During a Comedy Sportz game against Santa Fe on Fri., Feb. 28, Chris Dan Cruz, 12, pretends to choke and Brianne Gonzalez, 9, helps him. Chris Dan Cruz played in Drama Productions rendition of The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

Laughing the night away

March 18, 2014

On Fri., Feb. 28, Downey High School’s Comedy Sportz team held one of its games, competing against Santa Fe High School, for an improv- based entertainment show in the school’s theatre.

As guests paid the $5 fee, students, parents, and other supporters made their way to the dimly lit room, waiting for the show to begin. As the show commenced at 7 p.m., Referee Silvie Zamora explained the scoring criteria to the audience.  Based for the majority games, a five point score is given to the Red Team, Downey, or the Blue Team, Santa Fe, according to the audience’s applauses and loud cheering.

Starting the first round and representing Downey were players Juan Nuñez, who is the assistant manager and was one of the captains for Friday’s game, Cassandra Barrera, Stanley Delgado, and Bailey Campbell. For freshman Bailey Campbell, it was her first official Comedy Sportz game.

“I was kind of nervous since I’ve never really participated in a competition,” Campbell said. “I try to look at the game through the audience’s perspective. When I watch the game, I’m not nervous at all, but it’s different when you’re the one on stage, so I just imagine people enjoying it. The audience is very supportive and they laugh. I enjoy the acting in Comedy Sportz, but the best thing about it is how we’re all becoming a family. I look forward to having fun and trying to make people laugh, but not really try too hard because it won’t work.”

For one of the starter games, Downey’s team chose The Dating Game, in which three players act as contestants and the fourth player must choose their pick. The interesting part is that the audience chooses what or who the contestants will be and in this case, one was playing Lucille Ball, Abraham Lincoln, and a table. In the end, the chooser, who was newbie Bailey Campbell, had to eliminate two contestants and try to guess who they were impersonating, which resulted in incorrect guesses, but brought laughter to the audience as she thought the contestant playing Abraham Lincoln was Indiana Jones, despite many references to The Gettysburg Address.

In return, Santa Fe’s team chose to play Slideshow, in which one player narrates the still action of the three other players in a scenario. Rather than picking an ideal vacation spot, Referee Zamora stated that an unusual vacation, like Yogurtland, was needed and therefore, asked the audience to shout out a place and Target was then chosen. Three people have to stay still when the lights are off, doing an action that is associated with going to a store and when the lights turn back on, the other players have to narrate the scenario. After that match, a game called 185 was played. This joke involving doctors and fruits required the four players to line up shoulder- to-shoulder and go up to the front one-by-one. They had to start off by saying “185 doctors walk into a bar. The bartender says, ‘I’m sorry, we don’t serve doctors.’ The doctor says…” and needed to fill it in with one of their punch lines. A point was given if the referee heard any laugh or groan from the audience following a player’s line. For the end of the first half of the show, Santa Fe led to a score of 20-13.

Following the intermission, where audience members were able to buy snacks or drinks, the Red Team was setting up and switching players for the second round. Downey’s players for the second round were team captain Marco Arroyo, Chris Cruz, Brianne Gonzalez, and Hector Gonzalez.

The captain from the Blue Team, Tony Ayala, challenged the Red Team to a game called Town Meeting. Santa Fe was arguing to keep the band One Direction in town, and Downey was anti- One Direction. Each player was among the audience waiting for the referee to call one of their raising hands. Their impersonations of people gained laughter and the Blue Team gained five points, resulting in a score of 25-13.

The next games involved short skits called Emotional Party, Forward/Reverse, New Choice, and Freeze Tag. For Emotional Party, the audience chose three emotions, in which the players expressed that specific feeling. Downey gained five points for Forward/Reverse where they had to make up a scenario involving a love triangle relationship and forced to reverse their action whenever the referee blew the whistle. Downey had 19 points and Santa Fe remained at 25.

For the last few games, Downey came close to catching up to Santa Fe’s score. The game of New Choice, in which the Red Team started a juggling scene and had to come up with a new action or word whenever the referee shouted New Choice.  Downey caught up to Santa Fe when playing Freeze Tag. The game played involved two players in the center creating a scene, like pretending to do karate moves, and have the next person in line mimicking the previous person’s position before the referee called Freeze. The game of Freeze Tag resulted in a score of 30-28, with Downey winning for the night.

Downey and Santa Fe’s enthusiasm and humor were appreciated by the audience as they ended the show with applauses and loud cheering. One of Santa Fe’s players Ryan Ortiz, commented on the importance of being able to make people laugh.

“On stage, there’s just that rush you get,” Ortiz said. “At first, of course, you’re like, ‘Ah, people!’ But that feeling you get when you know you put on a good show, made everyone feel good, and made them laugh is just great. It feels so natural. Even though there is a home-court advantage, it doesn’t really matter who wins, just as long as everyone had a great time.”

Although Comedy Sportz is played as competitive team-versus- team game, the main goal for both teams is to bring laughter to the audience. Senior Julian Rios and sophomore Mustafa True from Downey were among the audience who were happy watching the show.

“I’ve never really heard about Comedy Sportz club since there wasn’t any at my other school and I’m new here,” Rios said. “I thought it would be interesting to watch. It was really fun and I liked it a lot. I’m looking forward to see it again.”

Downey, as well as other local high school league teams, will play at Hollywood on Mar. 29 as part of Comedy Sportz LA’s March Madness rounds.

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About the Contributors
Photo of Mizhelle Cortes
Mizhelle Cortes, Writer/ Business Team
Mizhelle Cortes has been seeking an extra curricular activity her first three years of high school, but as a senior, she feels she has discovered her passion as a writer and business manager for The Downey Legend. “It makes me feel special that other students will read my work,” Cortes said. “I can provide unheard stories from students and staff.” Since Cortes is planning to pursue a business career, she is pleased to be part of the financial support of the online newspaper. Despite her overwhelming schedule with honors courses, Cortes is glad to take a break and write school news. She anticipates improving as a journalist and meeting all those interesting students hidden in the school campus.

 

Cortes finds pleasure in reading realistic fiction novels, particularly those by the author Joyce Oates. Oates has inspired Cortes to have a voice of her own and experiment with her writing by using imagination and unique qualities. In her free time, she enjoys watching scary movies with her friends and tasting the variety of yogurt flavors from YogurtLand.  This vehement writer aspires to attend UC Berkeley after her senior year and pursued the careers of business and fashion. Cortes feels UC Berkeley is her dream school since it is far from home, which allows her to gain more independence and dorm in such a beautiful campus. After finding her dream job, she wishes to form a family and settle in The Golden State, in order to stay close to her family. Another of her future goals is to travel the world, specially the Philippines to visit her family. With all her determination, Cortes wishes to accomplish all the goals she sets in live, maintaining her passion for writing through out her adventures.
Photo of Cindy Macias
Cindy Macias, Photographer/Co-Photo Editor
For senior Cindy Macias, The Downey Legend is not just a newspaper; it is a place to show her photographs to the world. This photographer likes to take candid shots because she is able to capture the beauty of the moment and frame it in time. Macias is not only in newspaper, she is also juggling Yearbook along with her regular classes. She hopes to become proactive, less of a procrastinator, get straight As, be more organized, and improve her academic vocabulary throughout the year. She plans to study liberal arts at either UC Irvine or UCLA, but does not plan on dorming on campus because of the filth.

Over the summer, Macias gained work experience while interning for Prestige Portraits, a company that specifically takes professional high school senior portraits. Her work involved secretary-like duties, such as calling for reminders and filing papers. When she is not taking photos, she is at the mall shopping for the latest styles at Pac Sun, one of her favorite stores. Macias walks around her neighborhood to ponder over her life. Her friends admire her sense of forwardness, personality, listening skills, and great advice. Macias makes her friends a priority. “The more you don’t see the person, the connection really isn’t there”, she stated. She started photography in the seventh grade, at Davis Middle School, and she has been taking pictures ever since, because photography challenges her to become better. Her personality, work ethic, and perseverance are all aspects that allow Macias to be an extraordinary photographer.

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