The sporadic downpour last Saturday night kept a lot of Wesleyan students from coming to the Gag Reflex show on time, but it did not keep them from coming. Although many audience members arrived late and wet, the Westco Café was packed on all sides for the long form improv troupe’s first show of the new school year.
Gag Reflex is made up of Naomi Ekperigin ’05, Chris Kaminstein ’05, Adam Read-Brown ’07, Seth Samuels ’06, Jesse Young ’06, and newcomers Jessalee Landfried ’07, Austin Purnell ’08, and Larissa Slovin ’08. Slovin, whose parents came to see her first performance, gave a monologue early on in the show. The monologue described her trip to Europe with a best friend and the consequences of traveling for extended amounts of time with someone you know very well.
“We weren’t just traveling together, we were sleeping in the same bed,” Slovin said.
“[Slovin] fit right in with the rest of the group members,” said Julia Kessler ’08. “If I hadn’t been told beforehand that she was one of the new ones, there’s no way I would have known. All of the new kids fit in so that you weren’t sure who was new and who was the seasoned veteran.”
Members of the troupe commented on the success of the show.
“It was just really invigorating…there was so much energy,” Slovin said of her first time onstage with Gag Reflex.
Ekperigin delivered a monologue about a high school teacher with English affectations.
“He said ‘Cheerio!’ and I was like ‘cornflakes!” Ekperigin said.
Ekperigin’s theme of accents and affectation was used again in a separate skit about a school where the curriculum was focused solely on learning how to speak with a foreign accent. The Gag Reflex cast showed its skills in feigning accents, a gimmick that lent a theatrical feel to the show without losing the spontaneity of improvisational comedy.
“I’m definitely looking forward to the next one,” said Paul Johnson ’08. “I had heard that Gag Reflex set the standard for improvisational groups at Wesleyan and I expected a lot. They absolutely fulfilled my expectations.”
Although it was the group’s first performance in front of an audience, they performed with a flow that never felt interrupted or forced. Picking up on instinctive or learned cues, troupe members popped in on skits and mixed them up with perfect timing and cohesion. Using a system of claps and pats on the back, a member could change the dynamic of a skit by adding or subtracting members.
“I was really impressed with the way in which they would move from skit to skit,” said Stephanie Yarger ’08. “It looked seamless…it kept things from getting stale.”
Young managed to charm members of the audience with his way of supplementing scenes with good old-fashioned absurdity. His one-liners drew laughs and smiles from even the most miserable, soaking wet audience members.
“I belong to the ‘Make Jesse Young Cry’ club on theFacebook.com,” said Emily Rabkin ’08. “But now, anybody who wants to make him cry has to go through me first. That’s pretty much a fact.”
“At times I was laughing out loud; at other times I was laughing on the inside,” said Miles Turner ’08.
The performance lasted about an hour yet felt much shorter. It was a stellar show with a remarkable turnout, proof of Gag Reflex’s established appeal to students and a great start for this year’s performers.
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