Spontaenous Wisecracking

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Brian Quast has moved from class clown to comedian about town after joining the ACME Improv group. They members will be performing at Bean Encounters in Minooka on Saturday, Nov. 7. (Herald photo by Heidi Terry-Litchfield)

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MINOOKA – Brian Quast was always a class clown in school. It’s only natural that, years later, he finds himself on stage with a group of individuals doing improv.

“About five years ago I was at work reading the newspaper when I saw an ad for a casting call for an improv group,” he said. “I asked my wife about it and she said to go for it.”

That is when Quast got the comedy bug on a much larger scale. Since that first time on stage with Orland Park Community Improv, Quast knew this was something he wanted to do.

He and another member of the Orland Park, Gary Felicetti, joined together and soon the group grew to the seven members it is today.

They sat and voted on what their name should be and ACME Improv won the contest hands down. Taken from the cartoons many of the group grew up watching the ACME name stands out as something people know will bring laughs.

The group performs much like the television show Whose Line is it Anyway? which aired originally in the UK and then had a run in America with a cast head by funnyman Drew Carey.

The team plays between eight and 10 games with input from the audience guaranteeing a different show every time they take stage.

“Where the audience takes the show is where it goes,” he said.

The group gets together several times before a big show to rehearse. But improv, being what it is, is impossible to rehearse.

“Some of our best stuff happens at rehearsal,” said Quast. “But that stuff never makes the stage after we get the audience’s input.”

He said they have also done skits about something that is timely in the news but the big laughs come from what the audience brings to the stage.

Quast said anyone can do improv once they get over the stage fright.

“You have to get over the fear of making a fool of yourself,” he said.

Quast said his biggest bomb was with an adult joke that didn’t go over very well.

“I told the joke and it went quiet,” he said. “There weren’t even crickets, it was more like gasps.”

He said for their earlier shows or ones with children present they try to keep the comedy at level comfortable for everyone but admits the adult shows are often easier to do.

“The toughest and best shows are kids shows,” he said. “You think you have to dumb it down for them but kids are smart and they get it.”

In high school Quast performed on stage doing some acting but he said he prefers the no script style of improv because he doesn’t have to remember lines.

The ACME group has performed on stages all over Chicagoland but will be bringing the comedy to Minooka for the first time on Nov. 7.

Quast a resident of Minooka said they are always looking for a venue and while he was at Bean Encounter he thought the coffeehouse would be the perfect place.

“In a bar you always have people trying to talk over you or heckle,” he said. “The coffee shop venue is better suited to improv.”

Quast said his favorite game is called quick change where two members will start the scene and when the bell rings or horn blows they have to change the last sentence spoke which can quickly change the story.

Another favorite they will be playing at their upcoming show is sound effect.

Two members of the audience are on stage with two members of the group and they have to provide the sound effect for what the two comedians are discussing.

“If I put in an ABBA CD they have to sing an ABBA song,” he said. “It is a lot of fun.”

The group has decided to have two completely different line ups for their upcoming night where they will perform two different shows.

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