The latest Peapod show on Nov. 2, entitled Magic Mike and the Hot Topic, featured the squad’s newest members, Kush Natani and Sofia Shelley. To celebrate this show, The Scarlet interviewed Kush to learn more about him and Peapod as a whole.
Kush Natani is a freshman intending to double major in Interactive Media and Marketing from Bangkok, Thailand, the only international student currently on Peapod. Kush has extensive experience in both theater and improv, having been involved in theater for seven years, starting when he was in middle school. This is not his first improv rodeo as he was the president of the improv club at his high school his senior year, but he admits that the club was not super serious, so being a part of the Peapod Squad is a whole new experience.
Kush described the Peapod audition process as “pretty straightforward.” Before the official audition, the squad held a workshop which Kush attended. He explains that the audition was very similar to the workshop for example, in both they played improv games. Kush recalls the squad telling them, “You have to use CROL.” Standing for character, relation, object, and location, “basically when you establish those four things in a scene, that’s how you get the plot moving…” He then explained that after they were taught CROL they played improv games, “and they just judged us on that merit.” After auditions came callbacks, where only six of the twelve people who auditioned were called back, “and then two of us got in, me and Sophia Shelley.”
“It’s fun. It’s a massive time commitment. It’s about six hours a week,” Kush says when asked about his experience being part of Peapod so far. But for him, the time commitment isn’t a problem, “considering I’m not part of too many clubs… it’s not that big of a deal.” Kush goes on to say that some of the other members have a lot more on their plate, but he is glad that they still make time to have fun in Peapod. “I’m finding it enjoyable. They’re really funny people…people I would be friends with outside of Peapod.”
Kush says that he has found a connection with the other members which makes being a part of the club a wonderful experience. Kush ended the interview by asking readers to keep in mind that improv is hard. “We’re not doing this just to show off the fact that we’re funny people, it’s to show off that we have this love for comedy, we have this love for theater and combining it into improv comedy and presenting it to the entire school is something that we’re very proud of.” He also encouraged people to come to see their upcoming end-of-semester show, which as Kush says is always a “good time.”
