“I hate the audience. I hope that no one shows up,” Sean Murphy, sophomore acting major and head of Mainstage Improv, jokingly said.

In reality, an improvisational comedy show is highly dependent on the audience.

“Everything we do will be based on audience suggestions,” Murphy said. “If the audience throws out the word ‘dildo,’ we have to go with it.”

Murphy is one of the founding members of Otterbein’s improv troupe, Mainstage Improv, a fairly new group on campus. The troupe was started midway through last semester, when several people in the Theatre Department pointed out the absence of such a group.

The actual idea started in the minds of Murphy, Corinne Munsch and Marina Pires last year, when they were freshmen.

“We would sit in our dorm room, eat pizza and talk about how cool it would be,” said Munsch, a sophomore musical theater major.

The name came as more of a joke, when the group found out they would not be able to get quality theater space for their shows and rehearsals. They practice in the downstairs lobby of the Campus Center and will be holding their shows in the Philomathean Room on the fourth floor of Towers Hall.

“It smells like cat piss,” troupe member and sophomore acting major Nina Anderton said of the Philomathean Room.

However, the funny smell of the room is taken as more of an endearing quality to the group, rather than a burden.

Their first show will be Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. It will be free. They have never performed outside of rehearsal, and Murphy is curious to see how they will be received.

“I think a lot of people are going to be expecting ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’” Murphy said.

He says the show won’t be like the popular improv comedy TV program. However, with improv it is hard to tell just how the show will be. It will consist of eight games with different members of the troupe performing in each game.

Murphy expects the show will last anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half. Again, the length will really depend on the audience, its input and its reactions.

They are expecting a big turnout from what they have heard by word of mouth around the Theatre Department and campus, but they aren’t worried about running out of room.

Since food is not allowed in the Philomathean Room, Murphy urges everyone to eat beforehand.

The group plans to have one show per month, keeping it near the end of the month like the show at the end of February. Murphy plans on future shows being longer than the first one, reaching two hours.

Aside from Murphy, Munsch, Pires and Anderton, there are five other members in the troupe. They are Pascal Domicone, Topher Loos, Mariah Parris, Harry Sanderson and Joyah Spangler.

There are two freshmen in the troupe, four sophomores and three juniors. Next year, since there will be no senior spots to replace, the troupe plans on adding one or two more freshmen or someone from the list who almost made it in last year.

“I just want to keep the troupe around seven to nine people,” Murphy said.