Stacey Harkey of ‘Studio C’ joins ImprovBroadway for Covey show
Stacey Harkey (center) rehearses with ImprovBroadway troupe members for a short-form and musical improv comedy night at the Covey Center for the Arts.
Improvisational artists bring comedy games to Covey Center for the Arts on Saturday. Studio C's Stacey Harkey, front, will join ImprovBroadway as a special guest.
No one knows what will happen at an improv comedy show, including the performers.
Stacey Harkey of BYUtv’s “Studio C” guest stars in ImprovBroadway’s evening of short-form improvisational comedy at the Covey Center for the Arts on Saturday, but Harkey isn’t worried about a script.
“It’s a rush. There’s the nervousness, but I guess you could say it’s more like an excitement,” Harkey said. “You can’t go in with fear. You have to be confident. It’s like taking a raft down a river you’ve never been on before, and there could be a waterfall at the end. You never know.”
Where sketch comedy plans out every joke, the art of improv relies on audience comments and co-performers’ live input to pull off a successful show.
Originally from Dallas, Harkey attended Brigham Young University and in 2011 joined Divine Comedy, a BYU student comedy troupe. One year later he found himself in the cast of “Studio C,” which recently wrapped up its fifth season and is now shooting Season 6. The latest season will air later this fall on BYUtv.
He said some popular comedy can tear people down, but the clean comedy produced by shows like “Studio C” and ImprovBroadway “lift people up.”
“It encourages you to be happy. It points out the humor in everyday life and one of the powers of that is that it’s relevant to so many different people,” he said. “Comedy really brings people together … and it totally empowers us to embrace life.”
Completing a single comedy sketch for “Studio C” from the conception of the idea to a finished video may take several months to fully produce. From writing, to shooting scenes, to editing, Harkey said the easy part is getting an idea, while translating that to a relatable visual presentation poses one of the greatest challenges.
The Saturday show features improv games like one might see in “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” and also will include performers creating on-the-spot songs and musical parodies.
While in Divine Comedy, Harkey conceived the idea for and wrote much of the lyrics to “Manly,” a spoof of the Iggy Azalea smash hit “Fancy.” The YouTube music video lampoons on style-conscious guys who still want to appear “manly.”
Leading ImprovBroadway is founding director Zach Atherton, who has performed various theatrical improv styles for more than a decade.
Atherton said the art relies on acceptance and saying, “Yes,” to move a routine along.
“Denial is death to any scene. The audience will see performers accepting and incorporating offers from other performers. This sometimes takes the scene to bizarre and beautiful places,” Atherton said. “The second thing is making big offers. The audience wants to see the scene move and progress. Big offers and grandiose choices from performers provide fuel for amazing scenes. It doesn’t pay to play it safe in improv.”
A game called “Blind Lines” calls for performers to leave the stage while audience members shout out lines of dialog to the show’s emcee. After writing the lines down on scraps of paper, they’re scattered around the stage and performers come back to carry on a scene by intermittently picking a random bit of paper and reading what is often an abstract sentence.
“Since you have no time to plan, what comes out of your mouth is the raw material of your brain in real-time. Sometimes you will say or do something that surprises you and the audience, because even you had no idea where it came from,” Atherton said.
Another game called “Serenade” has three performers sing romantic advice to some lucky audience members.
The comedy troupe formed in August and approximately 50 artists are on ImprovBroadway’s roster. Four members will be at Saturday’s show to join Harkey.
“Comedy has the potential to be the greatest vehicle of communication,” Atherton said. “Pure comedy transcends politics, religion, gender and all other core human differences. When we’re laughing, we’re all speaking the same language and breaking down our barriers and safeguards. When we’re laughing, we forget about our cynicism and skepticism and are open to hearing truth.”
IMPROV BRAODWAY
What: Featuring Stacey Harkey from “Studio C.”
When: Saturday at 8 p.m.
Where: Covey Center for the Arts, 425 W. Center St., Provo
Tickets: $10 adults, $8 students
Info: (801) 852-7007, ImprovBroadway.com/Stacey