Improvisational comedy has turned to the dark side – of humor.

Zamboni Revolution, the Syracuse University student improvisation comedy troupe, entertained a packed audience at Panasci Lounge Friday night with newly acquired black humor that made its show more twisted and funnier than its previous performances. The performance’s morbid style extended to humorous death threats, droll child abuse, whimsical dismemberment, comical paralyzation and the proper editing of suicide letters.

But like all things improv, the darker sense of humor was not planned, said Josh Simpson, a junior television, radio and film major and member of Zamboni Revolution.

‘Guess we must have been in a dark mood or something,’ Simpson said. ‘If it’s dark humor it’s just like the situation that sets itself up in the scene and where we think we can go with it. It’s all off the top of our heads so it’s really not intentional.’

The troupe’s dark humor stood out in direct contrast to its first performance of the year in September, in which sex jokes abounded. Zamboni Revolution’s new style is noticeably superior to its plentiful innuendos of the past if only by virtue of the fact that black humor is both harder to improvise and harder to make funny.

‘There was sarcasm, definitely dark humor and jokes with sexual connotations, a good blend of everything,’ said Eugene Kolb, a freshman screenwriting major.

Zamboni Revolution started its show like every other, by asking for any word from the audience to serve as the inspiration for its different sketches. Audience participation stopped there, unfortunately, one of the few shortcomings of the group’s performance.

By doing so, however, Zamboni Revolution fleshed out its performance and made the show much funnier in the process.

Derrick Allen, a freshman chemistry major, said that Zamboni Revolution did what any good improv troupe would do: successfully reincorporate themes and characters from earlier on in its show.

‘It’s funny to see they did one scene with that word, and then half an hour later when they do the last skit, there’s that word again,’ Allen said.

The quality of Zamboni Revolution’s show was surprising given the absence of the troupe’s director, David Young, a senior television, radio and film major, who was out of town because he was working on a pilot for an NBC show.

‘I don’t know if it impacted the performance or if it was just a little bit weird being up there without the guy,’ Simpson said. ‘It wasn’t too big of a deal, though.’

The other members of Zamboni Revolution made up for their director’s absence, which encouraged the other troupe members to step forward and fill the vacancy in the performance. Freshman music education major Greg Maistros, normally more deferent toward the other actors, took more central characters throughout the show.

Friday’s performance was the group’s last for the semester. Next semester the team expects two returning members, junior television, radio and film major Jon Moses and Dan Gurewitch, a junior television, radio and film major, to rejoin the cast after they return from studying abroad in London.

Published on December 5, 2004 at 12:00 pm