Theater review: FST Improv Comedy Lottery

Another Saturday night at Florida Studio Theatre. Lacking adult supervision, actors Will Leura, Chris Friday, Sal Piccolo, Allison Day, and Steve Turrisi created an exercise in controlled chaos, accompanied by musical mayhem from keyboardist Hunter Brown. “Comedy Lottery is the name of that exercise, and improv comedy is what it’s all about. Like most mop-up operations, it started with a bucket. In this case, a bucket of improv games. Audience members picked 12 of the games. And the chaos began …

Celebrity scientist Carl Sagan rose from the dead. A desperate and incompetent crew smuggled a giraffe before sinking. “Bed Bath and Beyond” became the setting for a “Game of Thrones” parody. Improv comedians became human puppets. A Shakespearean actor lewdly informed us that, “She warms me in the cockles of my heart and doth stir me in the nether region.” A loving couple was treated with an instant musical production number that was all about them—and will either provide a warm memory in the years ahead or the reason for a break-up.

Every play has a catalyst, as Aristotle reminds us. Here, the catalyst was that aforementioned bucket. The witty Greek philosopher also mentioned rising action, a catastrophe and a denouement. I’m not so sure about all that. But the experience was very, very funny.