Theatre COM brings sketch comedy to Flat Tuesdays
Griffin Baltz
Contributing Writer
On Friday, October 3rd, the Theatre Council of Majors collaborated with several students to bring a sketch comedy show to Flat Tuesdays in the Commons. Various students wrote and acted in the sketches, interspersed by performances by a musical act.
The Commons echoed with the sounds of music and laughter last Friday night when the first instance of “Friday Night Live” came to lower Flat Tuesdays.
The Theatre Council of Majors, alongside students Ramon Buress, a junior economics and acting major, and Angelo Skarlatos, a junior MCS major, coordinated an evening of sketch comedy and music that brought in various students from the school to write and perform their acts on stage.
Attendance to the event was a first come, first served situation and no sooner were the doors opened than the seats in Flat Tuesdays were brimming with a crowd eager to see what the acts would bring to the table.
An hour and a half array of stand-up comedy, sketches and music made up the event, bringing copious laughter and applause from the crowd of students. Theatre and non-theatre students alike brought the acts to life, all of which were well-received by the crowd.
“The whole show was so hilarious,” says Alex Reeves, a junior Theatre major with a BFA in Acting. “There was at least one point where I was crying from laughing so hard. Every single sketch and scene was so funny.”
The show kicked off with a stand-up routine by student Scott Seiss, whose jokes brought thunderous applause to Flat Tuesdays, setting the mood for the rest of the show.
Other scenes included a UMBC-centric parody of Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” segment and another in which two actors engaged in a disastrous but hilarious virtual date night.
In between the comedy acts, the “house band” Palate Cleanser played loud and fast covers of songs like “Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones and kept the energy high throughout the show.
“I think the band definitely came through in the clutch,” states Palate Cleanser guitarist Chaz Atkinson, also a BFA theatre major. “We didn’t have much time to get the music together, but it went pretty well in the end.”
The show closed with massive applause from the crowd while the cast and musicians mimicked the credits of Saturday Night Live and many audience members stayed around to talk and compliment the performances.
“[The show] went well,” states Angelo Skarlatos, one of the event’s organizers. “We got to work out all the bugs this round and I think another one is definitely in the future.”
