Not Quite Right Improv gets it just right when it comes to comedy

Certain experiences can trigger a whole-body cold sweat just by thinking about them: Blue lights in the rear-view mirror, peering over the edge of a high cliff, speaking to a crowd. Some scenarios are sought for the thrill and some must be dealt with, like it or not.

Improvisational comedy feeds on that anxiety and gorges on the resultant adrenaline rush. It takes a certain type to accept the challenge.

The area’s longest-running improv troupe, Not Quite Right Improv, confronts its collective fears most weekends at the Derek Gores Gallery in the Eau Gallie Arts District and pulls appreciative audiences along on its crazy trips.

NQR is broken into two teams, My Weird Uncle and Happy Little Accidents, which perform three times a month. In addition to Saturday evening shows, the art of improv is taught in classes three times a week, and the group offers corporate workshops and performances for events and private functions, founder and director Jessica Taylor said before a recent show.

This evening is sold out and there is a crowd of 40 people. Some are first-timers and some are regulars. Ages range from 10 to 70-plus, which is a normal night for the NQR troupe. The performances are family friendly and get their laughs the hard way by using clean language and innuendo at the worst.

“They are quite skilled at taking one piece of a skit and creating another off of it. It could be a word or a phrase or an idea,” said Juanita Brooks, a retired clinical psychologist from Melbourne Beach. “I very much enjoy laughing, and they are very good."

Diane Marsh of Indialantic brought her son-in-law from Ethiopia, Teddy Berihun, to see his first improv performance.

“It’s impressive that they do all this without any script,” he said.

Marsh agreed, adding: “It’s very amusing, and it amazes me that people can come up with something so easily.”

On this night, the audience will be peeking into the minds of Taylor, 41, her husband Jon Emmerich, 35; Aaron Karnes, 37; Pete Jacobsen, 46; and Glenn “Kraz” Krasny, 51. Absent is Holly McFarland Karnes, 30, and Aaron Karnes’ wife, who is performing in the Melbourne Civic Theatre’s production of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Musical.”

After the introductions, Krasny, who by day is a guardian for incapacitated elderly in the 18th Judicial Circuit, said: “We ask that you just buckle up and go along on the ride with us. We have no idea what’s going to happen tonight.”

With that, the show starts and Jacobsen is standing alone in the spotlight.

“I need a haircut. Seriously,” he said. The audience laughs, tentatively, expecting a punchline to follow. Instead, Jacobsen verbally leads them into his home, probably his bathroom, where he stands in front of a mirror seen only by him. He pantomimes holding a pair of $40 Wahl clippers and dreamily explains the thrill of shaving away the bald-guy side fringe and going completely hairless up top.

The scene evolves into Taylor and Jacobsen discussing the removal of beloved physical features, such as his beard. She then reveals a half-absorbed twin protruding from her back (played by Krazny, who raced onto the stage and threw himself up against her.)

The audience gets it and is happy to have signed up.

This melts away into a scene with Emmerich and Karnes seated next to each other on an airplane, which then morphs into Taylor monologuing about being afraid to fly and how seeing the pilot beforehand helps immensely. This opens the door to Krazny reappearing as a drunk pilot — stumbling and slurring his words — and meeting up with his equally incapacitated co-pilot, played by Jacobsen.

The flight turns out to be the springboard for most of the night’s humor. This is how the show rolls: One scene leads to another with a nugget pulled from one to be developed in the next. In other words, a normal night in the unpredictable world of improv.

The shows have become so popular, the troupe will be taking normal and flipping it on its head again starting Sept. 1, with a home all its own. The Derek Gores Gallery has been NQR Improv’s base since 2014, when Gores offered space for one monthly show and class.

The artist is investing in a new space in EGAD, prompting Taylor to move on a longtime dream to open a performance space of her own. Not Quite Right will take over Gores' vacated gallery on West Eau Gallie Boulevard.

“We have been operating in Eau Gallie for six years," Taylor said. "Previous to that — I formed the group back in 2002 — we were part of the Henegar Center for the Arts in Melbourne, and we just performed occasionally. We went our separate ways for a long while, and then I reformed the group about seven years ago."

The troupe will continue to perform while renovations take place around them, with the work likely spawning improv scenes.

“We’re going to turn it into a small, blackbox theater that not only we will use for improv shows but that we can allow other people to do original things. New things. Not just the same old stuff. So we’re very excited about it,” Taylor said.

The gallery will be transformed into a cabaret-style theater, she said, with the performance area being moved from the east wall to the west and a long, sleek bar helping to define the space. Cocktail tables, two restrooms and a new backstage area are among the major renovations.

“We are planning a grand opening of sorts to kick off the new season and all the completed renovations on New Year's Eve, with a show and party,” Taylor said.

For more information and tickets to performances, go to nqrcomedy.com.

Van Gaasbeck is a Brevard-based freelance writer.

More on Not Quite Right:

Life’s not scripted; nor is improv

Improv troupe brings laughs, builds teams