Laugh attack set to crash at Beach Club

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The instantaneous joy of improvisational comedy returns to Port Ludlow with Disorderly Conduct’s performance at the Beach Club at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28.

The group has been shaking bellies for eight years under the name “Anything Goes,” and recently added three new members to keep knees slapping under the new moniker.

Diretor Nancy Peterson — also known as “Ham in Charge” and “Chief Goofball” — has been fooling with the improv group since its inception and began directing the disarray after a period of study with a member of Bainbridge Island’s improv troupe, The Edge.

“Improv is made up of various what we call ‘games’ to give some structure to the various scenes that we do,” Peterson said. “I ended up being in charge teaching the games to the group.”

For instance, the game Birthday Party.

“The birthday person leaves, and then the audience comes up with ideas for unusual presents — it could be a porcupine, or canned chicken, or some weird thing you wouldn’t expect — and then its up to the birthday-person to gather, through various clues that are given by the gift-givers, what is actually in each package,” Peterson said.

The group usually meets every two weeks to play together, but has upped their satire to once a week in preparation for the show.

“I try to make sure pretty much everybody gets equal stage time,” Peterson said. “We do somethings that will involve the whole cast.”

And while all the members partake in the pantomimes, audience members need not worry about being forced to farce.

“People are terrified that they’re going to be called up on stage, and we don’t do that,” Peterson said. “The worst thing in the world is to have someone on stage who doesn’t want to be there. It does not make for good entertainment.”

But she added that people should feel comfortable yelling out suggestions.

“They’re really the ace cast member, you might say, because without the audience you don’t get very far,” Peterson said.

Audience suggestions keep the group from returning to stale ideas, letting their skills at surprise shine.

“You throw out the first idea you have and you don’t filter it, but I should also emphasize that we don’t do dirty shows,” Peterson said.

She noted the group keeps the chaos pretty clean, but did give it a PG-15 rating due to innuendo.

“We don’t use fowl language, we don’t use anything explicit, so it’s a show that people can bring their kids to and don’t worry about having to cover their ears,” she added.

Tickets are $10 at the door.