Luke Sipka enters from stage right portraying a member of a marching band, based on a situation suggested by the audience.
He then goes limp and falls to the floor.
Richard Camillucci rushes over and picks up Sipka by the shoulders, not to check if he’s unharmed but to puppeteer his motionless body and continue the act.
Such is the aim of “Dead Puppets,” an acting game that their improvisational troupe, ArACkA, regularly performs.
“Dennis? Did you put on two right shoes again?” Camillucci says holding up a limp woman, a participating member from the audience, who is portrayed as the band leader.
Sweating, Camillucci rushes back to Sipka, holds him up again and says, “Oh, you know I have that condition where I can’t tell my right from my left.”
The audience surrenders little laughter.
It’s a rough Saturday night for the troupe at Brophy’s Irish Pub.
They notice their rhythm is a little off and the loud noises at the bar distract the audience from the performance.
Camillucci shrugs it off and continues performing. Such nights are not uncommon for an art form that thrives on the unexpected.
It’s also not an art form exclusive to them.
In the last few years, improvisational acting troupes have populated Gainesville’s comedy scene and names like ArACkA, Generation Sketch Comedy and Sharkpunch are commonplace to fans of the shows.
According to some of the groups, Theater Strike Force, a large improvisational theater club on campus, is a major reason for the existence of these troupes.
“Every single one of us learned improv from TSF and then we became part of these groups,” said Augie Artiles, co-director of Generation Sketch Comedy and a member of ArACkA.
According to Camillucci, some students start a troupe when TSF shows don’t have the spots to take them. Others start a troupe out of sheer desire to make use of their talents.
But those talents don’t always come from an acting background.
“One of my favorite things about improv is that people from pretty much any walks of life can do it,” Camillucci said. “You don’t have to have a theater background.”
For most involved students, the large time commitment required by most troupes doesn’t feel like a burden. Generation Sketch Comedy director Shawn McWhinnie calls it “a break for them from studying.”
But the time commitment has been higher this week as Gainesville troupes have been preparing for the annual Gainesville Improv Festival that starts today.
Lasting for four days, the event features almost every troupe in Gainesville and others from Chicago and San Francisco.
The headliner for the event is 3033, a group of veteran performers from Chicago.
“Gainesville usually doesn’t see that caliber of talent,” festival co-producer Skyler Stone said.
Today there will be a kick-off event in the Common Grounds night club and performances will be held at the Phillips Center for Performing Arts throughout the rest of the festival.
Ticket prices and schedules of performances are on the event’s website, www.gainesvilleimprov.com.
Many performers in visiting troupes are alumni of UF and former members of Theater Strike Force. They return to Gainesville to not just perform, but to teach workshops during the event.
Camillucci notes that troupes like his have loyal fans that keep returning for shows but rarely attract audiences new to improvisational acting.
“With troupes, you have to know someone to know when a certain show is or to get it on Facebook,” Camillucci said. “We built an audience through practically word of mouth.”
He’s entertained the idea of starting a comedy club in Gainesville where all troupes could perform.
With one dedicated location for improvisational comedy, he said, troupes could have “a real home for improv in Gainesville.”
