with theater the past 7 years of my life. But by the time sophomore year rolled around, I just missed acting too much to not at least give it a shot. Not to mention that I love, love, love making people laugh. I tried out that year and could not believe that I made it.” Sadly, Mikhaela’s time with Joyous Chaos ends at semester, but she did a fantastic job leading the team along with Roman Butler.
When the rest of the team was asked this same question, their answers were a little less eloquent. Responses included, “I’m good at saying stupid things at ideal times,” “Maybe college kids will laugh at your jokes because Simple Room kids won’t,” “I was forced,” and lots of incoherent screaming. However, they all agreed with one answer: “Improv’s a cool, wacky insight into life. Everything seems super random and dumb, but when you go through life experiencing different things and observing weird characters it becomes a part of you whether you know it or not.”
Of course, the best way to do an interview with 10 members of Joyous Chaos is to give them random icebreaker questions and see what happens. Here’s a little information about each of them.
Roman Butler
Major: Communication/Public Relations
Year: Senior
Question:If you could learn any skill, what would you choose?
Response: The first thing that comes to mind is dual wielding… But maybe being ambidextrous. Then you can do anything.
Shiowa Hansen
Major: Elementary Education
Year: Junior
Who is your favorite cartoon character and why?
Response: I like Timmy from Fairly OddParents. Because who wouldn’t want to be Timmy?… It’s the hat, probably.
Becca McLemore
Major: Business Management
Year: Senior
Question: If you could be a character in any movie, what movie would you be in?
Response: I would definitely be Cameron from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” because I’m constantly worrying and I don’t like to get out of bed.
Jacob Gooden
Major: Music Business
Year: Junior
Question: If you could go on a road trip with anyone, who would it be and why?
Response: Maddy. *The team starts yelling at him* Yeah, I’m sorry, I would pick my girlfriend over you. She’s got good playlists.
Bryson Davis
Major: Pastoral Ministry
Year: Junior
Question: If you had a human body, but the head of an animal, what animal would you want it to be?
Response: An ostrich. Instantly in my mind, I think of an ostrich, but I feel like it would not be a very functional head.
Austin Simmons
Major: Commercial Music
Year: Sophomore
Question: If you were the Miss World, what would your message for aspiring models be?
Response: *Gets into character* Listen, aspiring models, you need to eat more than a salad. You need to have your feet regularly looked at because callouses are ‘Ew.’ And do not look up to someone like Kim Kardashian because her butt is unrealistic.
Johnny Hinton
Major: Business Management/Marketing
Year: Junior
Question: If you were to get arrested for something, what would it be?
Response: Ugliness. Or bad driving
Noah Kneer
Major: Urban/Cross-Cultural Ministry & Spanish
Year: Junior
Question: What would you do in life if you knew you could not fail?
Response: Jump off the space needle… With the goal of becoming a parachute.
Justin Langley
Major: Math
Year: Senior
Question: What is the most bizarre encounter you’ve had in life?
Response: I was in Paris last summer and I walked to this street corner where there were two French cafes. A host ran out from one into the middle of the street, and then the host from the other one ran out, and they started yelling and trying to get me to come into their shops. Then, after a moment, they forgot that I was even there.
Tristin Campbell
Major: Art
Year: Junior
Question: What is the worst/weirdest haircut you ever had?
Response: It was like the haircut all the boys have right now, where it was shaved on the bottom and long on the top. I wore it in pigtails… With leather ties.
Eddie Allison and Logan Murphy couldn’t be there, but the team came up with some questions for them. Eddie: “Why are you a ginger?” and “Why haven’t you shaved?” Logan: “Why did you shave?” and “What kind of pie would you steal from an old lady?”
Thank you, Joyous Chaos for a great interview and a hilarious show! Greenville students, keep your eyes open for future performances by this group!
