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“The idea here is that you can take any idea, give it no limits, and produce something that is awesome.”

MIT prides itself on providing its students with an environment that encourages new thinking and nurtures innovative output, but in this instance Evan Denmark ‘17 was referring to something other than his Course 6-3 education: improv.
 
Roadkill Buffet (RKB) is an MIT club that performs comedic improvisation. It is a space where its members face demands to think quickly and creatively, promoting mental agility and flexibility with its real-time training during live performances.
 
These qualities are not unrelated to the classroom or lab but have merit applicable to domains beyond the stage. “[RKB] has allowed me to think outside the box and given me the ability to explode an idea into something very different than what people would see on the surface,” said Denmark.
 
Improvisation was a novel activity for Denmark when he first came to MIT; he had never even seen it previously done. Denmark stumbled upon a RKB performance during CPW, found it hilarious, and decided to audition for the student group the fall of his matriculation. “In high school, I did a lot of musical theatre, which really allowed me to explore the world of performing arts,” said Denmark. “Coming to MIT, I really wanted to experiment with everything I could in terms of performing arts.” Now as a junior Denmark holds the title of club President, or, to be official in RKB language, he is Butros Butros Dictator of Roadkill Buffet.
 
Denmark articulated how improv works, getting its prompts from unpredictable audience participation. “If someone shouts out, ‘Dubai!’ our scene doesn’t necessarily need to be about Dubai. The idea is that Dubai is just a stimulator for our ideas. So in my mind I think, ‘Dubai. Tall buildings. Big windows. Hmm…’ I start off the scene where I am a window washer who specializes in windows above 10,000 feet. Now that seems totally ridiculous, but that is where the comedic aspect comes in. Taking things to extremes makes things more ironic, and thus, makes them funnier.”
 
The practice this requires has trained Denmark on adaptability and being comfortable in dynamic environments where a situation’s evolution is unknown. “I have to be able to play a role and deal with anything [the audience] gives me,” he said. “I have seen this directly correlate to many situations in my life. If something doesn’t go my way, I have to deal with it an adapt.”
 
Denmark wants to continue doing improv and other performing arts after graduation. This passion is even tied to his career goals; he is interested in photography, videography, computer graphics, animation, and special effects. “I definitely want to end up in the field of entertainment, hopefully in the movie industry as an entertainment artist or software engineer.”
 
When the next film with innovative and epic special effects debuts, perhaps we will see Denmark’s name on the credit roll.