Comedy review: The Improv Centre discovers intergalactic laughs in Exploration Blank
Guided by audience suggestions, the ensemble explores strange—and hilarious—new worlds in the space-themed show
Exploration Blank’s Maddy Rafter and Will Vaughan
The Improv Centre presents Exploration Blank to June 27
GET READY TO embark on a space expedition fuelled by cosmic-level laughs. The Improv Centre’s latest adventure, Exploration Blank, launches audiences aboard a spaceship bound for alien encounters, strange new worlds, and the kind of playful chaos that you can always count on these improv-comedy pros to deliver.
Created by artistic director Alan Pavlakovic, Exploration Blank is a lively exercise in controlled mayhem. While the production follows a structure, riffing on Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and other sci-fi shows, the specifics are shaped by audience suggestions—prompted, naturally, by the cast. Improv games and rotating performers ensure no two performances are alike, reinforcing improv’s core appeal: unpredictability.
One element that will likely remain consistent from performance to performance is the introduction of the characters. After all, when boarding a space vessel, it only makes sense to meet your crew. Before the journey begins, the audience also gets to assign each character a quirky trait or defining detail. At the performance Stir attended, Jalen Saip—our Captain Jalen—led the mission, with one notable gap in her life: she had never been on a first date.
Next came Assistant Captain Beverly (Meaghan Hommy), eager to take command but continually held back in her career due to the rollerblading habit she developed in pilot school. The crew’s mental health is in the hands of Counsellor Lloyd (Cameron Grant), who is part human, part squirrel. Security Officer Kip (Will Vaughan) isn’t scared of anything on Earth; however, in space, he’s scared of his own thoughts. And Pilot Ford F-150 (Emily Schoen) is in love with Captain Jalen.
With introductions complete, the adventure began. On their first mission—prompted by an audience suggestion—Ford F-150 and Kip were tasked with retrieving cheese from a mysterious planet. The pair immediately met an alien, embodied by Grant and Hommy. Harkening back to an old Theatresports game, Grant and Hommy had the challenge of speaking in unison. This resulted in the alien informing Ford F-150 and Kip that they had landed on planet Mighty Cheese, and that before they could take any cheese, they would have to perform a dance.
Ready on cue, tech crew Brendan Kelly and Neil Battle played George Michael’s “Careless Whisper”, and Ford F-150 and Kip dutifully started grooving, with Kip leaning into seductive dance moves.
At the next stop, Ford F-150 and Kip had to assist the planet’s inhabitants with a crisis—which again, thanks to an audience suggestion—was to help eat spaghetti. However, due to the planet’s extreme gravity, they needed the help of a “robot”, i.e. an audience member. The brave volunteer, dubbed Laura 2000, aptly took on the task of positioning Ford F-150 and Kip’s limbs to allow them to help eat the planet’s overabundance of pasta, ultimately delighting Grant and Hommy’s Italian-inspired aliens.
At another moment, the cast cleverly weaved in a game of What Am I Doing? as part of a mission to pacify a hostile alien intruder. Captain Jalen was tasked with appeasing the alien by successfully honouring the intruder’s ceremonial traditions. To do this, Captain Jalen had to guess three hobbies (which had been determined by audience suggestions when she wasn’t in the room) through charades performed by the other actors. This sparked a hugely interactive moment, as audience members voiced their encouragement or winced whenever Captain Jalen missed the mark. At this performance, “horse feeding” proved to be overly tricky to guess, but the alien intruder was kind enough to deem Captain Jalen’s efforts close enough.
The most riotous moment was what’s known as a Rashomon-style improv game, where the same incident is enacted according to a different character’s recollection, with each telling escalating in absurdity. The incident here was Captain Jalen’s recollection of microwaving fish, causing an unpleasant smell aboard the ship. However, this wasn’t quite how the others remembered the incident, as shown in the reenactments. By the time the incident played out a third time, it had spiralled into a wild scene involving Captain Jalen forcefully shoving her crewmates aside to cram a live sturgeon into the microwave.
Amid all this comedic chaos, the cast also managed to build character arcs and include tender moments. For example, Captain Jalen finally got her first date. And Counsellor Lloyd reunited with his squirrel family in Stanley Park. This blend of charming comedy, audience engagement, and humanistic storytelling is what makes the Improv Centre truly special.
Evident in Exploration Blank is its sense of ease. Despite the constant influx of audience input, the structure feels sturdy enough to give performers room to breathe. Scenes unfold at a relaxed pace, allowing the cast to fully explore each comedic premise rather than rushing to the next beat. For the audience, this also creates a sense of comfort—an assurance that the show is in capable hands, no matter how unpredictable it becomes. If Exploration Blank’s prime directive is to create an evening of terrific comedy and entertainment, mission accomplished!
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