Get ready to laugh this year, because the No Fun Mud Piranhas have returned to Northwestern.
No Fun Mud Piranhas was originally a Northwestern-based improvisational troupe founded in the late '70s and flourished in the mid '80s. Among its members were Friends alum David Schwimmer (Speech '88) and The Colbert Report host and founder Stephen Colbert (Speech '86). The troupe was short-lived, but with such talented former members, it wouldn’t stay dead forever.
Enter Medill senior Matthew Hays and Weinberg senior Tim White. Members of the established improv groups on campus, Hays and White made it their goal this year to spearhead the revival of NFMP.
Why now? Hays, who is a four-year member of the Titanic Players and a two-year Mee-Ow member, says that he has seen lots of potential in the open gyms (where people went prior to auditions to practice improv). “There’s such a ridiculous amount of talented people on campus,” Hays said. “[Because of space] they won’t all be able to make it into Mee-Ow or Titanic, though.”
Wanting to expand the comedy circuit to more students on campus, Hays and White contacted former NFMP performer Jen Hughes (Comm ’88) to ask if they could restart the group. Her response was what the two had hoped for. “When we contacted her, she pretty much said ‘go for it,’” Hays said.
After getting approval, Hays sent the word out about a new improv group on campus and the response was huge.
“It was double the response I was expecting,” Hays said when asked about the size of the sign-up list.
Since they're a new group, Hays and White extended the invitation to everyone, not just experienced improvisational performers. “We’re still working on what we’re going to teach, but we’re going to start from square one,” White said. White is also a three-year member of the Titanic Players and a member of the writing teams for Wrestlepocaylpse IV and V.
The teaching will be done by coaches on loan from either Mee-Ow or the Titanic Players, although Hays said that after two years, NFMP will be able to produce its own coaches. The training session curriculum includes instruction for both long-form (scenes running around 20 minutes) and short-form (short, Whose Line is it Anyway-style skits) improv as well as, according to Hays, the possibility of professional improvisational performers or stand-up comedians coming in to instruct members.
The big question, though, is when can non-members see them. While fall quarter will be occupied by training, performances will be held in a festival-like fashion at the end of winter and spring quarters within the year. And if you’re interested in getting involved, new members can join in at the start of each quarter, which Hays recommends. “You’ll meet a lot of people and have a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s going to be great.”