Chances are you’ll see some interesting characters on stage at an improv show. But Victorian time-traveling women? That’s exactly what Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fanastical Balloon Ride is, playing now through January 31st at The Latvian Society and produced by the Philadelphia Joke Initiative.

Although details are murky, it appears that Cecily (Karen Getz) and Gwendolyn (Kelly Jennings) have traveled through time to Philadelphia to study our culture. Their “stage” is on the floor of the hall with the audience’s seats in a circle around the performers. There are tables throughout the room with observational material; one table has some random supplies and a microscope. Another has various literature, dictionaries and a Barbie DVD. You see, the two woman are here to observe our customs, dialect, and way of life.

Essentially they do this through what would be considered by a stand-up comedian as “crowd work.” They ask members of the audience questions and being that they are expressive characters in control of the room, the answers are usually short and shy in response, and usually followed by giggling. It happened to even myself, I meant to take some pictures of the two, but never felt like I had a good moment to do so. Even if they weren’t looking at me, they would surely hear the snap of my camera and they would point me to out to everyone else. What was I doing with a camera, they would surely ask. They weren’t supposed to be the ones observed, after all.

Comedy, for the most part, comes from honesty and Getz and Jennings extend this to the audience. As they ask questions, they “observe” their subjects and their body language, ticks, tone of voice and more. They play off of these things for the humor and at times it appears that we learn a thing or two about the audience members, provided that they are telling the truth. Additionally, they ask members of the audience to draw and take notes throughout the evening and their review of these at the end of the show is yet another way to observe their subjects.

Not much is disclosed about Cecily and Gwendolyn, however. Seemingly there’s a more of a back story there, but they didn’t spend a lot of time on themselves. At the show that I went to, they discussed eating dinner in Chinatown and wondered if they should speak Chinese there. But Mandarin or Cantonese? Cecily remarked that her Mandarin was very rusty. So have they traveled all over the world? For how long? Is Cecily a lesbian? Could Gwendolyn be as well? Hmm.

Playing through the end of January, Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fanastical Balloon Ride is worth seeing before presumably they go off to the next town, in perhaps a different time.