At the Improv Centre on Granville Island on Thursday, October 9

Calling all nerds. Vancouver TheatreSports League’s latest offering is right up your alley. The Superhero Show, as you might guess, is taken from the pages of your favourite comic book. But not a specific one—rather, the whole genre of superheroes.

VTSL regular Michael Teigen created the fun format, which runs for the next six weeks on Granville Island. Don’t expect Superman, Spider-Man, or Batman, though. On any given night you’ll follow the crime-fighting pursuits of a totally made-up superhero, complete with back story. On this night, it was the Pecker, an avenging avian. His superpower was possessing spaghetti fingers, which he used as lassos.

Teigen acted as narrator, taking to the stage in a motorized wheelchair and either a white skullcap or the worst bald wig in show business (must be a comic-book trope I’m unfamiliar with). The actors—on this night Allen Morrison, Andrew Barber, Eric Fell, Ken Lawson, Margret Nyfors, and Nathan Clark—immediately started improvising a handful of scenes in the life of a big city.

At first, I wasn’t sure where they were going with it all. There seemed to be no purpose to these one-offs. But we were then told that one of the preceding characters was the superhero. The crowd decided it was a background bird in a park scene as played by Ken Lawson (I actually thought he was a guy doing yoga, but whatever). The audience supplied the superpower and off we went on the adventure. All the other characters from those first scenes returned throughout to tell the story, aided by Teigen prompting them on.

As with any show at VTSL, there were big laughs because the performers are solid pros who know what they’re doing. On this opening night, it felt a bit like parts were a struggle, such as an overly long scene about a pizza restaurant that didn’t seem to fit in with the story until Teigen practically walked them directly to the plot point. But with a completely original show, as opposed to a parody of something well-established, it might take some time to iron out the wrinkles.

Overall, it’s a clever concept with the entertaining execution you’ve come to expect from VTSL. Lawson was in his element as the Pecker. There were dick jokes aplenty, of course, but all double entendres that would sneak past the ears of innocents. Clark played the evil town bore to perfection, and it was a treat to finally see Barber on-stage with others, having seen only his one-man sketch around town before.

But as mentioned above, the whole company is powerful. And with great power comes great responsibility to make you laugh. Mission accomplished.