The Buttered Niblets delivered a hysterical and high-energy performance to a packed crowd on Friday Sept. 9 in the Arellano Theatre. The Buttered Niblets are Hopkins’ only improv troupe, so they took on the full responsibility of keeping the audience engaged throughout the night. The Arellano Theatre provides a small yet intimate theatre experience and the Buttered Niblets took advantage of this in order to play off of the audience’s energy.
The show was performed by the seven returning member of the Buttered Niblets: Jayne O’Dwyer, Freddie McCall, Phoebe Gennardo, Will Bernish, Kyra Lesser, Brian Li and Zeke Goodman. The seven took turns in small groups participating in various games which require a quick wit and fast adaptation skills.
The first game, Radio Dial, called for several team members to perform snippets of a radio program. The twist? The audience chose the names for these programs. Such names include “Locker room Lockdown,” “Ring of Fire” and “Dat Booty.” Each improviser took on a different accent as they explained the importance of protein, the correct way to dress and that John Travolta is surprisingly not dead.
Another game the group played was called Good Cop, Bad Cop. For this game troupe member Will Bernish had to leave the room while the audience decided who he supposedly killed. The audience also chose how he killed his victim and why. Will next returned to the room and based on hints by a good and a bad cop had to figure out that he had murdered Miley Cyrus with a cheese grater because she cooked his pasta al dente,and he doesn’t like it like that. Will was able to decipher all the clues and won the game, despite his slight dismay that he understood the Hannah Montana references.
Other games the group played include Close Quarters, where different scenes happen in the same location; First Date, where two improvisers have to declare what’s going on in the minds of a duo on their first date; and Half Life, where two improvisers had to perform a scene and then keep performing it with its time cut in half. These games taught us that everyone breaks up at IKEA, stay-at-home dads care deeply about game shows and nepotism will help incestuous twins rise to power. Every game was ridiculous ly fun and allowed each troupe member a chance to show off and shine.
Sophmore Jayne O’Dwyer praised the group’s opening performance.
“I thought the first show went incredibly well. The biggest part of getting people to join is if they can really see our personality in the show and sometimes our personalities don’t come across with our games but I thought this time people really got to see that we were having fun playing the games and just interacting with each other in general. I think people really noticed how close we are as a group and I think they fed off that energy.”
The energy was definitely palpable and could be felt throughout the theatre. Just watching them on stage you could see that the group had excellent chemistry and played off each other extraordinarily well.
“It’s a legitimate family,” O’Dwyer said. “Not many people know this about us but when you get into the Nibs it’s a unanimous decision, so you know that everybody at least in some capacity wanted you to be there. I think its really cool to be in a group where people care so much about it and the longevity of it and bringing new people in.”
The group recently brought in three new members (Tom DiSorbo, Robin Dickey and Jenna Pasternak) who will help the Buttered Niblets throughout the year. The Buttered Niblets got off the year to a great start with a terrific first performance.
A day prior to this show, the Buttered Niblets opened for Eric André’s performance at Shriver Hall as part of the MSE Symposium. Though the group had little rest between the two shows, both were performed at the highest quality and prove that the Niblets are starting the 2016 theatre season off on the right foot.
