Taking Devorah’s advice and spare ticket, I decided to attend a comedy show at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade on the west side. My sister has been going to the UCB for years, but never successfully convinced me to attend. In part, I decided to attend because I needed to rack up some independent cultural events and because the show was specifically geared towards college humor. During high school I studied improvisation, which has certainly come in handy these last years. The key to improvising is to always say yes. An actor or comedian should not say yes in the literal sense, but go along with the situation. If you are on stage with another actor and you ask them to take a vacation with you, the actor should respond in a positive way to progress the scene. The actor’s response should be one that can move the scene forward. Saying no or denying the opportunity to go on vacation thwarts the flow of the scene. Actors must work off of each other. In stand up comedy, the circumstances are a little different. For one, the comedian is alone on stage. He or she must work off himself or herself. In addition, much of their routine is scripted. Although some of their work will be improvised, the majority of it is rehearsed. The same rule of yes, however, still applies in standup. Last night, the theme of the event was Halloween. Two comedians showed a slide show, in which they presented four rules for perfecting a Halloween costume. Although it was somewhat raunchy and offensive, it was never the less hilarious. My favorite comic was Morgan Murphy, a writer for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  She was an extremely tall woman with bright red hair and hunched shoulders. Her repertoire was based on her awkward and depressed demeanor. Although it sounds upsetting, the way she played off her own awkwardness was brilliant. I thought her routine involved some great character work. She picked a specific persona of the tall, awkward, and slightly androgynous female and ran with it. I say character work because I didn’t feel as though she was creating a realistic human being. In short, the show was extremely entertaining and I highly recommend going to the Upright Citizen’s Brigade. I had been really stressed and moody all this past week and it was really nice to laugh. Go laugh!