Last Friday night, my girlfriend and I wanted to go on a date. With the craziness of the semester starting again we didn’t have a lot of time together, so we decided to switch it up from the half-watched Netflix movie and actually went out. We looked around online and decided to go to an improv comedy show featured in Buffalo. We found one on Main Street called Comedy Sportz which is Buffalos longest-running improv comedy show. Well, with nothing else to do, we booked the tickets, and prepared for an interesting night. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

Firstly, it is important to mention how affordable tickets are for ComedySportz. Student tickets are only $9 and the show runs for 105 minutes, a great deal if you ask me. We drove for about 15 minutes down Main Street until we arrived at the outskirts of Amherst. We pulled into a parking lot and proceeded down a set of steps. The show starts at 7:30, with will call tickets open at 7:00, as we had reserved tickets already, we simply had to give them my name. Seats are assigned and we walked into this literal arena. There was a stage with stadium style seats on either side. We noticed that the audience was populated with children, an interesting sight that left me with mixed feelings initially. The show began with the referee explaining how things worked, the two teams, the Red Hot Wingz, wearing a red jersey, and the Blue Cheezez, wearing the blue jerseys, would play various improv games and try to score as many points as possible to win. Fans throughout the performance would call out clean suggestions to the actors. If someone said something inappropriate, the referee would call a brown bag foul, and that audience member would have to wear a brown bag of shame over their face for the duration of the session.

The show was a little dry at first, but that was not due to the lack of talent of these actors. They are very intelligent and quick witted, and the fact that they can think of something based on an improv suggestion right away is truly amazing. Once, my girlfriend and I got into it, the show was actually pretty funny. Some of the jokes were a little childish, however, the occasional political joke went right over the kid’s heads, but I found them to be hilarious. There was an intermission for the actors to take a rest, and a chance for people to buy snacks, from a substantial snack bar and a chance to stretch your legs. Then the show resumed. By the end of it we were quite enthused and already mutually agreed to return to a show. They have an afterhours show on Saturdays that starts at 9:30 and is for adults only. They also have a 49-hour comedy show in March that features 25 consecutive shows for only 35$, if you have that kind of time to kill.

Overall it was a very successful date night, and a nice change of pace. If you enjoy standup comedy, improv, or just looking for something different to do on a Friday night, check out Comedy Sportz Buffalo.