Emporia State comedy troupe Zoiks! to open for Ha Ha Tonka

Emporia State’s improv comedy troupe Zoiks! will be opening for Ozark rock band Ha Ha Tonka at their show on Wednesday. The show was the idea of Zoiks! president Pat Janssen and he organized the event.

“I’ve hung out with [Ha Ha Tonka] several times after shows and just have a blast with them,” Janssen said. “I’m a huge fan of live music and thought this would be an interesting night of entertainment, something that people don’t usually get. I just tried to bring in the best band I could get a hold of.”

Although it hasn’t always been a recognized student organization Zoiks! has been on campus for seventeen years. The group has something special planned for their big show at Albert Taylor Hall.

“We will be doing one or two sketches on stage and about four student written sketches that we filmed.”

Emporia State graduate Kyle Runge and Ethan Gutierrez helped the group filmed the videos. Janssen is a senior theatre major and has been part of Zoiks! for three years.

“At our rehearsals we play a lot of improve games and take suggestions from each other since we don’t have an audience,” Janssen said. “We play a lot of games that we have, write sketches and rehearse sketches. We just practice our improvisations. There’s a lot that we can work on, more than you would think.”

Zoiks! and Ha Ha Tonka are scheduled to play Albert Taylor Hall, located inside Plumb Hall, on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The show is free and open to the public.