WAUPUN — A comedy improv show by the local group the “Joe ‘Schmoes” was held Saturday night in the City Hall Auditorium.
Performed by CWC graduates Joe Venhuizen, Grace Venhuizen Bruins, and Nate Scheuers, the show was put on by the Waupun Fine Arts Committee, with proceeds going to future events. Tickets were $10 at the door and refreshments were available during intermission.
The show included a number of skits and “games”, some of which included members of the audience. One skit required two members of the audience to come up to the stage and give ideas to continue the story, another skit had members of the audience move the arms and legs of the actors to perform characters attending the Alto Fair. One of their later acts had four members of the audience act out pictures from a trip to Hershey Pennsylvania.
The three performers, Joe Venhuizen, his sister Grace Bruins, and Nate Sheuers attended CWC and learned drama and improv under Gerri Buteyn. They had recently begun running improv shows in the region and Buteyn, who is a member of the Waupun Fine Arts Committee asked them to perform one in Waupun.
According to Buteyn, she first came up with the idea of hosting them in Waupun almost two years ago after hearing about their gigs and seeing clips of their performances.
As for the performers, they were glad to have the opportunity to perform for their friends and families back in Waupun.
“Being that we’ve got three performers in the group that are all from the Waupun area, it was kind of a fun way to come back together and do something that we hadn’t done together in a long time. So that was just too big of an opportunity to say no to it,” said Joe Venhuizen.
Venhuizen, who serves as Director for Envision Greater Fond du Lac, used to teach the subject at CWC, which helped students improve their confidence and improvisational skills even beyond entertainment.
“Sometimes it’s uncomfortable to be part of the show, but we had a lot of people that came up on stage and had fun with it,” he said. “And I hope that everybody kind of sees that. That it’s okay to get uncomfortable sometimes and that’s what improv teaches you, and it stretches you.”
A total of 181 attendees were counted at the show, the highest attendance recorded at a Fine Arts event.
