Mars Harmon, Asst. Photo Editor–
During the International Ninja Day Show, Sketch’rs, Denison’s own sketch comedy troupe, performed student written sketches in Slayter Auditorium. The name of this performance changes every year.
“We have a tradition of just, it’s about two years old, we schedule a show, and then we look up what stupid holidays are on that day, and then we just name the show after that. So, December 5th is International Ninja Day apparently and we thought it sounded the funniest. That’s the inspiration,” says Alex VanLaven ‘26, the president of Sketch’rs.
For many new club members this was their first time writing and performing their sketches. William Tutt ‘29, a new member to Sketch’rs, explained the process of writing his sketch about a comical “Steinfeld” episode that included unlimited cereal, thus unlimited box tops.
“To make it funny I found it kind of hard…to help me get into the vibe I just pretended to be the characters and talked to myself like a weird person, I was like, ‘What’s the matter with box tops,’ ‘You’re right, Jerry, you need box tops,’ and that was kind of my process,” said Tutt, both wrote and performed in this sketch.
There were three new members, Tutt, Gage Freshour ‘29 and Michael Qing ‘29. All three received their Sketch’rs names during the introduction to the show. Tutt received the name, “Lord Kramer,” Freshour received the name, “Lord Googoo,” and Qing received the name, “Bobs Your Uncle.” All members keep these names until they graduate.
There is a lot of preparation that goes into each Sketch’rs show. Freshour also described how the troupe prepares for a show. “Before the show process…we’ll probably do a run of some trouble scenes, see how that’s working, work some transitions and really just make sure everything is in tip-top-enough shape.”