On April 5, the Immediate Gratification Players (IGP) presented their Player of the Year comedy improvisation event with Jason Mantzoukas. Each year, the IGP honors a famous comedian by inviting him or her to perform with the cast and receive a classic IGP striped tie. This tradition dates back to 2010 and has honored such comedians as Jeff Garlin and Keegan Michael Key. The event was highly anticipated, with posters all over campus, leading to a sold-out show of 500 people in the Science Center lecture hall venue.
The event began with the IGP members suddenly running onto the stage, waving their arms up and down and riling up the crowd. Mantzoukas, an actor and comedian known for his roles such as Nadal in The Dictator and Jay Bilzerian in Big Mouth, entered the stage after the IGP members flung open the large door closest to center stage. The crowd erupted in applause.
The IGP awarded Mantzoukas a red and yellow tie, signaling his status as an honorary member of the cast. The show followed a monologue style, in which Mantzoukas crafted a story based on a word from the audience, and the IGP cast performed improv based on it. The first word of the night was paella, a Spanish rice-based dish. Mantzoukas had never eaten it before and thought for some time before beginning his monologue.
Suddenly, Mantzoukas launched into a story about an occurrence in a posh New York City hotel, in which he woke up locked out of his room and wearing only underwear after a night out. A pair of unfortunate tourists from Germany saw Mantzoukas on his way to get another room key from the concierge. The concierge attempted to maintain a straight face but could not help but be amused. Mantzoukas finally incorporated paella at the end of his story rather randomly, saying it was a “long night, paella.” The audience laughed throughout, especially at the final line.
This story became the basis for several subsequent IGP member improv sequences. Highlights included a lady with a Southern accent who lived in Germany through a baby exchange program and witnessed Mantzoukas on his way to the concierge, a restaurant in which customers eat paella that makes their clothes magically disappear, and a health inspector checking that restaurant and being startled to not find hamburgers in the kitchen but rather crusty, old clothes.
After the word “paella” had run its course, audience members stayed on the topic of food, deciding the next word to be tofu. Mantzoukas lamented eating tofu in Miso soup, saying, “Here comes those little globs.” He then described what it was like going to restaurants and the experience of living in Boston during the 1980s. He would run into tough guys from Boston who would constantly injure each other and say, “Oh, so you think you’re better than me?” as a way to initiate fights.
Highlights from the IGP members’ tofu improv portion included an employee at a cheesesteak shop who got annoyed after a young customer was both allergic to dairy and a vegetarian, exhausting all of the store’s food options, and a lemonade stand that taught sex-ed to customers through subtle innuendos. Many of these scenes were set at restaurants, reflecting the tofu theme.
After those two highly entertaining improv sequences, Mantzoukas and the rest of IGP thanked the crowd and said farewell. After receiving a standing ovation, Mantzoukas and the IGP members ran out of the venue.
When asked how the show went, IGP member Jack Burton ’26 said he “thought it was a great show” and that he was “excited to have such a great audience and to sell out the show.” He also emphasized what a joy it was to work with Mantzoukas, saying that the IGP was excited to perform with someone at the “center of the improv world.”
How would an improv group prepare for a big night like this in the first place, given that their show is based entirely on spontaneity? Jack’s answer: practices twice a week.
Nicholas McQuilling ’27 (namcquilling@college.harvard.edu)needs a script to perform on stage.