Aleve, Chippendale dancers, Reddi-wip, and a Bat Mitzvah all in one place?
Yes. At the Night of Comedy put on by the Theater department's class, "Comedy in Performance," the audience saw perfomances featuring all those and more?everything from Charlie Chaplin to the local news in Iowa hit the stage in the Wish Theater.
The students in the comedy class, which is taught by Associate Professor of Theater Davis Robinson, put on a number of skits to showcase the skills that they have acquired as comedians over the course of the semester.
"All year long we've learned about all different types of comedy and explored comedy and what's funny by performing many styles of comedy," said Jeremy Bernfeld '09.
The performance consisted of a sampling of the best class projects that were completed throughout the semester. Ranging from political commentary to appearances by classic comical characters, the performance was sprinkled with a variety of comedic sketches.
Most of the sketches had a group of students in them, but some were solos or duets.
The evening started out with a convincing Charlie Chaplin character making his bumbling way down through the audience to reach the stage. Following Mr. Chaplin were Lucy and Harpo Marx, who performed a mirror routine.
However, some of the more memorable sketches came in the middle of the program.
The local news as broadcast from Iowa reported onthe local bed-and-breakfast moving into the next lot with the addition of two new theme rooms; a live weather report that changed as the weather did; the sports report on the recent video game tournament in town; and a dramatization of the town meeting that discussed the morality and constitutionality of two hens raising a chick in the same coop.
Along similarly allegorical lines, the skit on "gloves" and the importance of using gloves for both one's own protection and the protection of one's partner was well-received by the audience.
Besides these commentaries on society, the students also presented skits that involved more personal problems. Two sketches had to do with secrets?one concerning a very hairy chest and the other of an over-enthused student who wasn't wearing underwear.
The audience responded with plentiful laughter, perhaps glad to be distracted from the looming shadow of next week's finals.