Microbiology junior Aaron Conrado tickles people’s funnybones during the OU Comedy Fight Night. photo by KINGSLEY BURNS

Norman — If laughter is the best medicine, the University of Oklahoma has a cure. OU has some pretty funny cats who are not afraid to get on a stage and perfect their funny man chops.

Kyle Bradford, theater junior, and Michelle Borror, English junior, are both part of “Obviously Unrehearsed”, otherwise known as OU Improv!. Bradford, who has worked with improv troupes from Plano, Texas, and Dallas over the past few years, and Borror, who was never involved in organized groups until attending OU, can now be seen once a month putting on free shows in Oklahoma Memorial Union as well as at improv festivals in other states. Traveling perks aside, what attracts a person to the unpredictable world of improv is just that — its unpredictability and variety.

“I love character work [and] being able to make up a character on the spot who can have different accents or different mannerisms,” Borror says. “You can make up this whole history about this person you just created.”

Borror finds the same appeal in improv comedy.

“What I like most about it is it’s a chance for me to completely create something that I’m not, and be it while I’m on stage,” Bradford says. “In real life, I can’t be, like, a pirate, but if I felt like being a pirate on stage, there I go.”

Bradford believes there is a big difference between improv comedy and theater productions. He relates acting in a play to training himself to be able to portray emotion in each show, but he says improv obviously isn’t about practice or rehearsal.

“Whatever comes out, comes out,” Bradford says. “So it’s a little more natural and a little less trained.”

Far from being a one-trick pony, OU has more than just improv in it’s table of comedy offerings. The Union Programming Board put on a “Comedy Fight Night” in November that pitted student stand-up comedians against each other in a not-so-deadly fight to find the funniest person on campus.

Turns out, that person is fifth-year energy management senior Matt Schoetz.

Schoetz, who was only able to get into stand-up after putting aside the fear of performing in front of a crowd, is relatively new to comedy. Eventually, he was able to calm his nerves and pick up a mic, and since his first performance, he has started performing more and more often.

“I did it and it was fun, and I just kept doing it” Schoetz says. “It’s just like my dream. Some people want to be astronauts and all that; I just want to be a stand-up comedian.”

Despite his dream, this victory and the allure of fame that is associated with stand-up now, Schoetz’s comedy agenda remains simple.

“My little hope is that it’s fun, and I just have fun doing it,” Schoetz says. “I think the win here at OU is about as far as it’s going to go."