By Jaehun Lee
Arts Reporter
South’s improv comedy troupe, Children of the Candy Corn, unveiled their newest incarnation on Dec. 11 with their first show of the year, Cornhub.
As this was my first improv show ever, I didn’t know what to expect. I was pretty surprised by the atmosphere, which was incredibly casual. The show started with a lot of energy that was maintained throughout the performance, with the troupe always switching up the games before they got too bland.
Many of the audience members were impressed by the group’s confidence onstage.
“Candy Corn made my night,” junior Sydney Greene said. “The atmosphere was great and the Candy Corners weren’t afraid to take risks.”
Sophomore Juliet Cable agreed, adding that the fact that members of the troupe were naturally funny helped with making the performance great.
“Even things that didn’t totally make sense made everyone laugh,” she said.
Perhaps most enjoyable of all was the fact that every member of the troupe seemed to be having a great time.
“It seemed like they were all having a really great time on stage which made it very enjoyable to watch,” Weisskopf said. “You could also see the excitement that they had for the first show of the year—and of course they were incredibly funny.”
While Cable and Greene agreed that each exercise was executed well, Cable was not satisfied with the amount of audience participation.
“I really enjoyed the interrogation scene at the beginning. I thought it was hilarious and really well-performed,” Cable said. “But I felt like the amount of participation they had was minimal, and with that kind of thing you should have either no audience participation or a lot.”
Weisskopf applauds the troupe for being able to keep the show running smoothly while still interacting with their audience.
“Whenever Candy Corn would ask for audience suggestions, which is a staple for improv shows and something that Candy Corn did a lot of, only one or two would respond, but Candy Corn did a great job dealing with it and didn’t let it ruin the show,” he said.
In addition to an inadequate amount of audience participation, some of the newest recruits were also given a disappointing amount of stage time.
“I would have liked to have seen more from the people who got in this year [Isabel Autor, Katy Ronkin, Adam Netburn, and Isaac Chapin],” Weisskopf said. “But other than that I think they did great. It was the best show of theirs that I’ve seen.”
All in all, Candy Corn’s first show of the year was very successful, and it will be exciting to see how the group evolves over the course of the year.
