In an effort to fundraise for the TLC program, the Comedy Sportz team held Open Mic Nite before their game on Friday, March 9, at 5:30 p.m., in the B-building theatre. Never before had there been an Open Mic Nite for students to showcase their talents and have fun doing it, as there was no prize being offered—just good-hearted fun with friends. Some, like the duo who just called themselves Karina & Angel, sang with instruments, while others, like senior Destiny Malloy, had a prepared solo comedic act. Comedy Sportz also sold snacks during both the Open Mic Nite and their game.
Once their game commenced at 7 p.m., there was no limit to the laughter either Downey or the opponent Santa Fe could receive. In the end, Downey would come out victorious with a whopping 45-36, but not without a fight, comeback, and loss from the Santa Fe High Comedy Sportz team.
“What I like about Comedy Sportz is everything is unexpected. All types of comedy is here [at the game] and the spontaneity is great,” senior Melina Lockhart said. “You never know what you’re going to laugh at, and I love that the audience gets to participate, too.”
In the first round of the match, Downey Captain Jose Velasquez chose to play the game of Yay!/Boo!, where the two teams have to cooperate to tell a story, but one team has to evoke sounds of “Yay!” from the audience, while other sounds of “Boo!”. To no one’s surprise, Downey, or The Red Team, got the laughs and five points, ending the first round with Downey, 5, and Santa Fe, 0.
In the second round, two games were played. The first choice was Countdown, chosen by the home team. In the game of Countdown, the team has to act out a scene in a minute, then 30 seconds, then 15 seconds, and finally, 7 seconds. The Red Team successfully executed an action/robbery scene, receiving howls of laughter from the audience and the referee. The opposing Blue Team played a similar acting game called Pick-A-Play. One person from the team has to respond normally to the three others who can only read lines from a play they were handed. Santa Fe did manage to summon several chuckles from the audience, but eventually, Downey got the 5 points. Downey ended the second round with a hard-earned 10 points, leaving Santa Fe in the dust, still with 0.
The home team chose to play Four Square in round three. Each person stands so that they make a square. The people rotate however many steps and whichever direction the reff says. The hard part is each player has to act out scenes with different subjects and time has passed whenever the referee says “rotate!”. The pair that got the most laughs was seniors Destiny Malloy and Jose Velasquez with their nerdy lingo and false tears.
“Before a game, we get hyped, kind of like football players before a game,” Malloy said. “My shyness goes away, and I don’t get nervous or sweaty or tense, and now I know how actors feel.”
Santa Fe chose to help the audience personally with the game of Oracle. In Oracle, the players line up in echelon form, and they are each only allowed to say one word in response to a spectator’s question. Lucky for Santa Fe, their broken answers were random enough to gain them 5 points, and the loudest laughs of the round. Downey did not gain any points.
Intermission gave viewers the chance to warm up their laughing boxes with some snacks and drinks; all proceeds went to TLC. Then, the fourth round began with 185. This game is sort of like Mad Libs, where the player has to use the same joke, but fill in the punch line with their own witty remark. For example, “185 cows walk into a bar. The bartender says, ‘We don’t serve cows here,’ and the cows say, ‘This is “udderly” ridiculous!’”. Any sounds the audience makes counts as a laugh, and Santa Fe was able to get enough chortles to gain them 11 points, bringing them to a grand total of 16 points. That did not faze The Red Team, who ended the round with 22 points. The game progressed with games like New Choice, The Dating Game, DVD, and Expert Challenge.
“My favorite game, personally, is Expert Challenge,” Comedy Sports Team Manager Randell Milan said. “Expert Challenge is where everyone on stage is an expert on one subject, like, let’s say turkeys, and we know everything—and I mean everything—there is to know about turkeys. One person would come up and say ‘Turkeys were created in the 1890s’ and someone from the opposite team would say ‘Challenge! Turkeys were not created in the 1890s!’ and the game would continue like that.”
The game choice of the final round was a game similar to 185 called Hey, Waiter! An audience member sits in a chair on stage and has to say, for example, “Hey, waiter! There’s a dumbbell in my soup” to which the player would respond with a funny punch line like “Oh, this is heavy” and shake his or her head. This game went on for three minutes, and the audience guffawed at the strange yet totally relevant remarks from the players. While someone tallied up the amount of giggles to add up the final score, junior Aileen Hernandez surprised Comedy Sportz athlete Javier Navarro with an invitation to the Sadie Hawkin’s Dance on March 23. Finally, the score was announced with Downey’s victory, but the Santa Fe athletes were good sports and they all shook hands to end the game.
This shows that even opposing teams can come together for some good old laughs for a cause.
