MUNCIE, Ind. — Ball State’s Improv Comedy Club Absolunacy hosted an annual comedy festival called Chirp Up. Five colleges from the Midwest came to Ball State to improve their craft in improv comedy.

Comedy brings smiles and laughter. Dozens of future comedians at the Chirp Up festival are finding their funny bone and improving their improv skills in workshops on Ball State’s campus. Katie Kincaid, a comedian based in Chicago, runs one of the workshops. Katie explained the exercise that would help the students.

“So the workshop that I put on today for the groups was a workshop that I named. Why are the lights up at this moment? So with my improv troupe in Chicago, we focus on the relationships of people within scenes,” said Kincaid.

The improv comedy club co-president Ivy Nugent took Kincaid’s workshop and explained what she learned. 

“It was my favorite workshop that we did. I think that developing relationships with like you’re other people that you’re performing with is like one of the most important things when it comes to improv,” said Nugent.

Kincaid was an instructor. But she was in the same seats as these inspiring comedians in college.

“Yeah. Doing these workshops did bring back some good memories because I remember being a part of, I think, one of my years with ABSO we put on the first festival,” Kincaid said.

Kincaid was also part of the ABSO Improv Comedy Club when she attended Ball State.

“I auditioned the next year, and I got in after that. Then, I was part of ABSO. So, for three years, it was a hugely formative experience for me. I made some of my closest friendships in college, and ABSO kind of opened the door for me to what I ultimately really wanted to do, which is pursue comedy,” said Kincaid.

Kincaid is in Chicago, pursuing her dreams of being a comedian. After the workshops, they performed at Pruis Hall in front of an audience. This is a yearly event and will be back next year.

Contact Daniel Hochstetler with comments at daniel.hochstetler@bsu.edu.

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