Thursday, Jul. 03, 2008

Full Frontal Comedy celebrates 10 years

Full Frontal Comedy started with an off-the-cuff suggestion.

Joyce Halford, an original FFC cast member, recalls when a cast member dropped out of a scripted production she was in, sending the cast into a tailspin. She said someone in the small cast suggested improv.

“I said, ‘God bless, ya. I’ll be in the audience cheering you on.’” Halford said. “I was scared to death. It was like jumping out of an airplane.”

It took some encouragement and practice, but Halford agreed join in. Full Frontal Comedy, a local improvisational comedy group, formed. Halford will help celebrate the group’s 10th anniversary this fall.

“Now I would almost rather do improv than a scripted show,” Halford said. “Once you know what it’s like, it’s one of the most exhilarating times on stage. There are times of absolute divine inspiration where you think, ‘how did we get there?’”

The group has poked fun at the Clintons, Ann Coulter and Britney Spears. In its upcoming show, “The Best of My Brain Hurts,” the group will revisit a standard FFC song “Seasons of Bush.” It’s a parody of the “Rent” song “Seasons of Love.” The lyrics highlight gaffes from the Bush administration, cast member David Martin said.

“Name it, we’ll go after ‘em,” Martin said. “It’s more (politically) targeted during an election, but there’s somebody doing something stupid anytime of year...We take a kernel of pop culture and put nine twisted minds on it.”

In the last few years, the group has added musical numbers, and it has introduced new improvisational games to their performance sets.

“The Best of My Brain Hurts” requires FFC to rehearse several times before a performance to create scripted skits. The group performs 45 of those sketches in a 90-minute time frame, cast member Paul DeMerchant said.

“If time expires before we’re done with the show, the audience gets to leave feeling like they’ve had the opportunity to watch us fail on stage,” DeMerchant said.

Constant rotation of more than 17 cast members also helps keep the comedy spontaneous, Halford said.

“It’s been 10 years, and I’ve loved it — as one of the old, old members looking at the young ones...it’s still always new and always fresh,” Halford said. “We take on a lot of challenges and every year come up with something new and different.”

Full Frontal Comedy will perform at 8 p.m. July 17, 18 and 19 at the Olathe Community Theatre. For ticket information, call 782-2990.

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