E is for Everyone. That was the first rule set up by professional referee Aaron Caponigro from Comedy Sportz LA. Its meaning? According to Caponigro, Comedy Sportz is supposed to be enjoyed by people of all backgrounds and walks of life, so the humor should reflect that. So no dad jokes, also known as The Groaner Foul. In all seriousness, rules like The Out of Bounds Foul (be a good sport) and E is for Everyone (no profanity or hate speech) set the stage for a safe space where the players can thrive. The teams’ pre-game ritual, according to senior Kara Voisey, president of the Comedy Sportz Board, also gets the players in the right headspace for the match.
“It’s such a special moment to have before a match because it’s our eight players and [the four players from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School] all coming together, and we all hype each other up. We have a big circle where we introduce ourselves and go over games and uplift each other when we’re practicing. We’re always like ‘Oh yeah, you got that! That was so funny!’ It’s just really cool to see everyone supporting each other. It’s a little nerve-racking to get up onstage, but I know that we all have each other’s backs,” Voisey said.
According to sophomore Olive Gadot on the junior varsity (JV) team, the warm-up they do is the perfect way for her to get her jitters out.
“I was really nervous 10 minutes before [the match], but then we did a really weird and intense round of whoosh with [the players from Peninsula], and then I forgot about everything, and I was ready to have fun,” Gadot said.
Whoosh is an improv game built to train the speed of one’s reactions, collaboration and communication. The matches are made up of a series of improv games just like whoosh. The game goes as follows: the team captains make their way upstage, and, instead of a coin toss as seen in Football, the captains play a small scale game. In this case, the JV team captains played Rock, Paper, Scissors Infinity (like regular Rock, Paper, Scissors, but you have unlimited options) in the first half and the Varsity teams played Album Covers (each team strikes a pose, creating the image of their made up band’s newest album cover) in the second half. Whichever team gets the loudest applause for their performance gets to pick the first game. At the end of that game, the referee has the audience clap for their favorite, and they award five points to the team that received the loudest cheers. The winner picks the next game, and the cycle repeats. After four group games and four team to team games, Redondo won 50 to 40, according to Voisey, thanks to their dedication during rehearsal.
“[It’s hard to practice improv] because it’s completely random, so [the players] don’t know what they’re getting into, but we have rehearsals every Friday, and we just practice [different improv] games with random suggestions to build their skills of being able to collaborate, having good characterization and facial expressions, just being able to create a character and being comfortable onstage, which is a big thing,” Voisey said.
But the board does not throw you right in. They use the JV team to allow players to practice and get used to doing improvisation with an audience.
“It’s scary to be onstage and just have to come up with things on the spot. So we have the JV team. That opens up a lot of opportunities for them to get comfortable with one another and show how non-judgmental the community is. And then if they continue doing it, they can get on the Varsity team, where they have a lot more opportunities to be onstage,” Voisey said.
Seeing her players progress to a point where they can fully express themselves onstage is a large source of pride for Voisey.
“The biggest thing that makes me happy is when a newer player tells me that they’re nervous to get onstage or that they’re nervous to perform, but then they get up there and they just push themselves and they do something really, really funny, or you can see them being their true, authentic self. It’s so fulfilling in that moment to see them be really nervous, but then be able to encourage them and actually allow them to perform and see that they actually did really good,” Voisey said.
According to Gadot, their win on Nov. 7 was mostly due to the supportive environment this community has fostered.
“[The leaders and board members] treat you as a person first and a player second. They really value how we feel about certain things, and they’re always there and uplifting us. All their notes are given with such love, and we really feel that. And that’s why everyone is so close on comedy sports,” Gadot said.
That connection spans further than one’s own team, which shows onstage.
“I think that both teams really had good chemistry. It’s easy to bounce off each other, laugh at each other’s jokes and laugh when we mess up, and just move past it pretty fast, which is, I think, the most important thing. Not ruminating on something you did wrong, because that’s not the point,” Gadot said.
The point, according to Voisey, is to provide people with a safe space to express themselves.
“I really found a sense of community and family in the team and the department, and it was so cool to see such an uplifting department and be able to have a place where I could come and be myself,” Voisey said, “This is a super tight-knit community. We all love it here, and we all come back for a reason.”
