Student comedy troupe False Profits to perform for second time

Students can experience a new level of camaraderie among fellow comedians with False Profits’ upcoming show “Out of Place.”

Tonight’s show marks the group’s second performance since they formed in August. The show will include a mix of improvisational, stand-up and sketch comedy.

“Out of Place” is sophomore William Booth’s debut performance with False Profits. Booth said the show’s title was partly inspired by the troupe’s difficultly in booking a good place to perform.

“We were kind of out of place of where we expected to be,” Booth said. “A lot of comedy is based on things being out of place and not being what you expect it to be.”

Among False Profits’ performers are senior Joey Rasmus and junior Marcie Maier, who both opened for Lewis Black Saturday in the final performance of the Carolina Comedy Festival.

Junior Kenan Bateman, one of the founding members of False Profits, said audience’s interactions with the performers will be an integral part of the show.

“One thing I love is bringing an audience member down on stage and letting them be a part of it because I think that really shows that we are improvising at times,” he said. “We’re bringing them in, and we don’t really know what to do. I love going on stage with literally nothing — I love coming on there with no idea in my head and reacting to what someone says to me.”

For Booth, improv is a valuable component to bring to a show because of its spontaneous nature.

“Everyone’s surprised — even the actors are surprised — by what is happening. It’s a lot of fun to create your own world in front of people’s eyes,” he said. “That’s what life is — it’s just reacting. You don’t know what’s going to happen, so you’re really watching life on stage unfold.”

Senior Jordan Hale, who has been involved with False Profits since the group first held auditions last semester, said “Out of Place” will show the audience how much the group has grown as a team since its founding.

“(By) your second show, the pressure’s off. You know you can do it — you’re more established as a group and as a team, and hopefully people know about you, and so they are more willing to come by and see it,” Hale said.

“I think this would be the show where we come into our prime.”

Bateman said the growing affection among the group will only make the performance stronger.

“If people are paying attention to the way we perform — the way we kind of look at each other, the words we use — you can tell we’re all best friends,” he said.

“And that makes better performances because there is a lot of trust there. I would trust myself in front of hundreds of people looking like an idiot because I know they all have my back, and I think that that is going to make it an awesome show to watch.”

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