Press
Cornell Business Magazine (November 5th, 2004)
An Evening With Cornell's Comedy Groups is Better Than Doing Laundry
"Those of us who spent four years in Ithaca as undergraduates know that one of the greatest privileges of attending Cornell is not necessarily the education received from erudite professors, or the company of pleasant classmates, but rather the opportunity to spend an evening watching the Skits-O-Phrenics or the Whistling Shrimp... Rest of Article
Cornell Daily Sun (September 27th, 2004)
Laugh Out Loud
"If you are overburdened with work and in need of something to cheer you up, look no further than Cornell's two comedy groups, the Skits-O-Phrenics and The Whistling Shrimp." Rest of Article
The Ithacan (April 22nd, 2004)
Comedians Test Boundaries
"The team’s brand of comedy can be compared to the popular sketch comedy group Kids in the Hall , featuring bizarre concepts and surreal happenings. Having no limits and complete creative control , the Skits-O-Phrenics are fearless in their content and don’t restrict their comedy. From the moment the show opens, audience members are immediately thrust into the creative, sick and sometimes twisted minds of the group’s members...
The Skits-O-Phrenics have time and time again taken sketch comedy to a pulp theater stage. They dispel the flashiness of television sketch comedy and the sometimes college-style humor of other such comedy groups. The team has risen to a higher status of theater groups often only found in the theater scene of major cities." Rest of Article
Cornell Daily Sun (April 15th, 2004)
A Schizo-Interview
"daze: Can you elaborate on the process of getting your ideas on stage?
Phrenics: "Sure, we have a machine." "Haha, yeah, it has this pump ..." Rest of Article
The Skidmore News (February 16th, 2001)
The Twelth Annual Comedy Festival
The Skidmore News (February 12th, 2000)
National Comedy Fest Comes Home to Roost
"While many students came to Saturday's second show to support Skidmore's Ad-Liberal Artists , the night belonged to Cornell. Their brand of sketch comedy was unsurpassed by any other group in the three performances. Their skits were brilliantly scripted, with very few flaws and lots of laughs. They used minimal props and incredible writing to keep the audience in stitches. " Rest of Article
Cornell Daily Sun (October 30th, 2000)
IthacAid Reaches Goals
"The Skits-O-Phrenics, another comedy group, performed four original skits. "The Skits were hilarious," said Laura Davis '04. "I thought I was going to fall over!" " Rest of Article
Cornell Daily Sun (October 28, 1999)
Review of Ithacaid
Recapping Ithacaid
by Melissa Sarno
...Adding to the mix of popular a cappella was the hilarious all-sketch comedy group, the Skits-O-Phrenics. They opened with a farce of the famous story of monkeys jumping on the bed. Along with the Haiku Frat Party, and an interpretive dance of stereotyped Greek life on campus, the Skits-O-Phrenics added much to the unique blend of student entertainers that the night had to witnessed [sic] thus far.
Preview of "A Nightmare on Elm Skit"
Skit or Treating:
An an all-new use of the word "skit" can only mean another
Skits-O-Phrenics show
by Farhad Manjoo
I've had the good fortune to write many articles about
the Skits-O-Phrenics, "Cornell's only all-sketch comedy group," and it's nice
to report that despite losing some of their members to graduation, the
group still has it in them to make audiences laugh.
Anyone who's familiar with the current cast of Saturday
Night Live (which is getting better, I have to admit) is aware that being
funny once is a wholly different thing from staying funny for a while. Whatever
dynamic is prevalent within a certain group that allows it to be funny is
evidently a slippery thing; sometimes you got it, other times you don't, and
when you don't, people know.
Lucky for the Skits, they still have it. I expect that
their next show (called A Nightmare on Elm Skit, which, though a bit on the
dull side, is better than the name Skitanic, which they made the mistake of
using last year) will continue their trend of hilarity, and perhaps they might
even top themselves this time. Apparently waking up to the truism that song-and-dance
numbers equal big bucks, the Skits have assured me that this Halloween-themed
show will include a spectacular, Broadway-like smash hit, and, well, frankly
I can't wait. The singing and dancing always gets me going, and as long as
they don't try any Mariah Carey-like vocal acrobatics, the Skits will probably
pull this off sportingly.
Also, I've been informed by the Skits that A Nightmare
on Elm Skit will feature a show-long gag that is actually relevant to the
title of the show. One would guess that it will spoof Freddy Krueger and his
ilk, which seems a promising endeavor, if only because the group is usually
good at parodies (I'm thinking of their Star Wars skit from a couple years
ago which had the audience in stitches).
Another sign that the Skits know their comedy is their
willingness to retire some notably vestigial parts of their show. The Hunter
Rawlings skit, for one, which anyone who's been to a Skits show in the last
two years knows by heart. It proposed that the reason Cornell's president
is so inhumanly tall is because he's
actually two guys, one standing on top of the other. It was funny the first
time, but got stale soon after, so I'm glad they've left it out. Also not
appearing in this show are The Risleyans, who were a group of characters the
Skits invented to emphasize the well-established fact that people from the
"artsy" dorm are weird. This is a bit like making fun of the fact that King
Kong is very hairy - not very original, really.
Thankfully, the Skits will go out on a limb this time,
performing some sketches that are not centered around Cornell. Look for the
return of the salad-themed superheros
which made their Skits debut last year. These characters, which epitomize
the quirkiness that is the Skits' modus operandi, go around solving the
world's problems with their unique, salad-derived abilities. This kind of
thing is so odd that you can't help but find it amusing, and, luckily, the
Skits provide many other such out-of-this-world
delights.
Skits involving pirates will also be included in the repertoire,
as will, I'm told, truckers. How the Skits-O-Phrenics plan to include either
pirates or truckers is beyond me, but it sounds
like just the sort of thing that they can do well. Last year, they featured
a pirate as a schoolteacher, and that skit was so perfectly inane that it
smacked of brilliance.
Sketch comedy is a difficult trade, and any group that
does it well can be expected to fall into a slump every once in a while. I
can't say when that will happen to the Skits-O-Phrenics; I hope it will be
soon, though, because after writing so much copy on this Cornell group, I'm
beginning to feel a little like one of those film critics whose invariably
gushing blurbs are featured in every movie advertisement.
But I assure you, I don't get enough compensation from
the Skits-O-Phrenics to make this worth my while; mostly, its a labor of ...
laughs. (Ha ha.)
Review of "Skitanic"
$230 Million Budget?
by Farhad Manjoo
Sketch comedy is something that everyone
likes but few appreciate, which is unfortunate, bcause the format is likely
the best vehicle for comedy. The funniest examples of sketch comedy -- whether
your personal favorite is from SNL or the Carol Burnett Show
or The Kids in the Hall or wherever -- are humorous precisely because
of their "sketchy" nature; specifically, they aren't bogged down with the
plot concerns of longer forms of comedy -- worries of characterization and
credibility -- and can therefore concentrate solely on being funny (we've
all seen the sitcom or movie that would have been a better skit.)
At their show on Saturday, the Skits-O-Phrenics -- who
pride themselves on being "Cornell's only all-skit comedy group" -- demonstrated
that they are well-aware of these things that make skits funny.
It's refreshing to see in a college group the Skits' meticulousness,
to see how seriously they take their comedy. They successfully escape the
traps that have tripped up more than a few real-world comedians (e.g., Tracey
Ullman's often melodramatized skits, or In Living Color's reliance
on funny characters instead of funny situations).
The Skits break all the theatrical rules that good sketch
comedy is supposed to. Most importantly, they aren't wedded to coherency --
"making sense" is fortunately not a concern of theirs. For example, it makes
no sense that a pirate would become a substitute teacher, but their skit about
this unlikely situation sure is funny. After student starts to sob at not
being able to read, the burly pirate's explanation that the boy has a "larnin'
disability" and has "nothing to be ashamed of" is funny precisely because
it's unexpected.
But because most of the Skits' comedy is so well-executed,
the parts where the group falters become more conspicuous. They're guilty
of recycling some of their comedy, and some of it is getting stale.
Frankly, I'm a bit tired of seeing their President Rawling
bit. (See, Rawlings is tall, so the Skits have two guys stand on top of each
other and act like him. I chuckled the first time I saw it, but now it just
seems like filler.) Still, though, the Skits are mostly in top form, and as
funny as ever.
(Well, there is one other thing: Skits, if you're reading,
next time, please come up with better name for the show. Skitanic?
Come on.)
Review of "The Skitching Hour"
Cornell Comedy Celebration
by Farhad Manjoo
Last weekend's Skits-O-Phrenics show, "The Skitching Hour,"
was the group's first performance this year. Last year they performed at the
closet-size Risley Theatre, where they remained a North Campus secret. This
year they've moved to the comparatively colossal Barnes Hall, and they've
also added a good many new faces to make them truly campus-wide comedians.
With all-campus comedy comes all-campus change. Fans of
the Skits' freaky, leather- and metal-clad "Risleyan" characters will be saddened
to note that the Risleyan skits were omitted this time. The apparent replacement
character was "Baco Bitch," a high-fat fiend whose quest is to destroy a group
of good-for-you super-heroes called "The Salad Force."
Continuing the campus-comedy theme was a skit about a family
who run their house like Cornell University, complete with grades and a meal
plan. ("I don't need to hear your lecture," the son says to the father smugly,
"I have the Take Note.")
But the move to Barnes didn't only make the Skits more
all-inclusive in their performances -- it also made the show bigger in general.
The group started the show by demonstrating the advantages of its new bigness.
With alternating pairs of Skits speaking in unison, the group introduced themselves
and informed the audience that the entire show would be performed in "stereo."
They even tried to THX - but "due to the expense," they
explained that they could only offer it to one audience member. The poor guy
was surrounded by four Skits, who blared into his ears some facts about the
group's new "immersive experience."
With the possible exception of that guy, nobody should
have left the two-hour long show in a bad mood. Throughout the performance,
the audience seemed happy with the show. The Skits do comedy like Ali did
boxing -- they don't try to get the audience with a few big punches, but instead
administer a constant barrage of jabs. And most of the time, their jabs are
funny.
Except when they take jabs at RED LETTER DAZE (which they
happened to do last weekend). The skits may be funny, and you can agree with
their claim that they put the "HA!" in Halloween. And now that they've moved
to Barnes, you might even call them Cornell's premiere comedy group. Still
the Skits should keep in mind that despite the howling laughter of the audience,
making fun of DAZE is always unfunny.
Review of "Election Ninety-Skits"
Phrenetic
by Farhad Manjoo
With their show titled "Election Ninety-Skits,"
the Skits-O-Phrenics comedy group took a swipe at Campaign '96 in that witty
way that only they can.
Which, I admit, sounds kind of corny: "So, err...what,
they made fun of politicians?" you're probably thinking.
Yes. They made fun of politicians.
"And that's suposed to be funny? I see that on TV all the
time!"
Well, these guys were funny. During the two-hour long performance
in front of a full house, the Skits-O-Phrenics managed to mock all things
political and make it hilarious to boot.
In a recurring skit about the campaign, they showed a three-way
race which pitted a down-home President Clinton against a very tall President
Rawlings and sadomasochistic tag-team Risleyans.
But lest you think that they're all politics, the show
was mostly non-political (which, after the year-long Campaign '96, was quite
refreshing.) The funniest parts, in fact, were about things that had nothing
at all to do with the election.
One highlight was a hilarious skit about the Star Wars
Fraternity and a timid freshman interested in joining. The skit featured one
of the best lines in the whole show -- the sage Yoda telling a weary freshman,
"Drink or drink not -- there is no buzzed."
But by far the funniest skit in the play was a take-off
on that show we all loved as kids, The Wonder Years, titled The
Gangsta Years. Exploring what it would have been like if Kevin Arnold
grew up in Compton, this skit showed that even gangsta children have troubles
with the birds and the bees.
"Election Ninety-Skits" was much more than the Comedy Central-ish
political sarcasm that permeates comedy nowadays. It was actually funny.
Click here to see the accompanying picture.
Review of "Greatest Skits II"
Rerun-O-Phrenics
by Rebecca Montero
In keeping with the recent slew of NYPIRG posters, last
weekend's show by the Skits-O-Phrenics was completely recycled. The Skits-Os
sifted through mountains of their old material to produce an evening of their
"best skits." Generally, it is kind of boring to see a show full of reruns
-- but this is not always the case.
Although they had a great number of funny skits, this production
definitely was not a compilation of all their "greatest skits." Like
any show, there were highlights and low points. It was pretty cool to see
some of the old skits, but a few of them, like the Blue Light Bus skit that
we all probably saw on Cornell Night, were just a tad overdone.
I felt sort of uncomfortable watching some of the old skits
in which characters were played by new actors. Itt was like waking up one
morning and seeing your dad in a dress going off to work -- not that there
is anything wrong, it is just a little unusual and hard to get used
to. The new Skits-O-Phrenics should be given serious credit; filling the shoes
of the actors who left was no small job.
The skit about an a cappella group, The Testoster-tones,
was by far the most hilarious segment of the evening. These guys sang a parody
of "Hooked on a Feeling," where the refrain was a public admission that they
were all "singin' to get laid."
While rock climbing belly-first across and up the Kaufmann
stage, Charlie Saulino and Colin Benoit suddenly realized that they were without
a safety line. In a fit of fear, they lost their grips, and Colin fell, screaming
until he smacked up against the blackboard/ground. It is a pretty funky visual
thing, and just one of many skits that involved Colin's hurling himself into
or across the stage.
Cow revenge jokes were scattered throughout the whole show.
A cow got his kicks by tipping over other students and pulling a human hand
out of a Trillium bag to rival his neighbor's carton of milk.
The Skits-O-Phrenics made a valiant effort to recreate
their greatest moments, but in certain cases it would have been better to
create new stuff. Then their new members would have a chance to shine in their
own right instead of just performing in safe, low-risk skits.
Review of "Greatest Skits II"
Greatest Skits II: Making It Big
by Angela Bradley
No performer can ever be sure that they have made it big
until they witness the release of a collection of their greatest hits. Madonna
has one, the Beatles have several; even Cheers has a show dedicated to their
most memorable scenes. And recently, Cornell's only all-skit comedy group,
the Skits-O-Phrenics, proved that they have truly made it big among Cornell's
student performance groups with the performance of their highly acclaimed
show, Greatest Skits Volume II. To die-hard "Skitso" fans it was an event
that equaled the Eagles reunion tour as the group revived some of its raunchiest,
silliest, most memorable skits.
If there was only one adjective to define the subject matter
of this collection of greatest skits, it would have to be "random", as the
group has a tendency to take such unrelated matters as your favorite breakfast
cereal, homicide detectives, and the Pilsbury Dough Boy and bring them all
together to create the kind of fast-paced frenzied humor that their fans just
can't seem to get enough of. For instance, in one of Greatest Skits' most
memorable moments Forrest Gump, Keanu Reeves, Frank Rhodes and an overzealous
Skits-O-Phrenics fan find themselves at the mercy of a sadistic bus driver
on a bomb-laden blue light bus. The group then its audience "Off to see the
Willard, the wonderful Willard of Straight", through a world of a-cappella
munchkins, Glinda the good witch of North Campus (who later admits that deep
down she's a "sadistic bitch"), and a Dorothy who would do anything to get
back to Long Island. And no Skits-O-Phrenic show would be complete without
a visit from the Risleyans, who in this case plan to take over the world using
a hijacked Star Ship Enterprise and convert all earthlings to their "alternative
lifestyles." Is there a better adjective to describe all this than "random"?
Well, yes, hilarious works too.
A special congratulations goes out to the Skits-O-Phrenics
newest members, Jared Bishop and Jeff Kirch, who pulled out all the stops
with such roles as an over-sexed Darth Vader and a guy in a bar trying to
pick up a girl using only song lyrics. Congratulations also to the group's
graduating seniors, Karen Fadden and Mike Levine. They both graduate with
a "Greatest Skits" performance under their belts, a sure sign that at least
among the Skits-O-Phrenics' Devoted Fans, they have truly made it big.
Review of "Skit's Alive"
Kiss My Skits
>by Asa Mittman
"Hunter Rawlings
is very tall...Very tall." This, the program explains, must be fully understood
if anything wonderful was to come of the Skits-O-Phrenics recent performance.
Last weekend one of Cornell's favorite comedy groups appeared yet again in
Kaufmann Auditorium. Since the performing space is scheduled for demolition,
it was probably one of the last time the Skits will perform on the unusual
expanding stage (reminiscent of the Bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise).
This show, filled with a peculiar
overabundance of humor based on sex, contained the usual mixture of Cornell
and entertainment humor. The Skits presented their own versions of Baywatch,
ER, and other popular TV shows. They also continued to give glimpses into
the secret lives of the pair of men posing as Hunter Rawlings III, and his
encounters with the Cornell Board of Trustees, which included former president
Frank H.T. Rhodes, Genghis Khan, Darth Vader, Lorena Bobbit, and Satan.
One particularly clever skit involved
a man trying to pick up a woman, with all of the dialogue composed entirely
of song lyrics, most of which were surprisingly recognizable.
Clearly, the highlight of the show
was a skit in which the male members of the Skits parodied the Cornell a-cappella
group, The Hangovers. Dressed in blue blazers and khakis, they sang the popular
tune "Hooked on a Feeling," but changed the lyrics to "I'm singin' to get
laid/Worked after IthacAID! HUH!" (with accompanying pelvic thrust).
The Risley contingent in attendance,
myself included, was delighted to see the return of The Risleyans, who were
presumed dead and gone, along with the Blue Light Bus, when the famous "Madonna
Dave" McKew graduated last year. It seems that the Risleyans are still out
to battle the evil forces of the "Frat Boys," and are still able to triumph,
despite their "Beer Armor."
Unfortunately, some of the skits
did not seem fully developed, and many very good ideas were not fully exploited.
Still, many of the scenes were classic Cornellcentric humor, filled with the
sort of references that truly make the audience feel as if they are in on
a series of very good "inside jokes."
In the spirit of the Cornell tradition
of protest, a student was handing out fliers before the show objecting to
the comedy group's name. Thankfully, the Skits are not entertaining suggestions
for a new name, as I personally would miss the old one, which suits them so
well.
Click here for all the details on the name controversy including letters, articles and the flyer mentioned in the article above.