Troupe spitz comedy at UCI

A Southern California improv comedy troupe, Cherry Spitz, plans to perform for free at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Atlantis Lounge in the Campus Village Housing Community Center at UC Irvine, 1061 W. Peltason Drive.

“We are hungry,” said member Eric Wargo, “hungry to perform and hungry for food. They will be feeding us.”

Wargo is unemployed, but he and the other troupe members usually have regular jobs.

The group usually charges $5 at the door, and most of the earnings go toward furthering the troupe and supporting the theater, said Tim Gale, one of the group’s founders.

“Some are rough and just animals and wild beasts that have never been tamed,” Gale said referring to some of the troupe members, meaning they have never had formal comedic training. He also said that a month ago they performed and donated the proceeds, $4,000, to Haiti relief efforts.

“We do try to bill ourselves more as a comedy group,” said Wargo. “Improv is what got us all started. We dabbled in podcasts, and we’re working on some Internet sketches right now, so we’re trying to broaden our niche.”

The group came together in 2003 and started performing improv comedy in Anaheim. Although they’ve always performed in Southern California, if an opportunity came to travel they’d be all in, Wargo said.

“Our home is now the Found Theatre in Long Beach,” Gale said.

Cherry Spitz performs at the Found Theatre every other month, next on April 24.

It’s not PG-13 fun, but it’s OK for older families, Gale said.

He added that although it’s usually too dark to poke fun at the crowd, he’ll randomly yell at them.

“We try to make it a little bit different [each time],” Wargo said. “But generally, it’s us playing games and tailoring those games to meet that specific theme. We take suggestions from the audience sometimes, then improvise on them.”

“We’re different because we work so many things in and have different personalities,” Gale said.

There are seven members in the troupe, but there have been 12 to 13 since they started, and former members are always welcomed back, Wargo said.

“We have a saying,” he added. “‘Once you’re in Cherry Spitz you’re always in Cherry Spitz.’”