Comedy Corner
Encyclopedia
Comedy Corner is a weekly student-run comedy troupe at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

 in Tucson with roots going back to 1979. The core group consists of about ten regular writers and performers. Comedy Corner claims to be the nation's oldest weekly college sketch
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

, standup, and improv comedy group. Its current incarnation also includes previously-recorded comedy bits and shorts. Comedy Corner is also the first documented college sketch comedy troupe to incorporate improvisation into its weekly shows, a practice that has become more common in recent years.

Comedy Corner performs Wednesdays at 9:30pm in the Cellar Bistro on the bottom floor of the Student Union.

History

In the fall of 1979 at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

, a public management freshman named Adam P. Goldstein created “Closet Comics”, a weekly comedy show premiering every Friday at noon in The Cellar restaurant. Adam was quickly joined by two co-founders, Jim Craig, an Engineering junior with a minor in Drama, and Phil Klinkon, an Architecture junior. When referenced in the Daily Wildcat
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The Arizona Daily Wildcat is a student newspaper serving the University of Arizona. It was founded in 1899 as the Sage Green and Silver. Previous names include Arizona Weekly Life, University Life, Arizona Life and Arizona Wildcat. Its distribution is within the university and the Tucson, Arizona...

, the show was called “The Comedy Corner” and later became known as Comedy Corner. The show primarily consisted of stand-up comics, but also featured acts such as punk banjo, juggling, and some sketch work. Comedy Corner was essentially a weekly talent show. Acts would audition on Wednesdays, be critiqued, and then perform on Fridays. Sometimes if the act needed work, it was scrapped for the next week's show. At the time, Comedy Corner had a very low attendance, but it picked up in its first semester.

The first comedy duo to perform was called the Jim and Phil Show. They performed sketches, including one act that started with two Entemology professors from Cambridge, who slowly morph into their favorite insects, ready to mate. Jim and Phil eventually moved to LA to pursue professional comedy careers.

Timothy Gassen and Chad White were also founding Comedy Club members. They met at the club's first organizational meeting, and then formed "The Grubby Theatre Company." Consisting of filmmaker Gassen, musician White and screenwriter Marlowe Weisman (and other rotating members including Mark Hertzog), The Grubby Theatre Company performed songs, roasts and original sketches. The group released a book collection of their material in 1981, and staged a 20th anniversary reunion as one of the headlining acts for the 1999 Comedy Corner "S.I.C.K." festival shortly before the original Student Union and Cellar was demolished.

This era of Comedy Corner also saw the comedy of Bob Rubin, now a national stand-up comedian. Bob performed over-the-top antics, including bringing a motorcycle into The Cellar one week to allegedly attempt to jump the audience Evil Knievel-style.

By the spring semester of 1982, Comedy Corner became a popular attraction on campus. It was during this period that Garry Shandling
Garry Shandling
Garry Emmanuel Shandling is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his work in It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show....

 hosted a show. To increase its visibility, Comedy Corner members performed a promotional show on a local radio station. Later, the radio show was canceled because someone made a joke involving rape on air.

When founder Goldstein left, he summed up his Comedy Corner experience with this perplexing advice: “Don’t serve the dessert before the chili.”

In 1983, Comedy Corner nearly fell apart. As only two students, Bill Berry and Mike Sterner, had not graduated, the show became a series of two-man sketches with the added help of one new member, Terry Owen. After Berry left, Sterner and Owen were so desperate to fill time, they had an open mic in the middle of the show. Recognizing the problem, Sterner ran a newspaper ad soliciting “regulars”. Six people showed up, including Bill Bernat and Paul Smitherman, who said they would only perform if they could wear lab coats.

Comedy Corner was then reconstituted into a stand-up and sketch comedy format revolving around a weekly theme, such as "Safety Week", "Vaudeville is Dead Week," and "Bill Berry's - A Salute to Cafeterias." Sketches were written over the weekends, then rehearsed on Mondays. On Wednesdays, they were polished and assigned props and costumes. On Fridays, the show was performed in front of a live audience.

Through the next 30 years, Comedy Corner transformed into a sketch and improv troupe. They currently perform a weekly show on Wednesday nights at 9:30pm in The Cellar Bistro (which was rebuilt under the same name in the new Student Union). Shows consist of a half-hour of original sketch comedy followed by a half-hour of improv.

From its inception, Comedy Corner has had financial operational support (for props and costumes) by the University Activities Board. In 1995, Comedy Corner also received its first and last sponsorship of $1500 from a major corporation, Miller Light. The sponsorship only lasted a year.

Schedule

Comedy Corner performs on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. in the Cellar, located at the bottom level of the University of Arizona's Student Union building. Shows run approximately one hour long, and consist of sketches, short and medium-form improv, and music and video presentations created by writers and cast members.

Rehearsals

Rehearsal processes vary from week-to-week depending on the nature of the week's show.

Typically, the group's writers and performers meet Friday afternoon for a writer's meeting, where they discuss ideas and topics for sketches. More promising or developed ideas are then hashed out into first drafts of sketches, which are then run at the week's first rehearsal on Monday evening. The group then decides collectively to keep the sketch as-is, return it to the original writer or another group member to be revised for future weeks, or scrap the sketch altogether. The group then meets for their second rehearsal on Wednesday evening, where the troupe run sketches that will be performed in that night's show. At the end of this rehearsal, the troupe goes down the The Cellar to prep costumes and prop before opening the curtains at 9:30. Each member spends just about 15 hours, or more in some cases, a week dedicated to Comedy Corner.

The performing cast also practices improv during rehearsals. Performers often play games and run scenes, also participating in workshop-oriented exercises. These exercises are not intended as performance pieces. Rather, they encourage the development of skill sets that can be utilized during improv games and scenes. A weekly gathering dubbed Saturday Morning Improv (though it mostly occurs in the afternoon) was started in 2008, and it invites anyone and everyone from the campus and Tucson community to join members of Comedy Corner in a no-judgment all-improv workshop.

Themed shows

Currently, the cast, led by the director, creates two themed shows per year. "The Halloween Show" runs the Friday before Halloween. This show traditionally features a collection of sketches arranged to form a linear storyline. The Halloween Show often features excruciating amounts of fake blood, and it is tradition for all of the cast members to "die" in the show's storyline. Most die in the final moments of the final scene, and the cast members hold a "dead-off" to see who can remain dead on stage the longest while audience members wonder if the show is over or not.

Comedy Corner also creates an annual "Blasphemy Week", which takes place the Friday before Easter. Sketches revolve around the religions of the world, including but not limited to Christianity, Judaism, Scientology, Buddhism, etc.

Other theme shows have included "Trading Places Week" wherein each cast member takes on the persona of a different cast member and "The Show from Over There", which took place on the balcony of the cellar in the old Student Union while the audience sat on stage. Some themed shows also occur spontaneously at the discretion of the cast and director.

The last weekly show of each semester is a designated "Best Of" show, wherein the cast and writers choose their favorite sketches of the semester and showcase them in an encore presentation. In the past, "Best Of" shows have run longer than traditional weekly shows, ranging from ninety minutes to two hours. In recent years, the cast has scheduled their "Best Of" shows within their normal one hour timeslot.

Auditions

Comedy Corner holds open auditions at the beginning of Fall and Spring semesters. The audition process changes as group membership changes, but there are some consistencies in the process in recent years: typically those who audition as writers submit samples of sketches, which are then read by all current members of the group and a majority vote decides if the prospective member becomes a writer. Those who audition as a performer typically cold-read one or two sketches aloud and perform one or two improv scenes, either with other auditionees or with current cast members. They are evaluated by the members of the group present in the audition and a majority vote decides if the prospective member becomes a performer.

Leadership

Comedy Corner is part of the University Activities Board, which is responsible for scheduling and funding all events at the University of Arizona. Each year Comedy Corner's membership votes on leadership positions for the following school year. The group traditionally designates one member as a producer and another member as a director.

The producer, who must be approved by the University Activities Board prior to his or her enactment as Comedy Corner's official producer, acts as a delegate to the University Activities Board. The producer handles all budgeting, finance, and organizational responsibilities. It is also the producer's responsibility, along with the director, to organize some of the aspects of the annual S.I.C.K. Festival, which takes place in the Spring semester. The producer also has a desk in the UAB office. At the desk, posters and some sketches are made up by members in the group.

Comedy Corner's director is responsible for the "artistic" element of the group's weekly shows. This involves leading discussions, writer's meetings, and rehearsals, creating a weekly show order, and introducing the weekly shows, or making arrangements for some sort of introduction, if one is necessary. It is also the duty of the director to keep the group together, by making sure everyone is in good spirits when performing and during rehearsals. The director must bring to the troupe new ideas for sketches, and new improv games. Through this the director has to teach the troupe new improv skills, and how to perform better overall on stage. Both the director and the producer spends about 20 hours a week dedicated to the group.

The S.I.C.K. Comedy Festival

Comedy Corner hosts an annual comedy festival, the S.I.C.K. Festival. S.I.C.K. is an acronym for "Southwest Intergalactic Comedy Kermis."

The festival began in 1992 and is typically a showcase for Arizona college comedy groups, though occasionally has brought in professional talent to perform, such as comedians David Cross
David Cross
David Cross is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian perhaps best known for his work on HBO's sketch comedy series Mr...

 in 2001, Lewis Black
Lewis Black
Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena...

 in 2003, Demitri Martin in 2005, and The Upright Citizens Brigade
Upright Citizens Brigade
The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The most recent incarnation consists of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh...

 in 2006. The headline act for 2007 was Comedy Corner itself, and in 2008 it was The Second City
The Second City
The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...

.

Comedy Corner treats the festival as a showcase for more elaborate new material, rather than a "best-of" event. Traditionally, Comedy Corner's S.I.C.K. performances are more extravagant and elaborate, both technically and comedically, than their weekly shows, and tend to develop a show-length story arc that ties sketches and scenes together.

Spinoffs

Comedy Corner was the only comedy troupe at the University of Arizona until October 1997, when an improv troupe called The Charles Darwin Experience, was founded by a Comedy Corner writing candidate. The Charles Darwin Experience is now a big part of the UA comedy scene, performing a short form comedy show. The premiere of The Charles Darwin Experience was followed by a surge in new comedy groups, including Ambidextrous Armada in 1999 (defunct), Mechanically Separated Chicken in 2001 (defunct), New Kevin (defunct), and in 2002, The Street-Prov Theatre Collective (defunct), which was also founded by former Comedy Corner members in 2005. Despite the mix of teams that have started and failed at UA, Comedy Corner and The Charles Darwin Experience have fought off the pack and have devoted weekly audiences to their free performances on campus.

Farce Side Comedy Hour
Farce Side Comedy Hour
Farce Side Comedy Hour is a sketch comedy show that performs weekly at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.Created in 1985, the group celebrated its 20th Anniversary on October 24, 2005 with a reunion show, in which current cast members and alumni alike shared the stage...

 (active), a sketch comedy troupe at Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...

, was founded by Comedy Corner member Mike Sterner, who transferred schools. "Farce Side" was initially also called "Comedy Corner."

Current troupe members

Cast For The 2011-2012 Season:
  • Director: Mike O'Dea
  • Producer: Andrew Hatch
  • Michelle Luz
  • Kelsey Reinhard
  • Josh Weisman
  • Christian Puentes
  • Lena Olson
  • Aridae Van Sickle
  • DougAndrew Conlogue
  • Claude Renner


Notable alumni

  • Drew Antzis - Director - Co-directed 'The Landlord' starring Will Ferrell at Funnyordie.com
  • Alex Baze - Emmy-nominated writer for "Saturday Night Live
    Saturday Night Live
    Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

    "
  • Nicole Randall Johnson
    Nicole Randall Johnson
    Nicole Randall Johnson is an American comic actress. Johnson is most notable for her membership in the recurring cast of comedians on sketch comedy series MADtv.- Biography and education :...

    - Actress - "Mad TV
    Mad TV
    Mad TV may refer to:*MADtv, an American sketch comedy television series based on Mad magazine*Mad TV , a 1991 German television station management simulation game*MAD TV , a Greek music channel-See also:...

    ", "Curb Your Enthusiasm
    Curb Your Enthusiasm
    Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...

    ", "Reno 911!"
  • Peter Murrietta - Writer/Producer/Creator - "Greetings From Tucson", "Wizards of Waverly Place", "Jesse"
  • Timothy A. Bennett - Actor/Writer/Filmmaker/Musician - Best known as Hawk the brain-damaged roadie in the rock band Van Stone
  • Graham Elwood
    Graham Elwood
    Graham Elwood is an American comedian, actor and writer.Elwood hosted the Game Show Network original series Cram and the USA Network and syndicated game show Strip Poker. From October 2006, he appeared in a DirecTV testimonial commercial as "Graham - Customer since '01"...

    - Actor/Writer/Producer/Director - "Cram", "Strip Poker"
  • Paul Goebel
    Paul Goebel
    Paul Goebel is an American actor, comedian and television presenter.He attended the University of Arizona. He won the TV Land "Ultimate Fan Search". He is currently a contributor to television blog site TV Squad.-Beat the Geeks:...

    - Actor - "Beat the Geeks", "Curb Your Enthusiasm" , "My Big Fat Independent Movie"
  • Derek Iversen - Writer - "SpongeBob SquarePants"
  • Nat Cassidy - Actor/Writer/Musician - Author of The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots and named "a young theatre artist to watch" in New York City
  • Robert Carillo Cohen - Producer of HBO Emmy-nominated documentary "Hacking Democracy"
  • Jim Craig - Senior Executive Business Advisor and Public Speaker
  • Andy Creighton - Musician - Fronts The World Record and plays in Aden, Ashtray Boy, Let's Go Sailing and Annie Hayden.
  • Mick Dalrymple - Eco-Builder - Partner in the company a.k.a. Green
  • Danielle Egnew
    Danielle Egnew
    Danielle Egnew is a psychic, musician, actress, media personality, and activist known in the areas of music, film, radio and television for both performing and producing in all four genres...

    - Musician/Actress/Activist - "All Access Magazine Best Pop/Alternative Female Guitarist 2006"
  • Dayvid Figler
    Dayvid Figler
    Dayvid Figler is a performer, author and trial lawyer in the United States. He became one of the youngest lawyers in Nevada history after successfully taking the bar exam at age 23. In 2003, he began and served a short term as a Las Vegas municipal court judge after being appointed by Mayor Oscar B...

    - Public Radio Commentator/Tru Tv Commentator - "All Things Considered", "Nevada Public Radio"
  • Ron Friedman
    Ron J. Friedman
    Ron J. Friedman is an American screenwriter best known for his work with Steve Bencich.Friedman and Bencich have collaborated on screenplays for several animated films, including Brother Bear, Chicken Little and Open Season...

    - Writer - "Open Season
    Open Season (film)
    Open Season is a 2006 computer-animated comedy film, written by Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman and directed by Jill Culton, Roger Allers, and Anthony Stacchi, and production designed by Michael Humphries...

    ", "Chicken Little
    Chicken Little (2005 film)
    Chicken Little is a 2005 computer-animated science fiction family comedy film loosely based on the fable The Sky Is Falling. It was the 46th animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation...

    ", "Brother Bear
    Brother Bear
    Brother Bear is a 2003 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures, the forty-fourth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics. In the film, an Inuit boy pursues a bear in revenge for a battle that he provoked in which...

    " - Not an official alum, but produced a Comedy Corner documentary in 1992
  • Timothy Gassen - Director/Writer/Musician
  • Greg Kaczynski - Co-Founder/Director/Actor/Writer for Los Angeles sketch comedy group Dynamite Kablammo
    Dynamite Kablammo
    Dynamite Kablammo is a sketch comedy group based in the San Fernando Valley, established in 2006 by Greg Kaczynski, Matt DeNoto, and Candida Rodriguez. Dana DeRuyck, Dane Biren and Meredith Rensa are also members...

  • Phil Klinkon - Architect - Lead designer for mass-transit rail systems
  • Greg Loumeau - Author/Musician/Artist - Comic strip "Fish Shtick", children's books "The Endangered Alphabet," "The Magic Tree" and music project/children's book "Eyes of the Bicycle Horse"
  • Andy Mosier
    Andy Mosier
    Andy Mosier is an American cartoonist based in Tucson, Arizona. An aspiring animator in his youth, he was in 1977 awarded the prestigious Cine Eagle, for his film Insanicyle. He won admission to the Cinema School at the University of Southern California but left before graduating...

    - Artist/Writer - Comic strip "K-Rat"
  • Arnie Niekamp - Improv Olympic Writer/Actor - Wrote for the video game "You Don't Know Jack" and current cast member of Whirled News Tonight
    Whirled News Tonight
    Whirled News Tonight is a weekly improvised satire that performs in the I.O. theater in Chicago, IL. It is the longest-running improvised show currently performing in Chicago...

  • Terry Owen - Musician best known as cult songwriter Fish Karma
    Fish Karma
    Fish Karma is an American punk rock/comedy rock/folk rock musician from Tucson, Arizona.-Biography:Fish Karma has been called everything from Neil Young's bastard brother to the most horrible thing you've ever seen in your life...

     - Currently on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles record label
  • Marlowe Weisman - Animation Writer - "My Gym Partner's A Monkey"
  • Micah Ian Wright
    Micah Wright
    Micah Ian Wright is an American author who has worked in film, television, animation, video games and comic books.-Biography:...

    - Writer - Comic books, video games and animated series, including "The Angry Beavers" - Wrote a series of controversial anti-war propaganda posters "You Back The Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want"
  • Steve Yager - Actor/Director/Producer


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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