8th Floor Improv will celebrate its 20th anniversary at its annual alumni show on Saturday. Credit: Aiden Burkholder
On Saturday, 8th Floor Improv will invite back its club alumni to perform with current members at the Ohio Union’s U.S. Bank Conference Theater at 7 p.m.
For over 10 years, 8th Floor Improv has invited previous club members to return for a reunion and comedy show. This year’s theater venue was selected in anticipation of a large turnout for the club’s 20th anniversary, said Aiden Burkholder, 8th Floor president and fourth-year in chemistry.
“I love the alumni guys’ sense of humor and how excited they are to perform improv again with 8th Floor and how that excitement translates to a really sort of intense, fast-paced, really fun show,” Burkholder said. “If you only got to see one 8th Floor show, this is definitely one of the ones to see.”
Matthew Starr, a 2010 Ohio State alum and a former associate director for 8th Floor, said coming back to perform with the improv group is an extremely special opportunity.
“It’s the 20-year anniversary of the group being founded, and it seemed like a special occasion, and it affected me a lot when I was at Ohio State and has affected my life a lot since then,” Starr, who is now a professional comedian and writer, said. “It felt like the right time to come back.”
In accordance with the club’s values, the show will include both experienced performers — including participating alums — and new members. Burkholder said the seasoned alumni performers will be exposed to how the club’s comedic style has changed since their time as students, ensuring participants of all skill levels will be able to learn and grow from the performance.
“It’s cool to see how the style of comedy for 8th Floor has evolved over the years,” Burkholder said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, you were in the club 15 years ago, and you’re going to perform. How do you remember 8th Floor being 15 years ago?’ And as a current member, I’m going to perform how 8th Floor is doing humor now, and it’s cool to get that intermingling [of] styles and sort of senses of humor.”
Starr said seeing new members just starting to explore comedy can be refreshing for alumni deep in their careers.
“It’s really interesting,” Starr said. “As somebody who has continued on with comedy and who has performed at a number of levels, it’s really exciting to meet people who are at the beginning of their journey and the people who are as excited about it as I was.”
8th Floor is a group that will always be a launching point for fresh comedic talent, Starr said. The group invites a sense of belonging that is still palpable when he returns for these annual shows.
“8th Floor was the first time I felt like there were other people who were interested in things that I was interested in. I loved comedy and then I met a whole other bunch of people who loved comedy too,” Starr said. “I actually ended up moving to New York City with people from 8th Floor, and we all stayed in a comedy theater here in New York called the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, and 8th Floor exposed me to a lot of other comedy that has since formed my life.”
For current members, alumni offer a valuable glimpse into what an amateur or even professional comedy career can look like after graduation, Burkholder said.
“We have a couple of alumni who are coming back who’ve gone on to become professional standup comedians, or professional improvisers in Chicago, or working as special comedy writers for TV shows or movies or things like that,” Burkholder said. “So, we have a lot of very skilled alumni in comedy, which is always really cool to see how 8th Floor was a launching point for them to sort of continue in this career.”
The show provides a prime opportunity for 8th Floor to shake up its typical performances because it allows for a vast range of comedic styles from over the years to collide, Burkholder said.
“When you’re going to practice with the same group of people for a long time to just sort of fall into a rhythm of this is how it always goes,” Burkholder said. “It’s really cool to introduce alumni as an element to show you and teach you that, ‘Hey, it doesn’t always have to be like that, this is what we used to do and it’s still very possible to do on jokes of this style or use humor of this nature.’ One of the big things that I learned from the alumni in my first show was that you should never be taking it too seriously. The rules are not rules.”
Whether student or alum, Starr said assembling this show always reminds 8th Floor of its members’ mutual love for making people laugh.
“It’s funny, comedy nerds are kind of a constant throughout time and I’m kind of excited to see what ‘s different, things that have happened, things that I think people are always excited about,” Starr said.
The 8th Floor Improv alumni show will be held at the Ohio Union’s U.S. Bank Conference Theater Saturday at 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Admission to the show is free.
