The fifth annual Sketchella comedy festival, featuring seven of USC’s premier sketch comedy and improv troupes doing what they do best, is set to kick off today.
Nicky Taylor, Co-President of Fourth Quarter All-Stars expressed their enthusiasm for the different performers, personalities and types of sketches set to take the stage.
“I think it’s something really, really special and I’m really happy that we get to host that,” Taylor said.
The troupes will perform a total of six hours over the two-day festival at the Massman Theatre, just across the way from Cap and Gown on USC’s University Park campus, with 30-minute long back-to-back sets. Friday’s performances are set to start at 8:30 pm while Saturday’s show will begin at 5:00pm.
USC-based sketch comedy groups, Fourth Quarter All-Stars (4QAS) and The Suspenders will perform. In addition to writing their own original material and performing, 4QAS founded and will host Sketchella. The festival also includes improv troupes, welcoming Second Nature, Merry Men, Spoiler Alert, Commedus Interruptus and Ludus Remedium to the show. The latter two also perform sketch comedy.
They will hold a moderated Q&A event with a “special” guest speaker from the comedy and TV world. Past guest speakers have included Jess Dweck, who worked on Big Mouth, Harley Quinn and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Falon, and Nick Adams, who has written for BoJack Horseman and Black-ish, according to the Sketchella website.
Second Nature and Merry Men will open the festival tomorrow night as a joint-show, performing a combination of short form improv games and a longform improv format known as “Armando.”
“This is our first Sketchella,” Maddy Curry, a senior theater major and Merry Men co-president, said. “I’ve known about it forever, but this is the first one the Merry Men are participating in.”
Second Nature discussed what rehearsing with the Merry Men looked like.
“It was lots of fun. We love them and like all the troops and rehearsing with them was a blast, so we’re excited to perform with them.” states Liam Stephenson, the social media manager for Second Nature.
Afterwards, the newest mix-form comedy troupe, Ludus Remedium, will perform before the night ends with performances from The Suspenders and 4QAS, the longest running groups.
Aside from the USC troupes, Sketchella will also host returning collegiate comedians from across the country, from Phoenix to Boston.
Spoiler Alert and Commedus Interruptus kick off the second night of the festival followed by visiting troupes and ending once again with a performance from 4QAS.
In regards to what 4QAS wants the audience to take away from the festival Co-President Taylor said, “Mainly, I think I would like them to take away all of the different ways and different forms that sketch comedy can take, and just theater can take.”
Sketchella may be the Massman Theatre’s last performance due to USC demolishing it next month to make room for new athletic renovations. Member of The Suspenders Vincent Demonte is set to perform at Sketchella, something they say is bittersweet.
“There’s a lot of history that goes on in that place, and I know for a lot of student organizations, they will have to start fighting for space,” Demonte said.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article misspelled two names. This has been corrected.