Meet our campus celeb for this week, Clint Cannon! He’s from Ballwin, Missouri, and is a senior majoring in English and communication. He’s also the captain of Mizzou’s Comedy Wars, an improv group on campus. We caught up with Clint to ask him a few questions.
Her Campus Mizzou: What is Comedy Wars?
Clint Cannon: Comedy Wars is Mizzou’s shortform improv troupe. We’ve been doing shows every Wednesday at 9:30 in Bengal Lair for 15 years.
HCM: How did you get involved with Comedy Wars, and how long have you been with them?
CC: I auditioned for Comedy Wars in September of my freshman year and made the team that February, so I’ve been performing since then… so about three years. I heard about comedy wars because I did improv in high school, and I had some friends that came to Mizzou before me, and they just told me about it. They also told me about MU Improv and so, when I got involved with one, I heard about auditions for the other and now, here I am.
HCM: Have you ever had an embarrassing or especially memorable moment during a Comedy Wars show?
CC: I think I embarrass myself a lot every week, so that’s really tough. I say a lot of dumb things, a lot of things that are probably overly sexual, but that’s just what I think is funny, and so sometimes I cross the line. But one time that was especially embarrassing for me was we were playing Home Shopping Network, which is a game where you have to guess the clue based on miming, and it took me probably 10 actual minutes to guess the word “tinsel,” and everyone was ashamed of me on the team, but I couldn’t get “tinsel” in 10 minutes.
HCM: Do you guys perform anywhere else besides Wednesday nights at the Bengal Lair?
CC: We perform for a lot of charity organizations on campus — pretty much anyone that asks us to perform, we will. We also do workshops with local businesses and with Greek chapters, so pretty much wherever you want and ask us to be, we’ll go, but we have no regular shows outside of Wednesdays.
HCM: How would a student looking to get involved in Comedy Wars do so?
CC: The best way to get involved in Comedy Wars is to just come talk to one of us after the show. We only have auditions once a year right now, which are in September, so that’s the only time to get on the team, but if you want to get involved in Comedy Wars, you probably just like doing comedy, and we know all the comedy organizations on campus, so just come talk to us and we’ll get you involved.
HCM: Are you involved in any other organizations here on campus?
CC: I am. I’m a member of Department of Student Activities. I do events for them, and I’m a part of MU Improv – I’m the vice president of that.