Audiences at Alchemy Comedy Theater see their energy turned into comedy gold
In 2011, four Clemson alumni walked into a coffee shop. Greenvillians have been laughing ever since.
So, what’s so funny? You had to be there. No, seriously.
The Alchemy Comedy Theater, now permanently housed in an intimate space in the lower level of Coffee Underground, creates entertainment strictly in the moment, with sketches made up on the spot based on audience suggestions. The cast—having expanded to a rotating troupe of nearly 80 from the aforementioned quartet—puts on six performances a week, and it’s never the same show twice.
“We take the energy from the audience and turn it into comedy gold,” says Harrison Brookie, owner and executive director of Alchemy, a name deliberately chosen to evoke the medieval forerunner of chemistry that sought to transmute base metals into precious ore. “We’re creating something that is temporary and magical.”
Depending on what the crowd suggests, a scene might unfold with a firefighter debating geometry with a woman in a burning building. Or a knight in armor might try some jump-rope training. Or a talk-show host might interview a panel consisting of, say, a metallurgist, Mickey Mouse, and a human vacuum cleaner.
Brookie and the troupe’s other founding members—Ben Burris, Meg Pierson, and Jason Underwood—had all performed in the Clemson improv group Mock Turtle Soup before separately finding their ways back to Greenville.
“We got together and did some rehearsals for several months, trying to get back in the groove,” says Brookie, by day a social studies teacher at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. “And in the fall of 2011, we started doing weekly shows.”
Flagship Show at Alchemy Comedy Theater
Local Legends quickly became Alchemy’s flagship performance. On Friday nights, the troupe invites a different person to tell five brief stories from their lives. Performers then take over to turn those narratives into spontaneous scenarios that could wind up anywhere.
Well-known politicians, musicians, actors, and other Greenville celebrities have taken the stage, but for Alchemy, good stories can come from anywhere: recent Local Legends have included a marketing consultant, a paranormal investigator, and Dr. Scott Donaldson, the “Vasectomy King.”
Soon after its founding, Alchemy began offering improv classes. At first occasionally renting spaces in the Hughes Main Library downtown, the group eventually moved to larger spaces, where thousands of students have studied the craft over the years. The theater also offers workshops and shows to area businesses, emphasizing the benefits of active listening, support, and laughter.
“I think there’s a sense of, ‘Oh, I will take improv because I’m going to be good at it,’” says Brookie. “But everyone’s bad at it. Because there are skills to learn, and there’s a process of learning the skills.”
Learning Improv
Improv 101 introduces the basics of improvising a scene, stressing the fundamentals of agreement, relationship, character, and environment. Students can proceed through Improv 201, 301, and 401 to get a chance to audition for one of Alchemy’s main-stage performing teams. But many find that the classwork can be an asset even after they leave the theater—including the Golden Rule of improv, the “Yes, And…” principle of accepting and adding upon the reality established by a scene partner.
“Improv teaches you some things about life in general that surprise you,” says Lisa Marie Corley, who went through the Alchemy curriculum while working as a graphic designer for Prisma Health. “It teaches you to be supportive of other people. You learn to lift everybody up on your team, or in a family, or in a set of friends.”
Students may have little previous performing experience, like Roger Stone, Harvard MBA and vice president of the Minority Sales Corporation, whose pre-Alchemy stage experience consisted of playing a rabbit in a community theater production at age 12.
“Personally and professionally, you’re pushing yourself to be a little bit out of your comfort zone,” says Stone, an Improv 101 alumnus whose curiosity was sparked by a Wall Street Journal article on the trend of MBA programs encouraging students to study improv.
“It’s great for thinking on your feet, being supportive, and finding a positive spin on everything,” says Alchemy instructor Lucy Conaway. “And it’s just fun to have a group of people that you can be on the same page with while being from different backgrounds and different careers. For me, it’s like a second family.”
Upcoming shows
Aug. 8
Laugh Track: Improvised TV Channel Surfing, 7:30-8:30pm
House Party: Local Improv Teams, 9-10pm
Aug. 9
Local Legends, 9-10:15pm
Aug. 10
Improv 000: Open Practice, 4:30-6:30pm
Improv All-Stars: Interactive, Clean Comedy Games, 7:30-8:45pm
At Alchemy Comedy Theater, below Coffee Underground at 1 E. Coffee St., Greenville. Visit alchemycomedy.com for more information.
