I’ll be up front right here; I am not a comedian. If you  ask anyone who knows me about my sense of humor, they would say that it extends from dad jokes to obscure references that no one except me understands. All of this is to say that I am very impressed whenever comedians can make me laugh and genuinely have a good time.

Enter We Brake For Nobody, Bucknell’s student improv group. With its range of highly talented student performers, We Brake’s improv shows never disappoint, and their latest show on Jan. 26th was no exception. At each show, the group plays several improv games and exercises to showcase the students’ skills in creating outlandish and hilarious scenarios. 

In their latest show, the group played eight games: Ding, 10 10 10, Agatha, Press Conference, Three’s Co, Split Screen, Demon Brothers and Sounds Like a Song from a Show. 

In Ding, three people performed a scene while one person was allowed to say “ding” whenever they wanted to, forcing one of the three performers to alter the line they just said, leading to a very hilarious conversation in a Denny’s. In 10 10 10, one set of performers performs a scene and then describes it to the next set using ten words, and then they have to describe it to a third set of performers using ten syllables, leading to three interesting scenes at a car wash. Another highlight was Split Screen, a game where two pairs of performers perform a situation in parallel; during the course of this game, the four performers managed to convey the highly intriguing saga of Drew (John?) from the Property Brothers. 

Clearly, I can see that improv is a skill that might be easy to get good at but hard to master. It was also evident that the group had  great camaraderie and friendship with each other, which may have been my favorite part of the show: watching a group of friends laughing and having fun together on stage. 

When talking about her experiences in We Brake For Nobody, Bella Dragone ’24 said that it has been “…incredible. My affinity for Bucknell is largely a result of my 4ish years with We Brake. The people I’ve met and (questionable) skills I’ve gained are invaluable and I wouldn’t be me without it.”

I think that these experiences are an important part of being in any performance group. These experiences are what allow performers to grow, bond, and improve their craft together and this has been evident in every We Brake show that I have gone to. With every performance the comedy has gotten stronger, the situations more ridiculous and the games more entertaining. 

“My experience in We Brake has been nothing but a joy. I have always considered We Brake to be an escape from each day, so it’s always been a wonderful part of my performing life,” said Ryan Hill ’24.

Definitely look for more We Brake For Nobody shows this semester. Their next event is a joint Valentine’s Day show with Two Past Midnight in February.  

“College improv is truly a unique and niche space,” Dragone said. “I appreciate all the fans we have now and encourage anyone who’s interested to check us out… even if you don’t like us, at the very least you can say you know you dislike college improv from experience!”