The quick and animated master of ceremonies, Jonathan Riley poses the question to his audience, "what is your favorite mythical creature?" A slew of inaudible responses are shouted forth. Somehow everyone hears "Oprah Winfrey," An improvisational comedy team is named. They will be competing against Kumquat.

This is just the beginning of the night and the audience's participation. This is competitive improvisational comedy delivered Improv Nation style. "We practice for three hours every Monday but none of it is actually planned other than the games that we're going to play," said Improv Nation president Travis Northup.

Two comedy teams wearing collared shirts and bright orange ties are brought against each other in competitions decided by the volume of the audiences' applause and directed by a Velcro ball that is thrown at big furry board.

At one point in the night the Velcro ball lands on a section of the fury board that indicates five laws will be passed. The orders come down from Northup, "We want Nick to product place Apple products in his scene." A humorous multi-player scene involving Apple products is spontaneously generated.

"We've done crazy events with a couple hundred people. We did a Zombie attack. A couple days ago we did a bunch of ninjas also a gag where a guy in a gorilla suit chased a guy in a banana suit," Northup said.

Any one can join. "We train you from where you don't have a clue and we train you gradually to the point where you're on stage," Northup said. "A friend brought me at the beginning of the semester and it was so much fun that I couldn't not go," member Mitchell Singer said about his indoctrination into the troop.

Next up for Improv Nation are plans to spawn and compete with other improvisational comedy teams from other schools, "a kind of United Improv Nations," as Northup puts it.