Stop Hitting Yourself, a sketch comedy show put on by Obscene/Courageous Theatre and written by two CU Students, delivers laughs with ease.
After an opening curtain speech that involved giving candy to the audience, the six actors are off, launching straight into an hour-long series of sketches.
I thought it was very well done, said 36-year-old senior theater major Lesley Geffinger. I’ve seen lots of sketch shows, I lived in LA. This was up to par.
CU's student comedy troupe Left Right Tim performs in Old Main in February of this year. The group does sketches and shows all throughout the school year. (CU Independent file/Emily Haag)
Stop Hitting Yourself got its first sparks of life through Obscene/Courageous Theatre and grants through the Boulder Arts Commission, but the life blood comes from the two student writers.
For 21-year-old senior creative writing major and co-writer Matt Beard, sketch lets the creativity and comedy happen without constraints.
We got ideas by just kind of being dumb together, Beard said.
The only audience we were ever super concerned with was each other, said 21-year old senior evolutionary biology major and co-writer of Stop Hitting Yourself Blair Britt. We just wrote on our own. I don’t know if we had an audience in mind. The jokes are things we find incredibly hilarious.
Stop Hitting Yourself approaches comedy with a wit and intelligence that just cant help but to have fun.
There’s a lot of collaboration, said 22-year-old senior theater major and ensemble member Graham Emmons. It’s screwball sketch and you don’t have to take it by the book.
Some of the actors are no strangers to making people laugh.
Comedy is the place I like to be, said 21-year-old senior theater major and ensemble cast member Alison Banowsky. Besides participating in Stop Hitting Yourself, Banowsky is also a cast member of Left Right Tim with Britt and Beard.
I’ve always liked to make people laugh, Banowsky said.
They went for the relevant off humor, said 31-year-old theater grad student, Jenn Calvano. They had a presence you’re drawn to watch them. It was just fun.
Actors and creators said it wasn’t just the performance that they enjoyed.
Getting to create things with your friends is just one of the most fun things you can do, Banowsky said. It’s a six person cast. We’re really good friends.
It’s a bunch of buddies just putting things together, Emmons said. It’s easy to talk to each other, and even if you don’t know them you get closer.
Whether it’s writing for themselves or acting to make people laugh, the actors and creators of Stop Hitting Yourself deliver a show with witty humor, good timing, and good clean fun.
It’s easy to half ass a sketch show, Geffinger said. They had some intelligence, worked it in, and made it work. I give it five out of four stars.
The final performance of Stop Hitting Yourself is Nov.13 at 2 p.m. at Wesley Chapel.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Ana Faria at Ana.faria@colorado.edu.
