Students at LHS might be familiar with the school’s hilarious improv troupe, Exit 1-6, but what they might not know is that there is a second improv troupe that competes citywide against other high schools. Comedy Gold was formed to represent LHS in ‘Operation: Show!’ the Kansas City high school improv league. ‘Operation: Show!’ is part of a non-profit organization founded by former Exit 1-6 member Clayton Ingram, along with a few other professional improvisers. They compete against other schools in double-header comedy matches.

The current members of Comedy Gold consist of freshman Hannah Odom, sophomore Jackson Ferguson, sophomore Kayla Jones, sophomore Berit Nuetzmann, sophomore Sami Kottmann, senior Tim Gibson and senior Gabe Maddex.

“Their collective sense of humor is a great mix of silly and smart,” club sponsor Trish Berrong said. “For every season, there’s an orientation to learn games and skills and then we rehearse for a few hours on show days. So they have to learn fast and trust each other a lot. They’re super focused and really talented.”

Comedy Gold provides an opportunity for students to try out for another improv group besides Exit 1-6.

“I have a lot of friends in Exit 1-6,” senior Tim Gibson said. “Since I was going to be a senior this year it was really unlikely that I was going to make Exit 1-6 so they just told me to try out for Comedy Gold instead.”

Gold performs at Comedy City in Westport where they play a series of improv games.

“I really like the game ‘Oscar moments’ because it focuses on one person and it gets really dramatic,” sophomore Berit Nuetzmann. “It’s really cool to be able to see how you compare to like other schools like Rockhurst or Blue Valley North and compare the games other schools play to the ones that our school plays.”

Comedy City has no point system for their competitions. The winning team is based on the audience’s response after the team’s performance.

“There are four teams from different schools and the first half of the show, two teams from different schools play each other and they play some sort of game altogether and based on the audience’s cheers, that’s how points are received,” freshman Hannah Odom said. “It’ll be like ‘clap if you liked this team’, and then we do the second half which is the same thing but with different teams.”

Members of Comedy Gold agreed that performing on stage is nerve-wracking, but also exciting.

“It’s not quite as bad as performing in the Little Theater,” sophomore Jackson Ferguson said. “All the lights in the Little Theater are right in your face and so for all you know there’s a bunch of judge-y people out in the audience, but at Comedy City all the lights are going down and you can see the audience and you’re not scared of anybody because it’s your friends and family out there that love you.”

Comedy Gold has acquired some helpful tips to calm down their nerves.

“It’s really exciting, especially when you say something funny and you can feel the crowd’s energy,” Odom said. “I do get nervous sometimes, especially at our first show. It helps watching other people do improv and watch other improv shows and eventually you get used to it and realize it’s not so scary.”

Comedy Gold members gave advice about performing on stage.

“Just don’t be afraid to be stupid because no matter what it’s only going to last like three seconds and everyone will forget about it five minutes later. You have to throw yourself out there. Sometimes you have to go up on stage and make a terrible joke to be the person that everyone laughs at for making such a terrible joke,” Ferguson said.

Comedy Gold will have two more performances in the spring season: April 12, at 3 pm. They will also perform in the Awards Show and All-Play Sunday, April 26 at 3 pm. All shows are at Comedy City and cost five dollars.

According to club sponsor Trish Berrong, a portion of the ticket sales will come back to Liberty High School to support the two improv programs, Exit 1-6 and Comedy Gold. Auditions will be held every fall and Spring for students who are interested.