Eastern’s improvisation group Hello Dali opened the semester with their first public show Thursday in Coleman Auditorium, featuring old members and prospective recruits.

Before the show, the four members and three students auditioning for Hello Dali got together to plan games to play with the audience.

The style of the performance was very much like the set up of the sketch show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” as members on stage took suggestions from the audience.

Danny Becker, a sophomore theatre arts major, said he joined Hello Dali last year after hearing about it at a theater meeting.

Since all his friends were joining it, Becker thought he might as well go audition too.

The first game the group members played involved Becker asking the audience for a disastrous scenario.

After a few audience members threw out ideas, Becker chose the problem would be that a giant PAC-MAN ate the town’s supply of fruit.

Gavin Peterson, a senior applied engineering and technology major, then came into the room, acted as mayor and held a ‘press conference’ about what happened in the town.

The audience could give hints to what happened, but could not directly tell Peterson the overall problem. After about 20 questions, Peterson was able to guess the problem in his town.

Becker said the hardest thing for him when he performs is playing the first game. As the show goes on, the audience grows, which adds to his nerves, he added.

Jagoda Szostakiewicz, a sophomore English language arts major, said she likes the spontaneity of improv comedy and working with the team.

She said she fell in love with Hello Dali after attending a performance last year.

“Not knowing how the audience will react to what you have to say” is the hardest part of improvisation, Szostakiewicz said.

The second game of the night was called ‘freeze pair,’ and it involved the members splitting up into pairs.

Becker asked the audience for suggestions on topics for each pair. After suggestions, the first pair was going to perform a sketch based on hating each other because they have different shoe sizes.

The next pair performed their improv skit about how they met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting after not seeing each other for ten years.

The final pair performed based on the audience suggestion that both actors were pregnant and visiting a cemetery.

Senior history major Hunter Worthey said she has been coming to shows for a couple of years and loves coming to support her friends.

“They are also really funny,” she said.

Becker said he is looking forward to meeting the new members this semester and getting to know them to give them nicknames.

Next Thursday, auditions for Hello Dali will continue at 9 p.m. in Coleman Auditorium for students interested in participating and trying out.

“Come laugh with us; be a fool, because our moms think we are cool,” Becker said.

Kennedy Nolen can be reached at 581-2812 or kdnolen@eiu.edu.