Improv Q&A: Ella Guikema

1. What bug are you?

“I’m a monarch butterfly.”

2. What is your favorite improv game?

“It’s this game called Pockets, but it’s Pockets plus Last Line. So, basically how its played is there are three two-person scenes going on, and they’re all completely separate from one another. Then everyone also has pockets full of audience suggestions so they’re random things that you don’t know what they’re gonna be since they’re folded in half. Then, you do your two-person scenes, and then you clap, and then you take the last word from the other scene. Sorry, it’s really hard to explain, but if people see the show, they’ll understand it.”

3. Tell me a story…

“In choir, we all had to say one specific thing about ourselves as an introductory thing and so all of us improv people, like almost the entire improv team, are in choir. So we were all in the front row, so its like ‘hi, my name is Ella, and I have an improv show,’ and we would all pitch it. Every single one of us pitched it in the front row, and by the last person, everyone was like you got to be kidding me.”

4. Why does the show start at 7:33? Why not 7:32? Or 7:34?

“It’s literally just stupid; there’s no rhyme or reason. I think we were all like ‘yeah! 7:33!’” 

5. If you were a fast food chain, what would you be and why?

“I would be Qdoba.”

6. What is your favorite Minecraft block?

“Isn’t there one with stone and then diamond? Diamond ore? Yeah, I’d be that one.”

7. Why did you decide to join improv?

“It’s also part of our theater program at our school, and I really liked the theatre program, so I’m like ‘I want to try that.’ Breezy Rusher put my name on the tryout list, and I didn’t take it off. So, I’m like ‘I’m gonna go out of my comfort zone and have some fun.’ After auditions, I was like ‘yeah, that was fun, I see, I get it.'”

8. Give us your best car salesmen pitch for improv.

“Stop by now! 7:33 at the Fine Arts Center, come see a fantastic show you won’t want to miss it. 11 people and plenty of shenanigans! That’s it! Come see the improv show!”