The Say What?! 25th Anniversary Special was billed as the biggest night in the history of Wichita improv. The current incarnation of Wichita’s longest running improv troupe headlined. Warming up were two four-person Wichita improv acts, Parking Lot Sushi and First Draft Improv, and special guests The Scallywags, a pirate-themed sketch group that performs regionally. Eric Von Reicher, Wichita’s Funniest Person of 2022, was the night’s emcee.

Based on the number of hugs, selfies, and stories being shared among audience members, it was clear that much of the crowd was made up of friends, fans, and fellow performers. Nothing magnifies comedy like a raucous crowd. The singalong “didee didee di” refrain of the familiar Irish Drinking Song game positively echoed through the hall.

Wave was blessedly set up with theater-style seating; even in the party atmosphere it would have been a long night to stand. To my surprise, this kind of show worked well in the industrial setting. Simple lighting, adequate sound, and a mostly bare stage allowed the actors to build their worlds. A screen became a distraction after it was no longer needed, but Wave’s crew got it turned off. 

Anchored by founder Andrew Bennett and longtime member Dan Gray, the Say What?! members played eight games. Gray was in full control as host, directing requests for topics to particular zones in the audience, clearly naming and explaining each game, and pointing out who was playing. Maybe it is a function of troupe size — Say What?! has more than twice the number of performers as any other group on the bill — but Gray’s authority meant the audience spent fewer seconds trying to grasp what was happening and could lock into scenes right away. 

Say What?! was at its tightest and most surreal in the memory game String of Pearls. Its loosest was a jam with The Scallywags of The Waiter, a series of quick two character jokes based on the “Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup” premise. Watching Gray relish his own atrocious car pun was a highlight.

The Say What?! set also celebrated the other Wichita acts. All the women from the three troupes played a game to find “the most female improviser in Wichita” that flipped a middle finger to the idea that women aren’t funny. And an open invitation finale of the game Sex With gave each performer a chance to get in a zinger about another actor or, just as often, themself.

First Draft Improv used the scene-building game Bloomin’ Onion, which adds and takes away actors multiple times, to take chances that paid off. The physical comedy of Arthur Stewart and Todd Ramsey stretching for a dance performance was not only funny, it immediately created a character relationship that created the scene’s conflict. In a different layer of the onion, Angela Lee let a scene about a Frankenstein horse get super weird (with the gorgeous pun “Neigh, daddy!” getting an audience scream). It only got freakier as it proceeded to a discussion of Stephen Pile’s sex life, leading him to observe, “I feel we’ve lost a little formality in this house.”

Parking Lot Sushi, the newest group, may still be developing the ability to make each game’s premise immediately clear and intuit the peak moment to stop. Even at this stage of development, though, the performers bring the funny. Kayla Vix delivered a convincing Ted Talk as a juggling regulatory activist confessing “my AA group doesn’t want me to be here today.”

The night’s first giant laugh came in the same scene when Keysa McMillan drew two oddly phallic shapes before sheepishly labeling them clown shoes. In a two-part talent show, McMillan fully inhabited the role of an increasingly bizarre menopausal poet, sharing “I have a pocket full of my father’s teeth to this day.” In the second part, Vix, Jack Kriwiel, and Josh Rhoades collaborated on a song, working some genuinely lovely harmony into the sketch. Consistent with the tone of the evening, even though Kriwiel broke and Rhoades froze during the song, it got huge applause from an audience that appreciated the bit’s risk.

The Scallywags have been around even longer than Say What?!, and their experience and professionalism showed. They fully took over, extending the show into the whole venue. Their “rated aRg!” sketch schtick is a good contrast for improv, dangerous enough to evoke new reactions but ultimately there to help everyone feel included.

The Details

The Say What?! 25th Anniversary Show, with special guests The Scallywags and featuring Parking Lot Sushi and First Draft Improv, took place November 15, 2025 at Wave.

Learn more about Say What?! on their website.

Seth Bate’s book “Winfield’s Walnut Valley Festival” was named a 2023 Kansas Notable Book and won the Tihen Book Award from the Kansas State Historical Foundation. In a previous century, Bate was a National Critics Institute fellow at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

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