Live Comedy

By Grace Carballo ‘17

If you’re looking to impress someone with all USC has to offer, take them to the SCA Comedy Live Show this Friday! (https://www.facebook.com/events/790337817715086/)

If you’re looking to really impress them, take them there in one of the free Ubers we now have at our disposal.

And lastly, if you’re looking for an awesome 2-unit course next year, I have nothing but good things to say about the class behind the show. There are actually three separate courses that collaborate to put everything together- a section for directors, another for actors, and a third for screenwriters, which I am in (CTWR499).  If people tell you that you are funny, or you tell yourself that you are funny, or you just want to be part of a live sketch comedy show, this is perfect for you.

This week, we have an amazing guest host, Charlie Koontz, who you may recognize from Community or CSI Cyber. 

My professor in charge of the writers, Pam Veasey, is actually currently writing for CSI Cyber (in addition to enlightening us and fine-tuning our craft), and she was able to recruit him for the show this Friday. She also wrote for In Living Color and is amazing at writing comedy, as well as finding obscure props and costumes- there’s nothing I’ve come across that she cannot do.

Our first broadcast, which was the last Friday in February, was guest-hosted by Chase Winton, my improv professor from last semester and a fantastic, hilarious person, as well.

For the course itself, every Monday we all meet as a large group from 1:00-3:50 and then break off into writers, directors, and actors before putting the sketches together. Trojan Vision students both crew and produce the show and the whole thing really is an amazing collaboration. It’s the only course of its kind and last year became the first student-run, student-produced live sketch comedy show in the nation.

After seeing all the work that goes on behind the scenes and often struggling to jump over the nearly insurmountable hurdle that is writer’s block, I have an even greater respect for all those involved with SNL and sketch comedy as a profession and all of my intimidatingly gifted peers. 

There are a lot of funny people learning and lurking here at USC (Commedus Interruptus, Sack of Troy, Merry Men, Second Nature, the list goes on) and a good chunk of them will be at or in the show on Friday and/or our last show at the end of April.

I’m no doctor, but they say that laughter is the best medicine, so illness is no excuse not to attend.

Laugh On,

Grace