Trap Door Improv group attracting more women
Women packed the comedic punches at Trap Door Improv Wednesday night.
Senior Jacqueline Voice has been involved with the Trap Door Improv group since it was called Saturday Night Improv, but more than just the name has changed since then.
Three and half years ago, the group had only two women participating. This year, the number has doubled to mark the most female involvement there has ever been.
“For some reason, people just don’t think girls are as funny as guys, “the Traverse City native said. “I think that people feel like raunchy jokes are more appropriate when they are coming from men, and I like that we are changing that.”
On Wednesday night, the Central Michigan University Theatre presented the Trap Door Improv group, who hosted their first show of the semester at the Platform Theater in Moore Hall.
This will be Voice’s last season of performing since she is graduating, and she said she will miss working with the Trap Door Improv group.
“We are a family; we will bend over backward to help each other,” Voice said. “When there are evening shows on the weekend, we all hangout and have a big family dinner before. I’ll really miss the troupe.”
Voice said she hasn’t always been this comfortable with the Trap Door Improv group, though. When she first went to audition, she was so nervous she almost chickened out, and her friend literally had to pull her into the room.
“I am so glad she did that,” Voice said. “This group is hilarious and brilliant.”
Junior Zachary Pedica said the reason he joined the Trap Door Improv was because Voice convinced him to.
“We had done a show together previously and started to become friends after that. One day, she said, 'You know, you’re kind of funny,' and after that, I auditioned,” the Warren native said.
Pedica said he agrees there is a stereotype that women are less funny because it is perceived to be more acceptable for men to say crude jokes.
“Personally, I think the girls are funnier,” Pedica said.
Pedica said Voice brings the best jokes to the innuendo game they play, and he will miss her energy that she brings to the group when she graduates.
Voice said she is embracing her last season and is looking forward to the new audience participation game inspired from the show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” called "Scenes from a Hat."
“I can guarantee that everything we do is 100-percent made up on the spot,” Voice said.
Pedica said he loves that he never knows what to expect from the group, and one of the main strengths of the members this season is comfort with each other.
“What happens in our shows is unexpected, and the only thing we can promise the audience is that they will laugh,” Pedica said.
