Committing Comedy

The Usual Suspects are charged with improvisation in the first degree

By Kirk Baird
LAS VEGAS SUN

It's difficult to explain the humor and appeal of local improv trio the Usual Suspects to the
uninitiated.

So perhaps it's best not to.

After all, dance numbers about washing dishes, a Quentin Tarantino film set in a grocery store
aisle, conversations in Pig Latin and Swahili and a juggling Aussie who shaves his legs while
rounding up kangaroos do little to jar the funny bone in print form.

There's also the problem of never seeing the same performance twice, which is, of course, the
whole point of improvisation. So what's the use in telling someone how funny a Suspects show
was when you know the next time they see the group the performance will be drastically
different?

Then again, just because someone wasn't there doesn't mean the jokes weren't funny. And
with the Usual Suspects, there is plenty to laugh about.

Similar to TV's "Whose Line is it Anyway?" the Suspects use what they call "structures" and audience participation to dictate the direction they go in. The structures are basic scenarios where audience members call out various things -- such as surroundings, occupations, character relations, names, etc. -- and the trio acts them out in a sort of comedic stream-of-consciousness, with no prior rehearsal or script.

Think of it as a sort of Madlibs on stage.

And the weirder the audience suggestions, the better.

"People think they're throwing us curves" when they say off-the-wall stuff, said the Suspects' Rick Ginn who, along with Finley Bolton and Jeff Granstrom, make up the group. "But they're only making it richer and better for us."

And after three years together, the group has heard it all, from some unmentionables to performing in the style of Kabuki theater. From lowbrow to highbrow, whatever it takes to get a laugh seems to be the group's motto.

"We can appeal to both your beer drinkers and tea-totalers," Bolton, the lone female Suspect, said.

On this particular night at the Community College of Southern Nevada-Cheyenne Campus Little Theater, where the group is scheduled to perform again Tuesday, there wasn't much ribaldry going on. That's not to suggest, however, that the group performs with kid gloves. Other than the occasional national tragedy, such as the Colombine High School massacre, it's anything goes while on stage.

"The best part of improv is not to censor yourself," Ginn said. "We're not politically correct."

Individually the product of years of acting, the trio met each other while in a previous improv group, Mental Soup, a few years ago. When that group dissolved, the three formed the Usual Suspects, named for the movie and also, Bolton said, because the title "lent itself to a picture; something that would bring a picture right to your mind. That's how our logo was born." (The Suspects logo, for those readers scoring at home, is an illustration of the three of them in a police lineup.)

After a year of workshops, in which they would perform in front of friends, the trio decided they were ready. "There is a point you get to where you can't move any further along unless you have an audience," Bolton said. Unlike performing in front of friends, "audiences won't laugh to be nice."

So they began to book themselves in bookstores, at the Huntridge Performing Arts Theatre and anywhere else they could. And after a stay at the Planet Mirth Magic Shop, where they performed in the back of the store, the Suspects are in the process of looking to find a permanent home.

In the meantime, the group is busy promoting itself, offering a website -- theusualsuspects.bizland.com, where people can check on upcoming shows -- as well as trying to get the word out on improv in general. This has been difficult in Las Vegas, they said, given the amount of competition there is. Not because of other improv groups -- there's scarcely a handful locally --but in terms of the number of stand-up comics who come through town. This, coupled with the fact that if you're not booked in a casino, people just don't seem to notice.

It's a situation that Ginn said he's at loss to understand. "The three of us together are good," he said. "It would be a pity to waste it. So we'll beat it to death."

And with the popularity of shows such as "Whose Line," which has helped introduce improv to mainstream America, not to mention "Saturday Night Live," whose lineup consists mainly of improvisational performers, is it any wonder the trio has high hopes for success?

"We want to be big stars," Bolton said, although her boisterous laughter deflated any pretense of egotism.

"I think it's really special all three of us were brought together. It was a gift from God," she said. "It's a really special working relationship we have. Our ultimate goal is to hang onto that and become the next 'Saturday Night Live' or 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' "