Imagine a beaver, marketing guns to children, and the Swedish Olympic bobsledding team sharing a stage for the night.

For Brian Crall, a founding member of the Free Hooch Comedy Troupe, it was all part of the act as the Sacramento Comedy Spot opened its inaugural show of the spring season on Feb. 6 at the Clarion Hotel.

“I love the thrill of watching people on stage making stuff up,” Crall said.

Crall, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Sacramento State in theater arts, began Free Hooch five years ago along with fellow students from Sac State. The 31-year-old is the only remaining original member, and he estimates that there have been 30 different members since Free Hooch began.Free Hooch performs a combination of mostly sketch comedy and some improvised games with crowd participation.

Crall said no one writes an entire sketch and everyone helps to create a sketch based on an initial idea brought in by one of the group members.

“It’s the group that writes everything and the group that makes a sketch stronger,” Crall said.

Crall said some of his inspiration comes from his day job as a skycap for the Sacramento International Airport.

“Our sketch ‘Butt Heat’ came from a guy handing me his ID at the airport and me wanting to tell him how hot it felt,” Crall said.

In the sketch, a man is pulled over for speeding and is asked to hand over his license and registration. The officer then calls other cops to come and feel the heat emanating from the license that came from the man’s back pocket. The sketch moved some audience members to tears in the crowd of more than 150 people.

However, some bits are not as well received, said former Free Hooch member Jeff Sloniker.The 27-year-old, who performs with his own Los Angeles-based troupe, Great Adventure, said he was once mugged outside of a theater in Los Angeles and tried to work it into the show as a bit.”I didn’t even realize that I was telling an audience full of people that had parked in the same area,” Sloniker said. “The whole audience was just quiet.”

Great Adventure, who opened for Free Hooch at the inaugural show, is a long-form improvisational troupe that takes one suggestion from the audience at the beginning of the show and creates several scenes based on that one suggestion.

“It’s almost like a short play,” Sloniker said, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Sac State in communications. “You just start building things and follow the most interesting thing that happened.”

Sloniker said chemistry and truth are both important factors when performing long-form improv.”If you were to get a tattoo, if you were in an improv fraternity, you would tattoo truth in comedy,” Sloniker said.

One of the things that Crall said is important for people who are new to performing improv and sketch comedy is to carry a notebook around with them to jot down their ideas.

Crall offers classes for teens and adults at the Sacramento Comedy Spot Studio at 1716 Broadway, which serves as training ground for those who want to perform with their own troupe.

Leeman Parker said he saw a flyer at Cosumnes River College for the Sacramento Comedy Spot and went because he did some improv in high school.

The 21-year-old started out with one of the old training groups, Deep Fried Comedy on a Stick, for three months before he was called up to perform with Free Hooch after another member dropped out. He has now been a member of Free Hooch for three years.

“It’s fun to be able to make stuff up on the spot,” Parker said.

Parker said some of his favorite sketches are “Ragtime,” a slow motion fight scene in which he punches a lady in the head and his throat gets cut and “Dueling Bums,” which showcases two bums in competition with each other to create more appealing signs for money.

Parker said that the first time they perform a sketch, they find out what parts the troupe finds funny and what parts the audience finds funny. After which the troupe can tweak the sketch to make it appealing to everyone.

“It’s great, it’s like working with your best friends out there,” Sloniker said.

The next Free Hooch show is at 8 p.m. on Feb. 18 at the Clarion Hotel. More information can be found at the Sacramento Comedy Spot Web site.

Frank Miller can be reached at [email protected]