As a lover of comedy and puns I was rather excited to see Something Sketchy, a flash comedy show organized by Aidan Gorrell and Riley Meachem. I attended both the dress rehearsal and Friday evening premier.
“The Birds and the Bees,” a take on the ever-uncomfortable conversation everyone has with their PTSD-stricken veteran father at some point, opened the show by highlighting the little-acknowledged phenomenon of man-on-penguin love and the music of the Doors. Undoubtedly trippy and full of twists, Birds and the Bees was delightful and maybe the best sketch out of all.
“Outing Yourself” featured a joke about Canada. “Castiglione Pasta Contest” featured Katie Soricelli as mafia matriarch Mrs. Castiglione, who stole the show with biting remarks and a hackneyed accent. Some other things happened in the sketch, probably, but weren’t notable enough to commit to memory.
Allman Brothers Band, a Brechtian take on musical production, took the form of an unplanned and improvised sketch headed by Carson Bloomquist. John Chatigny was particularly notable as the band member whose principled insistence on writing a song about a “cold-hearted woman who done me wrong” brought the fractured band together. All in all, Allman Bros proved to be one of the best sketches for its humor and ingenuity.
“Bro” featured a bro who can only communicate through use of the word “bro.” Though “Bro” was cute, its conclusion in an incomprehensible musical number and overworn pun on the phenomenon of the “basic bitch” confounded me. “Dead Parrot” was an unfortunate take on the Monty Python skit of the same name. Ever since this performance, I’ve got a new motto: “don’t ruin the classics, boys.”
There were several other sketches, including: “Ad War,” a caustic but ultimately rather unfunny examination of a propaganda ministry concocting a war with a country only one of them has ever heard of; “Killing with Kindness,” an inversion of a robbery scenario with a mysterious lack of anything resembling a punchline or joke; “Bitch,” every seventh grader’s bathroom graffiti antics brought together in a crude 45-second play on words; “Hindbad and Abdul,” a very deep but rather long-winded sketch about two men awaiting their impending death by serpent; and “Stoned Philosophy,” which I guess was a sketch or something. (The deranged dry-ramen gorging at the end was slightly redemptive.)
The emcees were admirable, spicing up the show with quips, odd chair-related antics, and long stories about basketball players and identical twins. I applaud their chutzpah, and thought several of the performers, particularly Soricelli, Chatigny, Gold, Blomquist and Karos did excellent work. All in all, can I complain? It was a free show. I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to see more comedy from the funny people of Connecticut College.
