Brooksville improv troupe draws crowds with family-friendly comedy night

Brooksville’s Live Oak Theatre filled with families, couples and older residents on June 5 as Troupe du Jour turned a Friday night into a two-hour stretch of quick jokes, audience prompts and off-the-cuff songs. The show, priced at $10 in advance and $15 at the door, suggested there is real demand in Hernando County for live entertainment that does not require a drive to Tampa or Orlando.

Seven comedians moved through more than a dozen games, skits and songs from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., with a short intermission that gave people time to buy dessert from Herbert Sherbert. One of the warm-up games, Try That on for Size, began with a simple physical motion and then veered into absurd audience-driven suggestions, the kind of format that depends as much on crowd energy as on timing.

At the center of the production was Darryl Knapp, the show’s improv director, who has been doing improv for 30 years and now hosts performances at Live Oak. Knapp said he got involved after watching a show at the theater shortly after the pandemic and was struck enough by the local talent to stay with it. The cast also featured Eli Oliveri, who sings, acts and dances, and the performance leaned on the kind of variety that can pull in different ages without losing pace.

Live Oak Theatre has spent years building that audience at its Brooksville home inside the Carol & Frank Morsani Center for the Arts, 21030 Cortez Boulevard, after moving into the former Hernando County Utilities Building in 2018. The not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization says its mission is to enrich families, individuals and the community through positive artistic experiences, and it has made Troupe du Jour part of that pitch as its own family-friendly comedy troupe.

The theater’s schedule, which generally includes Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances, points to a regular calendar rather than a one-off novelty. Live Oak has also announced another Troupe du Jour show for Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m., again with tickets at $10 in advance and $15 at the door, a sign the troupe is being built as a recurring draw.

That matters in a county often defined by crime reports, politics and emergency calls. On this night, Brooksville residents were spending money at a local theater, buying local desserts and laughing in a room that was built for exactly this kind of civic use, a reminder that Hernando County’s entertainment economy can grow from within its own borders.