Grace Ostrosky, Asst. Arts & Life Editor–
The Sketch’rs have a motto that goes: “Never apologize, never explain.”
And at their performance on April 4, in Herrick Hall, there were absolutely no explanations or apologies.
The Sketch’rs, founded in 2012 by William Brackenbury ‘15, have been committed to giving “students an outlet for their creative comic endeavors” and entertaining “the student body through whimsy.”
A sketch comedy show consists of a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called sketches. The major difference between the Sketch’rs and the Burpees, Denison’s improv group, is that sketch comedy is scripted and often rehearsed, while improv comedy is spontaneous and unscripted.
There were many sketches performed, including “Killing the Cat,” by Noah Chartier ‘25, “Who Gonna Help Me?” by Charles Ziegert ‘24, and “Fire Podcast, Bro,” also by Chartier.
One sketch, written by L. Lenzotti, received much laughter from the audience. “Animal Farm,” which was based on a combination of George Orwell’s famous novel of the same name and “1984,” followed animals in a barn trying to decide what to do with the evil chicken.
A fight ensued, leaving some of the animals injured with the tagline that the big chicken was “always watching.”
Another sketch, titled “Climate Warrior” written by Elise Sellevaag ‘28, followed a newsperson interviewing three young people about what they were contributing to the climate change fight.
One of the students staged a walk-out at their school, while another boycotted big business. The third student, however, had a different way of showing their commitment to climate activism. Their character told the story of how they performed in a drag show and stole a dog to sell in hopes of counteracting fracking in the gasoline industry.
In doing this, the student undid all the other initiatives by their peers, by selling the dog to a large gasoline company.
In “Blind Voting,” one of the last sketches written by Alex VanLaven ‘26, a group of students are attempting to vote on executive board positions, but the idea of blind voting is taken too literally and no decisions could be made. At the end of the sketch, Alix Sanden’s ‘27 character resigned from the executive board and the remaining members would have to vote all over again.
