During my senior year of college, a year or two after that as well, I was in charge of the comedy sketches for the boston-wide campus crusade meetings. I think the feeling was we needed some kind of ice-breaker item, you know, loosen the kids up and trick them into thinking they're having a good time. In the past they actually used to do ice-breaker activities, little games and contests and things like that. I wasn't particularly keen on that, I wanted to bring a certain kind of, oh, trendy, hip, sarcasm to the whole thing. A few times I did a kind of pop-culture-esque game show and saved by the bell contests. I gave away mentos and strange t-shirts, cause that's very hip and indie stuff to give away. Then, there were my skits. Sometimes I read a little poem I wrote, and other times it was throwing together a little video. Seeing as the hip and indie thing to do is to post stuff on you-tube, I went ahead and did that. Here's all the ones I could find.
Shock-a-pellaAh, the one that started it all. I wanted to make fun of college a capella groups, cause it was so strange and weird. I didn't think I could get away with doing some kind of live stage skit, so the only thing left was shooting a video. I went the whole mockumetry road, cause it's a whole lot easier to write, and you can make it up as you go along. I'm not sure anyone was gonna find it funny, so I stuck in a scene of me eating something strange, that always seems to work.
Quitting: The OlympicsThis one didn't make much sense then, and I'm quite sure how I thought of this idea. I remember explaining the idea to someone, "it's like the olympics, and one of the events is giving up on things, it's funny, right?" Notice my deft use of the same person in two different roles. He uses a strange accent to separate the two people. He also was the narrator.
The Real LifeI had an idea for a completely different skit, one with snow or something. But, that particular day it was really cold, so I didn't feel like doing it. I made this in that 2002-2003 time frame, when reality tv was it. I thought I could make fun of them easily. I also put me eating something strange cause I didn't know if it was gonna be funny.
Boston StateThis was made right around the time that Dawson's Creek was ending, so somehow that put the bug in my ear. It originally was supposed to mirror a cheesy teenage drama. Notice my clever use of pop songs and emo tension. I don't know if people got that, cretins.
Team B: The Walk to Victory
I always like this one cause it had a real plot, with a beginning, middle, and end, heck, even an epilogue. I wanted to make fun of college ultimate frisbee teams, cause it was so strange and weird. This one was filmed on two separate days.
