Mission Improvable, Cal High’s improv team, has been gaining popularity this year.

 This isn’t a surprise since they’re absolutely hilarious and they  use their incredible energy to own the stage every time.

“Improv getting big had a lot to do with the team being more of a family,” said senior captain Danaka Katovich. “When people work well together, they attract more people to what they do.”

Mission Improvable has been described as family, incredible, quirky, trustworthy and warm by the members of the team.

“Improv helped me get close to people,” said junior Haley Horton. “It got me more confident. The team is incredible.”

This year, the team really has become a tight-knit family. 

While watching an improv show, one can tell how they all love each other based on the way they connect and bond on stage. They’re each other’s number one fans. Whenever someone is performing, every single one of them is closely watching and laughing their heads off.

When asked about their favorite thing about improv, almost everyone said it had something to do with the people on the team. 

“The improv team is always fun to be around because they’re all so talented and funny,” said Katovich. “Everyone has their own unique personalities.”

“I like how they’re [the improv team] all very accepting and loving,” added teammate, senior Justin Decosta.

The team consists of 11 comedic geniuses. 

They include seniors Katovich, Decosta, Noah Meyer and Colton Rettig, juniors Horton, Jillian Weber, Kevin Sablinsky, Cameron Harris, sophomore Zoe Whitaker, Claire O’Connor, and Kaden Khweled. 

The team’s adviser is history teacher Hannah Cheng.

“You can’t have good improv without a solid foundation of pure friendship with your teammates,” Whitaker said. “Some of us are closer than others but no matter what, no one is alone on the team.”

Since all of their performances are made up on the spot, there  are some embarrassing moments. These moments include getting pushed into the ground as Horton did during rehearsal, and saying, “DVC”, instead of “DMV”  as Decosta also did during rehearsal. 

Once, their scene ended up in Bulgaria, but none of them had any idea on how to speak in Bulgarian accents. 

Whitaker panicked so she created her own foreign accent and talked about goats because she assumed that Bulgaria had a lot of goats.

In order to put on impressive shows, they have a lot of practice. 

Since every individual on the team have quirky and energetic personalities, it can be hard to get everyone’s attention to complete the necessary preparation work.

During practices, their activities range from bonding to planning shows and practicing games or scenes.

On their relaxed bonding days, the team enjoy hanging out and laughing together. They’ll also do trust exercises and warm-up games.

During their work-filled days, they’ll discuss their next show and practice their planned games and scenes. 

They figure out what they need to work on more by going through pros and cons of their previous shows.

 If two people don’t normally act together, they’ll practice scenes together to create that chemistry that they all have with each other on stage.

Before shows, such as the last ones in early December, members of the team play warm up games such as Bunny Bunny, Whoosh, Three Things, and Thunderdome. 

“These are really just to get our energy up and to get us to have good instincts and quick responses,” Whitaker said. “We also like to just combine all of the games which is super fun to get us quick on our feet.”

The team also does a variety of trust exercises. Sometimes, they’ll go around saying, “I trust you,” or “I support you,” just to keep their unbreakable bond. 

Other times they’ll have deep conversations and tell each other why they appreciate them and why they’re amazing at improv.

They like to make fun of their mistakes and use up all of their excitement and energy from performing.

One of their fun traditions is going to IHop after every show to bond. 

Another tradition practiced is giving out prizes at every show. It’s their way of incorporating the audience into their shows. 

They ask the crowd for inspiration for their scenes and hand them prizes if they participate. This is a brilliant way to achieve an engaging audience.

Their biggest tradition would have to be their nicknames. 

Every single year, the improv team makes up unique nicknames for each person on their team.

Mission Improvable has proved to be one of the funniest groups on campus.