Crowd Control is easily one of Brandeis’ most popular improv groups. The Brandeis Hoot interviewed co-directors Danielle Balanov ’17 and Nicole Bunis ’16 in addition to business manager Jonny Shakerchi ’16 to find out more about Crowd Control.
Brandeis Hoot: Why did you join Crowd Control?
Danielle: I had no other option. Don’t write that, it was a joke. I like to control a crowd.
Nicole: I joined because I loved doing improv in high school and I wanted to do a different form of improv in college.
BH: How is this form of improv different?
N: We do only exclusively long-form improv, and other groups do short-form.
BH: What are your performance goals? What do you hope to achieve in your performances?
D: Probably to bring comedy to those who need it most. We want to make people laugh, to make people happy, to do charity. We want to turn-on our fan base, like sexually.
BH: What sets you apart from other comedy groups on campus?
N: We are pretty diverse.
BH: What are your best accomplishments, whether personal or collective?
J: I think our diversity show was our best one.
N: I think that our accomplishments have been that when I started in Crowd Control (my first year), it was five people and we have really grown the group a lot and made it more of a presence on campus.
D: I think that we have a really strong friendship with Starving Artists, the a capella group.
N: At the beginning of Crowd Control, they cast a lot of first-years, now we’ve got first-years, midyears, juniors, a senior, so it’s more of a great whole. Crowd Control is in our sixth year, I believe.
BH: Whom do you look to recruit? What characteristics do you seek out in your members?
N: We want people who have natural talent of being funny, but you don’t have to have any improv experience. It’s really fun to find someone who has no experience and learns from us and does exceptionally because of it.
D: We like people who aren’t afraid to make a fool of themselves because we’re all silly.
N: We like people who don’t have a background in theater or improv or even humor. It’s really fun to have that new experience with them.
BH: Do you have any upcoming shows?
J: On March 12 we will be performing with Starving Artists in Chum’s.
N: We’ll get inspirations from the audience, make a long-form out of it, play some line games with inspirations from the audience as well.
J: We also have open rehearsals, people can come in and improvise with us if they want to, no skills required. We are non-exclusive and open to the Brandeis community.
