If you walk into the Boulder High library at 4-5 P.M. on Mondays, you might find something peculiar. A bird, a plane, wait, no! It’s a hysterically funny scene of Superman confronting the devious waterpark boy and his army of radioactive rats, written, acted, and choreographed in the moment of its creation by Boulder High’s Improvisation Troupe!
Created in 2025 by Alex Miller, ‘27, Boulder High’s new Panther Prov quickly showed itself as BHS’s most hilarious club. Cora Henderson, ‘26, reports the club as just a place where people “want to get out there more, and make people laugh a little.”
A typical day at Panther Prov involves some talking, some learning, but most of all, comedy games. Members and newcomers gather at the library to introduce themselves and establish boundaries, followed by a brief lesson from Alex Miller on improvisation, comedy, and overcoming self-doubt. After the fast lesson, the troupe moves to the core of the meetings: Games!
There are several games and exercises that Panther Prov does to get their creativity flowing, and more importantly, get others to laugh.
A few club favorites include games like Half-Life and Categories Die. Half-Life is played by having players create a “skit” or a “scene” in one minute, and then repeat the same scene in 30 seconds, 15 seconds, seven seconds, and then three seconds, which often ends in hilarious yelling.
Categories Die is similar to the popular game “Concentration.” Players popcorn a category to other players as they try to come up with things that fit in that category, no repeats allowed. The game continues until there is one victor left.
“If you’re scared of embarrassing yourself in front of people, the fear may not be gone, but the stakes are gone. Everybody is doing silly stuff, and sometimes the silly, wrong stuff is funnier,” says Cora, while talking about a funny moment that happened in a Categories Die game, when the category was “sports,” with two players left and one said, “Badminton,” which was immediately followed by the other shouting, “Goodminton!!”
The club doesn’t just want to stay at Boulder High, however. Panther Prov is ambitious, and club sponsor and librarian Zoe Lloyd-Carpenter says the team is “considering competing on the [Thescon] improv team, which, if anybody in theater has gone to Thescon, is a really, really cool competition. And it’s a lot of fun to be able to perform with people.”
Thescon is an annual 3-day, 2-night theater convention for high school students in Denver, Colorado. The event hosts the best of the best in terms of high school theater, and from what I have seen of Panther Prov, Boulder High improv students have a serious shot at the stage.
That’s not to say that if you want to join Panther Prov, you must act on a stage. The group is open to people of all grade levels and all experience levels, with the club acting as the first experience with improv comedy for many of its members.
Panther Prov is also one of the closest clubs out there, despite being in its first year as a club. All members speak highly of each other, and a clear bond exists that makes the group even more comically brilliant when they are together. Curious, I asked Cora for the secret.
“It’s very hard to stay neutral about a person when you’re doing very silly scenes with them, because there are these jokes that get formed, and then you have an inside joke for this person, and you have something that you’ve already laughed together. So it’s really easy to just kind of click with people,” she said.
So, if you want a close-bonded, hilarious, ambitious, and friendly community, swing by the library from 4-5 P.M. on Mondays, and join one of the wittiest clubs at Boulder High: Panther Prov!
