Renee Caldwell sits down with comedians Ben Bryant, Brad McEntire, John Rawley and Jeff Swearingen. These guys make up the group, “The Victims.”
Renee Caldwell: How long have you guys been together?
The Victims: We are going on two so about a year and a half.
RC: Where did you guys get the idea for “The Victims”?
TV: We’ve all worked together in some form or fashion. We all like doing comedy and things like that, and a couple of years ago the four of us were talking about putting a comedy troupe together. Brad McEntire went to Hong Kong for a year. So that’s kinda where it got started. Actually we really started talking about it across the street at Trinity Hall one night. So, that just…yeah.
RC: Why are there no females in the group?
TV: They just weren’t at the bar that night.
RC: When you’re onstage, I noticed you guys have a lot of audience participation, and sometimes they get a little out of hand. Is it hard to get these people to back off?
TV: Sometimes we bring a German shepherd. Not the dog, an actual shepherd from Germany. His name is Gunter. We sic him on hecklers. He sounds a lot like Jeff did tonight in his German accent.
RC: So being improvisers how much time do you guys spend on getting to know things? (i.e. current events, movies, music)
TV: What like 90-95 hours. We’re taking turns reading the encyclopedias to each other. I think we’re at what G’s??
RC: If you guys were to get into a fight, knock down drag out fight, who would win and why?
TV: Jeff would win and all of us agree that Jeff would win. Jeff has been studying martial arts for years.
RC: Where do you guys normally perform?
TV: Here at Pocket Sandwich. We’re looking all over for the next venue. Pocket has been our most reliable source of shows more or less. We’ve also done shows in Deep Ellum here and there, Plano Children’s Theatre and we’ve done shows in Austin.