Thinking about how someone will die is morbid. Watching a group of professional improvisers perform a scene depicting how someone will die is hilarious.
We Know How You Die! is a fully improvised show performed by members of the Upright Citizens Brigade, a theatre and improvisation training center with locations in New York and Los Angeles. For most of July, the Upright Citizens Brigade, or “UCB,” is bringing improvisation to D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre.
The show, which runs a little under two hours including a 15-minute intermission, stars Shannon O’Neill, Connor Ratliff, Brandon Scott Jones and Molly Thomas. The group has comedy expertise to spare. Thomas has been studying at the UCB since 2008 while O’Neill is currently the artistic director of the theatre. Ratliff is the creator of “The George Lucas Talk Show,” in which he interviews guests while pretending to be George Lucas; he is also the warm-up comedian for The Chris Gethard Show. Scott Jones was named one of Comedy Central’s “Comics to Watch” in 2015.
The crowd present on opening night consisted of many older D.C. couples, a contrast to the younger crowds found at UCB shows in New York, or at UCB’s Del Close Marathon improvisation held every June. Regardless, the audience was laughing and engaged throughout.
The first half of the show involved a brief interview with an audience member, whom on opening night was a soft-spoken engineer. After the interview, the games began. Using a long form improvisation style, the performers acted out scenes based on this man’s life and death.
It would be pointless to try and describe any of the show’s plot that night, as the nature of improvisation results in every show being completely different — a brand new set of scenes and dialogue, seen only by one audience and thrown away the minute the lines are uttered from the performers’ mouths.
It is safe to say that O’Neill, Scott Jones, Ratliff and Thomas performed expertly. Paying to see a show that’s made up on the spot may seem shortsighted, and in the hands of less seasoned performers it could very well be a train wreck. But in the case of We Know How You Die! watching the actors make up each line on the spot is thrilling. There’s a certain almost palpable exhilaration felt in the room each time one performer plays perfectly off the other, delivering a genius one-liner not from a script but snatched out of thin air.
The addition of light tech and costumes in the show’s beginning gave it more depth than an average improv performance. The performers entered dressed in full grim reaper garb, pointing ominously at different members of the audience as eerie music played. During the interview, O’Neill asked what the man’s favorite song was, a seemingly aimless question until the song, which happened to be “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” began playing from the speakers at the end of the interview.
The second half of the performance, after intermission, consisted of long form improvisation based off of an audience suggestion. This portion seemed like more of a way to fill time than a fluid part of a stage performance. Regardless, it was entertaining.
The UCB motto is “Don’t Think,” an improvisation principle implying that performers shouldn’t over analyze what they do onstage. In the case of We Know How You Die! the UCB motto is also in play, because choosing to go see this performance is really a no-brainer.
