SUNY Oswego improv troupe hosts first ever comedy summit

OSWEGO, NY — SUNY Oswego’s Shaun Cassidy Fan Club Improv Troupe hosted their first ever comedy summit on Apr. 29.

The troupe decided it was time to host their own comedy summit after having good experiences at other colleges.

“Other colleges felt so inviting and welcoming to see them do such a thing and we felt like we could do this,” Comedy Summit organizer Kevin Damoah said.

The troupe reached out to other schools to see if there was any interest in the event. The club received enough interest to move forward with the event.

Two other college troupes, Syracuse’s Zamboni Revolution and SUNY Fredonia’s Random Acts, took part in the pilot event.

The event offered the different troupes an opportunity to perform for each other and for audiences. Each troupe offered a time to show off their club’s style as well as give time for the troupes to perform together.

The Shaun Cass troupe typically follows a short form style, where the improv is more game-like because they are taking suggestions and interacting with the audience.

However, Zamboni Revolution follows a long form, continuous story style where there’s not a lot of audience interaction.

For the first time ever during a show, Shaun Cass performed the long form style, something they have been working on all semester.

Damoah says the success of the summit will determine if the club will host an event like this again. He says they will have to take the interest gathered from the event and see where it goes from there.