As the sun set on East 11th street in the basement of Columbia’s theatre building, the entire crew of “Comedy Cabaret” engaged in last minute checks before opening weekend. As the tech crew cycled through seven different iterations of the “Happy Birthday” song for a sketch, while backstage, performers prepared for each sketch.
“Comedy Cabaret,” an annual sketch comedy show at Columbia, began its fifth year of performances on Thursday, Oct. 8 and will run the next three weekends at 8 p.m. at the Getz Theatre Center.
Ric Walker, associate professor of comedy writing, performance and acting, has been directing the show for four of those years.
“I think it’s an amazing opportunity for students to explore their humor, and performing and changing how they perform based on audience feedback and director notes over the course of a couple weekends,” said Walker, who’s taught at Columbia for 11 years. “So, it’s a unique experience to create your own show, find your own comedic voice, and I love sharing that with the students.”
Stage manager Miles Martin said the tech, lighting and sound are important to the show’s success.
“The jokes don’t hit as well without a blackout to support them, or transition music to support them, so I’ve loved watching tech just elevate the show to a new level,” said Martin, a senior theatre major.
Martin said this is the first year that “Comedy Cabaret” is tackling subjects that were deemed “too real” in past years.
“We’re in that real time, and I think we’re ready to talk about it, and comedy is such a nice way to introduce those topics to an audience,” Martin said.
Members of the crew said they are balancing keeping things tasteful while commenting on current world topics.
“It kind of feels like a Monty Python episode, just a lot longer and a live performance,” said lighting designer Alice McGovern, a sophomore theatre arts production and practice major.
She said the sketch show is “a great gateway drug into the larger comedy scene in Chicago.”
Meanwhile, in a cramped hallway backstage, two ensemble members and writers, Rose Egan and Denzel Howard, shared the significance of “Comedy Cabaret” as various members squeezed by.
“It’s mostly written and produced by students, and we have the direction of Ric, but we’re all writing our stuff and casting each other in it and creating characters together,” said Egan, a senior comedy writing and performance major. “And that’s like all the other comedy nights, just people working together to make a show.”
Howard, a sophomore film and television major, said the show is important for the community it builds and the laughs it gives. “I’m not a comedy student at all, but me going to this comedy show last year motivated me to do it this year, and I’ve had so much fun,” Howard said.”Without things like ‘Comedy Cabaret,’ I think we’d be ripping potential fun away from students.”
During the rehearsal, performers laughed as they forgot their lines and smiled as the tech crew worked through the music and lighting.
“Comedy does a lot of things,” said Walker, who has been a frequent master of ceremonies for Columbia’s commencement. “It’s possible it could just be fun goofball kind of stuff, entertaining children. It’s also possible it can be stuff that is attractive to adults. But it can also be that thing that speaks truth to power. It can be the fool speaking to the king.”
Copy edited by Venus Tapang
