With the current presidential election drawing near, the government has become a hot topic. Last Friday at the Center For Inquiry (CFI), crowds were treated to a politically charged comedy show from the improvisational group Cat Venom.
Cat Venom is a local six-member acting troupe that includes some UB students. The troupe performs mature improvisational comedic short skits of content determined and driven by suggestions from the crowd.
Cat Venom performs two kinds of shows - standard social and political skits or a non-themed performance.
Friday's show was called Church & State: Inject Independence. The scenes focused on secularism, the idea that the government and religious institutions should be kept separate and independent of one another.
The group performed with a bare minimum on stage, working with no props, other than two chairs in the first scene. However, scenes often corresponded to their "set," which was a large projector screen that cued up images when needed.
The show consisted of 10 different scenes, each with a different format and style. Each had its own form of interaction with the audience with members asking for suggestions for emotions, topics and imaginary props.
The show started with the topic of secularism as performers acted out a scene where a leader of a congregation met up with his God in heaven. God, an Apple Mac Computer user, reviewed all of the man's past deeds. He ended up being denied entry due to a past parking violation.
Members of the acting troupe worked their way through scenes both political and social, touching upon gay marriage, evolution, racism, and Internet dating.
At times it was difficult for the group to stay on task with their message due to audience suggestions that lacked a link back to the evening's theme.
The group kept the audience laughing, with a crowd consisting of both a fair number of UB students and local residents.
Drew Brigham, a sophomore computer science major, attended the show.
"I thought they were really good at improvising. They didn't stutter much and were consistent on delivering humorous lines through the whole performance," Brigham said. "I thought the political content was definitely lacking though. There was really not that much, despite the theme of church and state."
However, a few in the crowd were disappointed including Elana Paolucci, a freshman undecided major.
"I thought the first half wasn't as good as the second half, when they had more of a license to go with their own [improvisation] skills rather than the audience's cues," Paolucci said.
Cat Venom, who declined to be interviewed for the story, will be performing again at the CFI on Friday, Nov. 14 at 7:30 PM, in a show called Corporatism:
It's Hitler-riffic.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
