Students and community members flooded the Dekelboum Concert Hall at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on Thursday for Maryland Night Live.
The student-led comedy show — part of NextNOW Fest — is modeled after NBC’s Saturday Night Live and features sketch and stand-up comedy.
Aileen Foley, a senior computer science and studio art major and the show’s host, delivered an amusing monologue about her college experience and recent trip to Japan.
“The difficult part about being the host is a lot of memorization,” said Foley, who also acted in sketches. “No one’s ever cueing me in when I’m doing a stand-up set, so I have to make sure I memorize everything myself, make sure I don’t mess up.”
Thursday’s event incorporated both live and recorded sketches, a featured stand-up, a live band and a musical guest.
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Many sketches were inspired by current events, including the Summer Olympics and Charli XCX’s recently released Brat album. Others were more absurd, including elements such as a mob-boss-like, sadistic Chuck E. Cheese and a recorded parody of the show Survivor with the “worst people” that could be found to compete.
“I like more of the absurd humor,” senior criminology major Liv Power said during rehearsal. “The humor where you don’t really know what happened.”
Power acted and was responsible for bringing the sketches from the writing process to the stage as a co-director. She said the development was a collaborative process where everyone contributed ideas to improve the sketches.
The writing process started in August before sketches were tweaked in pitch meetings and then rehearsed. Power said writers were generally given creative control over how their sketches developed onto the stage.
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Holland Schmitz, a senior history major and Maryland Night Live stage manager, performed a stand-up set detailing college life, cats and a commitment to physical comedy. During the writing process, they said they keep track of comedy ideas on their phone before translating them into a speech format.
“I have a running notes app list of every single thing I’ve found funny… that I could make a joke on,” Schmitz said.
The show also featured a Weekend Update-based segment called UMD Alerts, with satirical news headlines about the opening of a Greene Turtle in College Park and a Testudo-themed beer.
Musical guest The Odyssey, a psychedelic rock group that incorporated acoustic guitars, bass and woodwinds into their lyrical set, was met with roaring applause.
Throughout the show, it was clear that both the audience and performers were having fun — something Foley emphasized was important to her and her co-stars.“This has been one of the best parts of my college experience,” she said. “My biggest regret is not joining earlier.”
