From left to right, freshmen members of Duke University Improv Savanna Hershman and Susan Lang pose.
I was sitting on a plastic couch in Southgate dorm. Savanna Hershman and Susan Lang, the only female members of the popular improv group, DUI, were bantering back and forth. I was entranced by their snappy one-liners, clever comments, and bright personalities.
On some college campuses, the improv group may not be the “coolest” group on campus. But at Duke, Duke University Improv (DUI) is the most buzzed about group on campus. Their shows attract huge crowds of people, especially on Parents’ Weekend and Blue Devil Days. A collection of witty, sarcastic, and hilarious individuals, DUI creates performances consisting of “random” scenes, interactions, and games. Of the 10 DUI members, freshmen Susan and Savanna are the only women in the group.
Susan is a Pratt student from Los Alto, CA. She is involved in Duke Band, sorority Kappa Alpha Theta, and Mire Court—it’s miraculous that she even sleeps. As Susan jokes about spending nights in Perkins and questioning her academic decisions, I can see why she was chosen for DUI. She is quietly sweet, yet blunt and bitingly sarcastic.
“Everyone has different styles of humor,” Susan said. “Some members have complete meltdowns on stage, and they’re so funny, but I can’t do that. I do sweet and innocent.”
Savanna is a Trinity freshman from Cleveland, Ohio, tentatively majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Religion. Savanna is confident and at ease—a natural performer. In addition to DUI, she is involved with Ubuntu, PWild, and a rugby team outside of Duke.
“[Savanna] is such a girly girl but is usually covered in bruises on any given day,” Susan said.
The two have an easy rapport, exchanging funny stories and witty one-liners for at least ten minutes between interview questions. As the interviewer, I am like a fly on the wall, watching and listening to the two women who have been branded “funny” by the entire Duke community.
Everyone always asks the two girls if they think that they are funny, probably anticipating an arrogant response from the only two women in one of Duke’s most popular groups. The girls are often barraged with the question, “Do you think you’re funny?” But, Susan admits she that didn’t even know she wanted to be in DUI—that she didn’t even know if she was funny.
“Part of the reason that I tried out was to see if I was funny or not,” Susan said. “I actually wrote that on my audition sheet.”
To me, being funny is so elusive and vague; however, Susan and Savanna insist that people can get better at it.
“We don’t practice what we’re going to say, but there are different approaches to different games, and sometimes we pull an aspect out of a game, like the beginning or the end, and we’ll practice that over and over,” Susan said.
And Savanna agreed.
“You can get better at being funny,” Savanna said.
“At the beginning of the year, I would have had an opinion about who was the funniest but now I don’t,” Susan said.
“Everyone is funny in different ways,” Savanna said. “Everyone complements one another. When [senior DUI members] John Wilkins and Devon Cottle do a scene together, it’s like they have the same brain.”
Susan stresses the importance of different styles of humor for an improv group.
“I’m afraid to do scenes with people that have a similar style of humor [to mine], like Savanna,” Susan said. “We’re both really sarcastic.”
However, Savanna believes that you can develop and change your style of humor so that you can do scenes with just about anyone.
“Most of DUI tries to do different characters during the year to get better,” Savanna said.
As the only women in the group, Susan and Savanna receive an inordinate amount of attention.
“We’ll go to parties, and people will yell at us, ‘Do something funny!’” Susan said. “People will actually come up to us and try to do improv. Like a guy came up to me and said ‘Um, excuse me miss, I want to take out a loan.’ He looked so expectant and excited.”
Amidst jokes that DUI has to fill a “quota” of two girls every four years, Savanna and Susan insist that the guys in DUI are like their big brothers and their family.
“In the beginning, they were very cognizant of trying to not make us feel awkward,” Savanna said. “The first day we got in, we got a text from [junior member of DUI] Keegan Cotton that said, ‘Welcome to the group, if you need anything just ask.’ They are definitely like our family.” Savanna says.
“It’s definitely the best thing that has happened to me at Duke, I never would have imagined this being my life,” Susan said.