It’s a well-known fact that public speaking is one of the most common fears among humankind. Few people enjoy speaking in front of a crowd, and if you add the extra challenge of trying to make your audiences laugh—that’s nearly impossible for most people. Well, most people, except UT’s first and only improvisational comedy troupe Gigglepants and their vice president Nadia Khalid.
Established in 2002, Gigglepants is a troupe that specializes in “good, clean fun.” Their chief goal is to ensure their audience is having fun and enjoying themselves, and their audience spans not only the UT community, but the greater Austin community as well.
Advertising senior Nadia Khalid has been a part of Gigglepants for four years. She sat down with me earlier this week to discuss Gigglepants and the extraordinary influence it has had on her life.
Her Campus Texas: If you had to describe Gigglepants in your own words, how would you describe it?
Nadia Khalid: Well, I love it. Gigglepants is what we call short-form improvisation, which means we make it up on the spot. We usually play short games in front of an audience and rely on their participation throughout the show. We like to play naïve games, which make it obvious that we haven’t rehearsed our skits beforehand.
HC: How did you get involved with Gigglepants?
NK: I did a little bit of theater in high school and then got into improv my freshman year. When I came to UT, I searched “improv” in the clubs database and got the information about Gigglepants. The president emailed me back, I tried out, made it, and I’ve been involved ever since.
HC: You guys really emphasize the fact that your shows are clean and family friendly. How important is that aspect of this troupe to you?
NK: That’s really important to us, mainly because very few improv troupes emphasize this. I guess you could call that our “brand.” There’s a “referee” at every show that explains that it will be clean and makes sure it stays that way. It’s what makes these shows accessible to everyone in the community, so that people can bring their younger siblings and their grandparents, and everyone can feel comfortable.
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HC: What is your favorite moment from your time at Gigglepants?
NK: Our shows are “competition-style” which means we compete in teams for points, but the points don’t matter. One night, the competition was super intense—it usually isn’t but for some reason this night, it was. Garrett, one of our members, was playing a game where he had to guess a word. He kept trying but he couldn’t get it. The audience is tense, we’re all tense, because he keeps getting so close, but he can’t get it. And then he finally gets it, and we all start running around, through the audience, our hands in our hair, all excited, because he finally got it. It was definitely a bonding moment, and it reminded me of the most important part of this group.
HC: What is that?
NK: The most important thing is to have each other’s backs. I feel so privileged to get to do this. When am I going to get a chance to perform in front of 250 people with my best friends? And that’s the thing: We’re all best friends.
Before every show we all go around and pat each other on the back. Improv is all about being there for your team, even if they aren’t on your team that night. Because we have sixteen members and only eight perform each show, the other eight will sit in the audience and be our biggest fans– laughing and getting the audience up, helping out when a skit isn’t going the right way–it just gives me chills.
HC: What do you do as VP?
NK: I do a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff, [such as] funding, t-shirts, and collaborating with the captain as to how to run practice. Our captain runs the workshops. That’s the hard job [because] it’s teaching improv. I’m more on the game side; I like to teach the games, [like] what to do, what not to do, tips and tricks, the structural stuff. But we collaborate on everything.
HC: What are your future goals, and how has your time in Gigglepants influenced those goals?
NK: That is definitely something I’ve been thinking about with graduation approaching. I want to work in the advertising industry, and I think Gigglepants has taught me how to work well with people, [like] adjusting depending on the group you’re working with. It applies to work, internships, whatever. You have to adjust based on the people you’re working with. It [also] helped me become a better communicator. Improv is not just about verbal communication—it’s miming, and non-verbal communication too. Improv is a lot harder in the “real world.” My dream is to move to Chicago, get a “swanky” ad job and sneak my way into Second City Theater and maybe make it big. I know improv will always be a part of my life.
Gigglepants practices on Mondays and Thursdays and holds tryouts in the fall. Their shows are every other Friday at 7 p.m. in the CMA auditorium.