It was a show with no script, no costumes and no props.
Yet Erik Voss and Patrick Hart had their audience laughing and clapping enough to enliven the deserted Weimer Hall auditorium and warm up its chilly air.
More than 40 students settled on the very first rows of the auditorium to see one of Theatre Strike Force's improvisation shows last Wednesday night, in which Voss and Hart took their spectators on a 40-minute journey of improv comedy.
"Oh Arthur, what do you dream about at night? Me, I bet," Voss said to Hart as he sipped from the straw of an invisible drink. "Am I naked or am I wearing high heels and the Heart of the Ocean?"
This is just one of the lines during the show that had the audience laughing and clapping for the performers.
The show is part of a summer series put on by TSF every Wednesday night in an attempt to get the organization into the habit of having weekly performances.
It was Voss' and Hart's first long-form performance together, and everyone seemed to encourage the pair and hope for their success.
"I think that's part of the appeal of improv," Voss said. "The audience is optimistic and is rooting for you. It's OK to believe a little bit. It's not like they are sitting back and saying ‘Oh this better be funny.'"
Voss, a UF graduate, has been part of TSF since his freshman year and served as the organization's president at a point during his four years here.
Long-form improvisation spans longer than the short-form shows usually put on by TSF. It is considered the more artsy type of improvisation because it allows performers to build up a scene and not just add funny lines whenever they can.
"It's much freer, much more open and much more challenging because you don't really have any rules to go by," Voss said.
Voss plans to move to Los Angeles in August to further study improv performing, and he hopes to eventually get a job screenwriting for television.
Hart, a UF sophomore, has been doing improv since he was 12.
"It's a chance to be expressive but yet funny," he said. "It's one of those things that you feel so much better because everything you just did that people like is something you just created."
From endearing scenes portraying the relationship between a little girl with braces and her awkward older brother to hilarious ones where Voss steers an imaginary boat by rolling an office chair backward, the pair overcame the challenge of a long-form improv performance with the encouragement of their spectators.
Both said Wednesday night's show went a lot better than either had expected.
"I think we had pretty good chemistry," Hart said. "Once it started it went pretty smoothly."
Graduate student Mike Whidden, who is also part of TSF, said the pair did work well together.
"A good show depends on the connection and Erik pretty much has a good connection with everyone," Whidden said.
