No Name Basis is one of several improv comedy groups on campus. Trent Thomas, an experienced member of NNB, shares what membership means and entails.
Q: When did you join No Name Basis, and what inspired you?
A: I joined two years ago, in 2016, and I think I first saw them at Campus Fest with all the other improv teams. After I saw them and realized what improv is, I went home and looked it up online and saw New York groups like ASSSSCAT. I spent a whole night researching it, and then I tried out.
Q: Where does No Name Basis typically perform and practice at?
A: Typically, we perform in the Arts Village in Kreischer. That’s our normal venue; it’s probably been our venue since we started. This year, we’re trying to branch out. I know our directors, Chris, Zach and Adam, mentioned last year that they might expand it to other places.
Q: What troupes or individual comedians do you look up to?
A: My favorite comedian is Maria Bamford. She has three different shows on Netflix that I like to watch a lot. I really enjoy seeing female comedians in general. As a group, we look up to UCB Comedy, based in New York. It’s where Amy Poehler and Tina Fey came from, and they have a book that outlines a lot of basic improv rules. It’s called the UCB Improvisation Manual, and it’s more focused on long-form comedy. Our group does short-form and long-form comedy, which isn’t really as common on campus.
Q: Do you have a favorite skit you’ve done?
A: There are a lot to choose from. One of my favorite games to play is “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” which is a short-form game. We have three characters up, and I always like everyone’s characters in that game. One time, our director Adam was a crab. It was a terrible scene, but we all kept cracking up. There are variations of that game like “The Illiterate, the Bad and the Ugly” and “The Sexy, the Bad and the Ugly.” The game involves a good character who answers questions from the audience, a bad character who doesn’t answer the questions as well and then an ugly character whose role is to be useless to the audience. It’s so fun.
Q: What is the funniest thing that has happened to you during practice or a performance?
A: We had a show at the Gish Theater, when it was still a theater. It was our only show there. There’s a game called “Evil Twin” where you’re a character, and you have another character. One of the characters is played by two actors, and one of those two actors tries to mess up the other. They’ll say something terrible, then the other tries to justify it to the audience. Whoever was the evil twin in this one scene made a really weird relationship between me and my teammate Zach. He ended up climbing up me like I was a tree, and then he rolled off me, doing a somersault backwards and I didn’t even know how to respond.
Q: What are the biggest things you’ve learned from being in No Name Basis?
A: One thing I’ve learned from improv as a whole is how to avoid freaking out when a situation happens. It’s bad to be caught by surprise in improv. You need to learn to problem-solve in the moment, and I think that’s something I’ve gathered. I have the confidence to handle tough tasks.
Q: What kind of availability is there for new members to join?
A: We have 11 members this year. We actually just got three new ones, so we have a lot of team members this year. Usually, we have auditions in August and September, after Campus Fest.
Q: What’s the organizational structure of No Name Basis like?
A: This year, we have an interesting structure. We usually only have one director, but this year we have three directors. We have Adam Panter, Chris Smith and Zach McCurdy, with Adam being the main director. It’s a team effort this year, and it brings us all on the same level and helps us to improve communication. I like it better than just one director dictating everything.
