New Face For Full Frontal

Laughter burst from the Indiana Memorial Union's State Room East Friday, where student-run improv comedy troupe, Full Frontal Comedy, performed its fifth show of the year for an overflowing audience. \nWith more than 100 in attendance, the chairs provided were quickly filled. Some of the crowd was even forced to grab tables from the hallway in order to have a place to sit during the show -- a far cry from the first performance of the troupe in 1994 when there were almost as many cast members as audience members. Full Frontal has never had a smaller cast than the one that took the stage Friday. This poses a concern since two of the members -- seniors Kevin McKernan and Anisa Dema -- will be graduating next year.\nBut size was the last thing on the minds of McKernan, Dema and fellow cast members junior Joe Rogan and sophomore Zach Pollakoff when they began their performance. They were more concerned with tickling the collective funny bone of the packed crowd, which they did with relative ease.\n"It's great to hear laughter, because it keeps you going," Dema said. "With improv, having good feedback from the audience is half of what makes a show good."\nFull Frontal was founded in the fall semester of 1994 by IU students Jill Benjamin, Derek Miller and Matt Hahn. Over its 10-year history, Full Frontal has performed for crowds of up to 500 and have traveled to New Orleans, Chicago and even the Bahamas to exhibit its peculiar style of improv comedy. And over the years, about 40 student-comedians have come and gone. As the cast has changed, so too has the style of the group. \nWhen the group started, the style it used was similar to that of the show, "Who's Line is it Anyway?" involving shorter skits and more games. In recent years, it has made a shift toward the Chicago-style, long-form improv which focuses on improvising extended scenes. \nThe group said this style is a truer form of improv, which avoids the restrictions and clichés of improvisational games.\n"Short form makes you 'jokey,'" said Pollakoff. "Anyone can get on stage and rattle off a joke, but it is a real challenge to do long-form improv."\nUsing the long-form structure means the fair majority of what Full Frontal does on stage is unscripted. Even the prewritten skits performed at the beginning of each show are rooted in improv. The ideas for these skits typically come from something that was improvised at one of their many weekly practices. They might take an idea for an improv game from the "Running Order," a record of skits done by Full Frontal over the past 11 years, but once they are out on stage, they are flying without a net.\nOne of the qualities of doing a show so deeply imbedded in improvisation is the performers are often just as surprised at what happens on stage as the audience is. \nPollakoff was as shocked as anyone else when McKernan kissed him on the lips at the end of Full Frontal's longest skit, entitled "Montage."\n"It's about not holding anything back. If you hold something back, it's not fun to watch," McKernan said. "You have to be ready and willing to make a fool out of yourself."\nIn a demanding format such as this, it's essential that everyone is able to play off of each other well. One of the challenges Full Frontal has working against them is their lack of experience with each other. Rogan, along with Pollakoff, joined the cast last December, and Dema had her first performance with the team at the beginning of the semester. The only Full Frontal veteran is McKernan, who joined the first semester of his freshman year three years ago, making his impending departure from the group that much more devastating. When you consider the small size of the troupe and the fact that at the end of the year, only half of the cast will remain, it becomes clear that Full Frontal needs to expand their meager ranks. At Saturday's auditions, McKernan, Pollakoff, Dema and Rogan hoped to do just that. \nAround 25 people showed up for the open audition in the Frangipani Room of the IMU Saturday. McKernan said they were looking to add up to four people, but would not add anyone unless the fit was right.\nThe audition began with everyone being told to walk around the room pretending to be animals. McKernan said this was done to take the people out of their "comfort zone" and bring them to the place they need to be to perform their best. After this, the comedic hopefuls did improv skits with each other, including one that Full Frontal uses at performances called "Freeze Tag." \nOf the 25 people that showed up, seven were asked to return Sunday for a second interview at which the current members of Full Frontal performed skits with the potential new castmates to see if they had chemistry with the troupe. \nIf any of them are deemed talented enough to make the cut, they will make their first appearance on stage at Full Frontal's next show Friday during the final bit of the night and will then take part in the full performances starting Oct. 15.\nFor more information about Full Frontal Comedy, log on to its Web site, http://fullfrontalcomedy.com, or catch their next show at 9 p.m., Friday in the IMU State Room East. Admission is free.