By Jessie Gambrell

A&E Co-Editor
Sophomore Nicole Ignell started “improvising” with the CSUSM Improv team fall of 2011, but only just started to actively participate in the shows last semester.
Ignell was advised by Improv leader, Aaron Chase Molina-Milbourne to join the Improv team after she expressed wanting to get involved in a theater program. The Cougar Chronicle sat down with Ignell to talk about how improv has been influential in her life.

Question: How has being involved in the Improv team affected your life?
Answer: We are all super close; we hang out outside of Improv all the time. Mondays and Tuesdays (when the Improv Team meets) are the highlights of my week. They are my second family, I mean I base and plan everything around Improv. I definitely feel like I’m in it for the long run, I love it.

Q: How else are you involved on the campus?
A: Well I am changing my major to criminology with a minor in mass media. Plus I just joined (AOII) Alpha Omega Pi. Our mission is to help find the cure for women’s arthritis; we just had our “Pie a AOII” event to raise money for our cause.

Q: What is your favorite skit you preform?
A: Expert Challenge, where you have two teams and a person from one of the teams starts to talk about a subject, then someone from the other team can step forward and call that person’s bluff (Sort of like the game Malarky).
Q: Do you see yourself doing improv as a career?
A: I thought about it as a career path, but it’s more of a stress-reliever for me right now. I had done improv in high school, but never stand-up comedy. I had originally joined this group because I wanted to get involved in the theater.

CSUSM Improv’s next show is 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26 at Arts 111, (more “adult” show following afterword around 8:30 p.m.).