A Scriptless in Seattle show isn’t a passive experience for the audience.

Those who come to see the improv comedy troupe when it performs Saturday at Youngstown Playhouse should be prepared to shout out suggestions that will help shape the bits the performers create. Audience members also can become part of the action on stage.

“The people in the audience are going to have a direct impact on what the show really is,” said Justin Folger, the group’s founder. “The audience gets to take the remote control a little bit and control what is happening. It’s the most control the audience will ever get over the show they see.”

Scriptless in Seattle doesn’t just create comedy bits from those suggestions. Music is a major component of the group’s performances, and those songs are made up as well.

“Music improv is the hardest aspect of what we do,” Folger said. “Writing a song on the fly that rhymes, makes sense and actually sounds OK is really hard to do. I don’t get nervous for shows, because I do it all the time, but if there was something I got nervous for, it would be the music stuff, rap in particular. I’m not a good rapper.

“Wayne Brady did it so well (on ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’) and people have come to expect if you go to an improv comedy show, you’ll see someone write a song on the fly, probably several of them. But I love doing it. It’s a good time.”

Folger grew up in the Cleveland area watching “Whose Line,” originally hosted by Cleveland native Drew Carey, and he comes from a family of entertainers. His parents met on a singing tour in Germany when they were 13 years old. His grandfather was a jazz drummer. He has uncles who do comedy in Cleveland and Chicago.

He was part of an improv troupe in high school called the Royal Fools, and he and a couple friends decided they wanted to keep doing it after graduation.

The friends signed up for a talent show, but the improv started that night before they ever stepped on stage.

They needed a name.

‘We’re waiting in the wings and the emcee asks, ‘How do you want us to introduce you? You never gave us anything.’ Can’t you just say Justin, Jesse and Eli doing improv? ‘No, you have to have a name.’ We put our head together. Eli suggested, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we did some kind of pun — Scriptless in Seattle, like the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan movie, something kind of hokey and campy.”

The name stuck. That was intended to be a one-time event, but a couple months later, a coffee shop owner tracked down Folger and invited Scriptless to perform there. That led to more shows, and for the last year Scriptless has been touring to different cities with dates as far away as New Hampshire and Oklahoma.

Each Scriptless show features between four and six performers, and who appears at any given show depends upon their individual availability. Joining Folger in Youngstown will be Charlie Hubbell, James Trompka, David Olinger, Ben Smith and Randy Johr.

The all-male makeup of the group wasn’t planned, Folger said. It just reflects who was interested in doing it.

“It does save us from some awkward situations, depending on what the audience shouts out. If I pick a guy up on stage, there’s less to worry about. I guess there are some pros to it, but that’s just how it shook out.”

While the performers can’t control the suggestions the audience members shout out, Scriptless in Seattle considers its performances to be family friendly, and Folger said he can engage in some selective hearing to filter out the suggestions that might threaten that.

“You can bring your kids to this and not feel like you have to cover their ears,” Folger said. “Not every joke is going to be about what they saw on Disney Channel last week. It’s not going to be geared necessarily to them, but we’re not going to say anything that you’ll feel bad that you brought them to and exposed them to. It’s a family-friendly show. We have families come all the time.”

If you go …

WHAT: Scriptless in Seattle

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Youngstown Playhouse, 600 Playhouse Lane, Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $17 to $27 and are available online at experienceyourarts.org and by calling 330-788-8739.

Have an interesting story? Contact Andy Gray by email at agray@tribtoday.com.