ESU improv show set Wednesday

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By Joey Berlin

Originally published 02:12 p.m., April 7, 2008
Updated 02:12 p.m., April 7, 2008

Photo by Joey Berlin

ZOIKS! members play an improv game on Sunday at King Hall to prepare for the comedy troupe’s performance this week. The performers are, from left, Frankie Rizo, Eric Luchen, Adam Rust and Josh Reynolds. ZOIKS! will perform with the rock band Ha Ha Tonka on Wednesday evening in Albert Taylor Hall.

A free night of music and improvisational comedy awaits on Wednesday night when the Emporia State University improvisational comedy troupe ZOIKS! teams with popular indie rock band Ha Ha Tonka at 7:30 p.m. at Albert Taylor Hall.

The ESU student troupe and the Springfield, Mo.-based band will co-headline the performance, which is being presented by ESU’s Union Activities Council. ZOIKS! artistic director Pat Janssen, a senior theater major, said the troupe has opened for other acts at Taylor Hall a number of times, but this will be just its second headlining show there. Janssen said his goal is to sell out the hall’s floor, which has about 750 seats.

“I thought it’d be really fun just to kind of combine two different art forms, as it were, and bring in music and comedy for the same night,” Janssen said. “And when I decided to do that, I looked to bring in the best band that I could think of. And my first choice was Ha Ha Tonka.”

The band, which has played in Emporia a number of times, has opened for such well-known acts as the Violent Femmes and Blues Traveler and also played this year’s Sundance Film Festival. On its Web site, www.hahatonkamusic.com, it bills its style as “foot-stomping indie rock.”

Janssen said a ZOIKS! performance combines the styles of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and “Saturday Night Live.” He said the performance would feature ZOIKS! and Ha Ha Tonka trading stage time.

“They’ll play a couple of songs, we’ll play a couple improv games and do some sketches,” he said. “We have about four video sketches that we’ll also show that we’ve been filming and editing over the last couple weeks. There’s even some sketches that we do together, a couple of things that we do together.”

Ha Ha Tonka will close the performance.

Janssen said ZOIKS! consists of 17 members. He said the comedy will probably be R-rated, so it’s not necessarily for families.

“But you never know with improv,” he said. “So it could turn out to be the cleanest show we have. You never know what they’re gonna say.”