<< Front page Arts September 3, 2004

Say hello to the royalty of Oberlin comedy

Writers’ Bloc

And on the twelfth day, the Lord created sketch. And sketch was pretty all right. 4 And the Lord did say, “Let there be better sketch.” 5 And at the same time, in a small village in Ohio, a man was tending his sheep by night. 6 And the Lord did go to this man, for he was an inventor and spake, “Ron Popeil, son of Zydrunas, son of Moises, you shall invent a new sketch group. And this sketch group will be clever. And they will be witty. 7 And all the members of the group will be slammin’ hot.” 8 And Ron Popeil did set out to develop a sketch group. And he did find the cleverest, wittiest, slammin’est people in a ten-block radius. 9 And he did name this group Writers’ Bloc, for it was the will of the Lord for the group to have a mildly funny name. 10 And they did perform sketch and the sketch was good. And one night, when the group was reclining at the table, 11 Ron Popeil did hold aloft his Showtime Rotisserie and say, “I now must leave you, Writers’ Bloc, for you are my finest invention.” And Writers’ Bloc set forth to spread the sketch forever.

Primitive Streak

Primitive Streak had a busy summer. “Hella” Ella Ornstein worked as a design intern at the Ferrari Factory in Italy. Corina “Biggedy” Bardoff worked as a personal assistant to His Majesty, King Kamanawanaleia of the Seychelles Islands. Leora “O” Tanenbaum spent the dog days doing her three favorite things: partying, partying and partying. Jesse “is tight with Mrs. Johnson” Garrison spent June shadowing NYC mega producer Lorne Michaels. During the rest of the summer he produced four pilot episodes for HBO’s new original drama series, So Many Ladies, So Little Time, about cool, single men who weren’t drafted to the armed forces in the 1940s. Mike “Residential Assistant in North” Kroner spent his summer in Honolulu, Hawaii as an endorsement coordinator for Quiksilver International. Primitive Streak does improv. We are hilarious. Auditions Sept. 11 and 12; sign up in Warner.

The Sunshine Scouts

The Sunshine Scouts used to be an experimental long-form improvisational comedy group. Our shows used to consist of a series of spontaneous, rib-tickling scenes that related to one another thematically in a fashion that would literally tickle your ribs right off. Literally. We even ventured into the world of radio, with an hour long improvised radio show that skyrocketed WOBC’s listener-count to a staggering 11! These days, however, we’ve gotten into the world of merchandising. Listen: you name something and we can slap a Scouts logo on it and sell it back to you faster than you can say “Sunshine Scouts-brand urine sample cup.”

The group currently has five members and one animatronic figurine of Abraham Lincoln. We are looking to add a few more improvisers, because Honest Abe has got the comedy chops of a shag carpet. Auditions have tentatively been scheduled to begin Sept. 10, location TBA. Bring $100 and a rat-trap. If you are interested in auditioning for the Sunshine Scouts, you can look for our posters around campus for audition dates and locations or e-mail david.minnix@oberlin.edu for more information. Any other e-mails would also be welcome. We’re just so lonely.

Piscapo’s Arm

If you like The Simpsons or Family Guy, then Piscapo’s Arm is your kind of sketch comedy. Each semester, the group puts together an hour or less long non-stop show with a combination of sketches, parodies, spoofs and short interludes. Piscapo’s Arm members write and bring in their own sketches to present to the entire group (we welcome outside writers to send their sketches to us as well!).

From these sketches we put together a show, typically with fast and furious sketches. Piscapo’s Arm has been performing as a sketch comedy collective on Oberlin’s campus for the last five years. While we just performed as part of orientation, we have auditions coming up next weekend, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 10 and 11. If you are interested, look for the sign-up sheet in Warner or contact us at sketchcomedy@hotmail.com. For more information, go to our website at www.mildlyinteresting.com.


 
 
   

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