By Hailey Heinz
Carolines on Broadway is one of New York’s premium comedy clubs, and has hosted such acts as Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Rosie O’Donnell and last week, NU ‘ Improv’d.
Northeastern’s own comedy troupe performed to a crowd of about 150 at Carolines Nov. 7, joining Boston University’s group, The Outtakes. They have been invited back after the winter break, and will probably return sometime in February or March, said Chad Cooper, NU ‘ Improv’d Founder.
“Carolines is pretty big, right in the heart of Broadway,” Cooper said. “A lot of famous people play there, so it was pretty amazing for us.”
The group got the opportunity through a member’s personal connections. Jacky Shu, a senior communications major, is doing her co-op in New York, and works part-time at Carolines. She said she has become friends with a producer at the club, and since The Outtakes were already set to perform, she suggested the two groups collaborate and do a show together.
Cooper said the group’s performance was well received by the crowd. They did mostly audience-based improvisation, including a game called “rant,” which required the performers to rant about random words generated by the audience. Cooper said only the six seniors in NU ‘ Improv’d performed, but several other members traveled to New York with them to offer support and help promote the show.
Promotion was important for the troupe, Cooper said, because a big part of getting asked back to Carolines is drawing a crowd. The group passed out flyers in Times Square for several days before the performance to ensure they would have a crowd. Shu said for a weekday, they had a good-sized audience.
Although the group was able to generate a crowd, Shu said it was a different kind of audience than they are used to, and they had to adjust their act accordingly.
“A lot of the people in the audience were a little bit older, and it was so different because some of them were tourists,” Shu said. “We’re used to a lot of college humor; we’ve got that kind of outlook on our routine.”
Shu said the warm response from the audience, as well as the high energy of the trip, made the experience one she treasures.
“We were so pumped to finish and get that round of applause,” she said.
Cooper said he hopes this will be the beginning of an alliance with Carolines, and credited co-op networking with making the show possible.
“It was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I’m really happy I was able to experience it,” Cooper said. “Because, I mean, it’s Broadway.”
