Comedy Extravaganza Supports Charity, Fills Cat in the Cream

Folks, let's just face it: Saturday Night Live sucks. It's sucked for at least a decade. So where can you get your comedy fix? The Cat in the Cream last week, at the comedic marathon Friday Night Live, that's where.

The nearly five hours of humor were supplied by the sketch comedy group Piscapo's Arm, the two campus improv groups Primitive Streak and Sunshine Scouts, and the emceeing of Student Union Assistant Director Tom Reid. The night even included a house band as Blues Connotation provided interlude music and jammed later in the evening. The groups accepted donations at the door for the DeMonta Whiting Fund.

Piscapo's Arm, opening the show with junior Aaron Mucciolo as a bitter Al Gore, turned in a characteristically strong performance. In the sketch, Gore begins his new job as a late-night talk show host with Joe Lieberman, played by sophomore Duncan Gale, as his bandleader. The two work well together; another strong piece was a Kids in the Hall-esque dialogue between Mucciolo and a Hungarian-speaking Gale. The only sketch repeated from their appearance earlier this month was that of a pledge drive from hell, but even that had been tweaked from its previous incarnation. Their efforts manifested the group's consistent talent.

Primitive Streak also turned in a solid performance. Their opening game, short riffs centered around the word muffin, was the strongest, probably because the shorter format allowed them to jump easily from punchline to punchline. Their final offering, a Real World scenario, was also funny, particularly the lying banker character of sophomore Paul Blanding and the pathetically upset elf portrayed by junior David Blatt. However, singling out even a few stand-outs is difficult, because the group as a whole operated at a consistently high level of expertise and worked together extremely well.

The Sunshine Scouts, while entertaining, encountered more difficulties than the other two groups. A large part of this was due to the format - their performance was one interwoven piece that had no clear plot or center. Coming off of the more controlled improv of Primitive Streak, the different feel of their performance required considerable audience adjustment. Despite this, there were great moments within the piece, such as junior Ben Poletta's coaching of another Scout on switching accents and sophomore Chris Bosworth's union replacement for a genie.

The Scouts' performance was undeniably successful, but a different ordering of the groups might have made the switch in style less jarring.

After intermission, the three groups switched to more of a comedic jam session, eventually involving members of the audience in their performance.

The night ended as a triumph on two levels: for raising hundreds of dollars for Whiting, and as a night of great Oberlin comedy.