Comedy at this university – you’re kidding, right?
There is a comedy scene on the campus, but relatively few people know much about it. In fact, many of those who are familiar with campus comedians tout them as the best-kept secret on the campus.
But this year, the university’s improv troupes and stand-up clubs plan to shrug off the invisibility cloak that has shrouded them for so long and become key players in the campus’s entertainment community. Of the four Student Government Association-recognized comedy groups, three – the Bureau, Erasable Inc. and Off The Wall – are launching creative strategies to get students involved and to catapult the college toward the same level as schools with famously thriving comedy cultures: New York University, Skidmore College and the University of Pennsylvania.
The Bureau – a group that encompasses a smorgasbord of stand-up comedy, improv performances, musical comedy, scripted sketches and video parodies – has plans to attract more students by adding comedy workshops to its repertoire.
Bureau president Dave Smith, a reporter for The Diamondback’s Diversions section, and co-creative director Dan Greene said as many as 60 people at once have auditioned for a spot on the team, so they believe the workshops will serve as a popular stepping-stone for those who don’t make the initial cut during auditions.
“We’re all about giving back to the campus, but all these people [who get cut] feel bitter,” Smith said. “We want to be friends with these kids; it’s not like it’s personal.”
With the workshops, Smith and Greene said the Bureau can provide resources for students who are just beginning to learn the ins and outs of improv and invest in their maturation as performers. Ultimately, they said, the workshops will create a more intimate relationship between students and players.
“We work with them and they work for us: We’re trying to cut that boundary between audience and players out,” Smith said.
Erasable Inc., the university’s oldest comedy group, stays visible to students by performing improv in front of McKeldin Library every Friday afternoon. In the past, the group has given advice to aspiring comics and worked on improv with the audience after shows. This year, the team will run these informal sessions more regularly, members said.
Erasable Inc. co-creative director Becca Barish said the sessions will be open to anyone, no matter his or her experience.
“It doesn’t matter; you can come from different places,” she said. “It’s not like you have to be a part of the theatre department to be a part of this group.”
Stand-up comedy group Off The Wall also tries to be very available to students, allowing anyone to sign up for a five-minute slot during its weekly Thursday performances. The group mixes professional comedians and inexperienced stand-up newcomers in their show, bringing popular Washington comics to display their wit alongside first-time student comedians – an interesting move for a group that just formed in March.
“We are making it as inclusive and as open as possible,” said sophomore Justin Cousson, the group’s founder. “You don’t have to audition or anything; you just have to come to us.”
Barish, Smith, Greene and Cousson all said even though most groups perform for the same audiences, there’s hardly any competition or tension between them. In fact, members of The Bureau postponed a practice last semester to attend Off The Wall’s first show and provide encouragement to the young group.
“There’s no competition between the groups; we’re all kind of a bunch of upstarts,” Cousson said.
Even in a school of over 25,000 undergraduates, the combined patronage of these groups may be in the low hundreds. But they say low numbers won’t stop them from maturing into more inventive comedians.
“All the groups are really ambitious, which is great,” Smith said. “I think, for the most part, nobody gets satisfied with where they are.”
Each group wants novice student comedians to feel the rush that comes with performing off-the-cuff, a feeling they excitedly describe as addicting and exhilarating.
“I was like, ‘This is the most amazing feeling I ever had,'” said Greene, speaking of his first performance to a large audience of over 400 students. “It was cathartic; I just felt drained of all this energy that I’d been building up.”
And the importance of comedy isn’t just personal – college groups should keep in mind the experience they can get out of the on-campus scene, Cousson said.
“When it comes down to it, aspiring comics in the area have two choices: Whore yourself out on the local open-mic circuit and find yourself telling jokes to a crowd of nine comics and a dog while bar patrons watch fly-fishing on ESPN2, or come down to one of our shows and walk out validated, beloved and with a full head of lush, silky hair,” he said.
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