Friday Night Live showcases college and national talent

Comedy finally makes it to the Cat in the Cream

Saturday Night Live is coming to Oberlin. Or rather, our version of SNL. On Nov. 8, at the Cat In The Cream, students will be treated to a homegrown rendition of the popular sketch comedy TV show. Oberlin's Primitive Streak, as well as rising comedian Joel Zimmer, will be the focus of the comedy show.

"It's just like `SNL,' but funny," explains junior Sam Bergman, manager of the Cat in the Cream. Friday Night Live follows the setup of the original show, complete with host, comedy troupe, musical guests, house band, and even a professional comedian who will perform during the last hour of the show. FNL, according to Bergman, has been an annual tradition at the Cat for the past three years.

"It's just a great opportunity for the Cat to do a different kind of thing. It's something exciting to do at the time of year when work really starts to bog us all down," he said. The show is jointly sponsored by the Cat and the Student Union, who pays for it out of its own budget.

The impetus for the event initially came from Tina Zwegat, Assistant Director of the Student Union. According to Zwegat, "There's a real lack of comedy on the campus, which is mostly due to the fact that it's hard to find comedians who aren't going to offend some type of population. But we took a chance on it - and so far it's been really successful." Last year, Friday Night Live was cancelled due to staff turnovers at the Cat.

This year's line-up includes the self-proclaimed "baby on the scene," professional comedian Joel Zimmer. Although only a recent University of Michigan graduate, Zimmer has been performing for over five years.

He started his career by opening for national acts at the weekly comedy show on campus. After graduation, Zimmer began playing Detroit comedy clubs, expanded to colleges, and has even opened for major comedians such as Adam Sandler, Tim Allen and Jeff Foxworthy.

Right now Zimmer lives in Los Angeles and is a comedy writer for a Detroit morning radio show. He also manages his own comedy writing service Strange Bedfellows, which provides tailored material for politicians. Most of Zimmer's material is based on observational comedy, with the occasional Casey Kasem impression.

Other than Zimmer, the performers are Oberlin's finest. The skits, both written and improvised, will be performed by Primitive Streak, the improv comedy troupe. The players include first-years Elias Holman and Greg Pierce, sophomores Jeremy Ellison-Gladstone, David Marcus and Jessica Umphress, junior Jacob Hauser and seniors Emily Banks, and senior David Tarlow.

The show will be Primitive Streak's second performance of the year. The musical guest is senior Peter Galub, a folk music singer/songwriter who will play a few short sets with a backup band. And like the G.E. Smith band on the real show, there will be a house band to play in between the skits, although as of yet the band has not yet been determined.

And of course, the host makes the show. Or at the very least, keeps it moving. That's precisely what Bergman was looking for when he chose Ellison-Gladstone of Primitive Streak to fill that role.

"I've managed the Cat for the past two years and I used to watch Jeremy perform in Primitive Streak. He always impressed me as the guy who made sure that every single sketch was funny. He was consistently entertaining, and seemed like the perfect person to tie the show together." Ellison-Gladstone will also perform an opening monologue.

"I'm thinking about making it really unfunny, like the real monologues usually are," Ellison-Gladstone admits, "but I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do."

Friday Night Live starts at 9 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 8 at the Cat in the Cream. Admission is free.