Primitive Streak to strut stuff

Humor for the Oberlin improv comedy group is old hat

Though Norm MacDonald may not be making an appearance with the Weekend Update, a Friday rendition of "Saturday Night Live" will be at the Cat in the Cream tonight when student comedy troupe Primitive Streak joins comedian Joel Zimmer for a punchline-packed evening.

"[The group's] new people are just incredibly talented," said sophomore Streak member Jeremy Ellison-Gladstone, who teamed up with senior Emily Banks to direct tonight's performance. Along with the other eight members of the troupe, the co-directors have practiced eight hours a week for several weeks leading up to the show - their second performance of the year.

Primitive Streak is no stranger to comedy. In existence for eight or nine years ("A long time," was Ellison-Gladstone's hazy recollection), the group strives to express its care-free comic attitude while keeping its audience involved. Be it through simple comedy sketches, faux commercial skits, group games or monologues, the troupe gets its job done.

Tonight's performance should be especially "zany," as Ellison-Gladstone said, because of the extended opportunities for audience participation. "We'll ask someone to give us a situation to act out, like `Two lawyers in an office' or something," he explained, "and we'll just improv the whole thing."

In fact, Primitive Streak is based solely on improvisations, shaped around positive audience feedback. "There's not one single written word," Ellison-Gladstone said. Tonight, Streak shares the spotlight with Zimmer, and will break between acts for folk artist and senior Peter Galub and his backup band.

As far as making Oberlin a better place for us all, Primitive Streakers are doing their damndest to lighten up the student body with their comic routine. Ellison-Gladstone said he feels that comedy goes over very well at Oberlin, though he noted the minimal amount of silliness on campus. "A lot of productions turn out to be really heavy and deep, which is not necessarily a bad thing," he said. "It's just nice to give reassurance to people that it's really okay to laugh and be happy every once in a while."