What does an emotionally distant robot, a giant man-cat and a depressed superhero all have in common?
Well, these characters all had debuts in a show that the Theatre Strike Force Sketch team premiered in the middle of November. It was their first full-length show of the semester, and it was titled “Missed Connections.”
The show setup itself was more simple and intimate. There were seven sketches total, and all of the characters were linked together by their daily activities. Here were the sketches:
1) News Hero: A superhero, Captain Amazing, is torn between hiding his true identity and wanting to feel needed. He saves a coworker from death while simultaneously seeking friendships.
2) Horny Newsie: A newsie is confronted with odd…feelings…as his body wreaks havoc on his emotions.
3) iDeath: A man and woman, who are standing next to each other on the bus, share a connection. The bus ride is shown through three perspectives: the woman’s, the man’s and his dying iPod’s.
4) Divorce: Three young girls play the game “Divorce,” which is modeled after “LIFE.” They realize the game is just a way for Becky’s parents to tell her that they really ARE getting divorced. Tragic, eh?
5) Cat: A woman brings a guy home after a night of partying. Her male guest soon finds out she’s a cat lover, and her pet is a disgusting man dressed as a cat.
6) Reverse Rape: A woman is attacked during her late-night jog. She bravely turns the tables on him, and they end up doing an insanely physical tango together.
7) Speed Dating: Many of the characters are called back to speed-date each other, and the event ends in a speed wedding.
Erik Voss (left) and Spencer Hamilton develop an emotional connection during the show's finale. Courtesy of Mike Jenkins.
TSF Sketch wanted to rely on the writing for the jokes and the punchlines…they didn’t want a lot of props. They didn’t want videos. It would all be performed on stage, and a lot of it would be space-object work.
Erik Voss, the founder of TSF Sketch, has been part of the group for about two years. He wrote that “Missed Connections” was a chance to get back to the roots of sketch comedy.
“A lot of our shows up until that point had put too much emphasis on high production value (giant peanut costumes, blood cannons, well-edited mockumentaries),” Voss wrote. “We wanted to impress an audience with good writing and funny characters.”
For the most part, he thought they achieved that.
“Our sketches could have used a few more rewrites and maybe some jokes should have been cut,” he continued. “The show could have used a few more run-throughs to fix the timing of the transitions (which bogged the show down, I think).”
Liz Anderson is also a writer, and she has been part of TSF Sketch for three UF semesters. She wrote that preparing for the show was pretty relaxed compared to their major productions, which are characterized by “totally sleepless nights and nearly obsessive rewrites of sketches.”
“That wasn’t the case here, and while I think we all were happier and actually kept our sanity, I think our content suffered a little,” Anderson added. “I think that Sketch comedy is an art that you very much have to bleed for.”
The night of the sketch show, there were only about 25 people in the audience. Everyone who acted in the show were members of TSF, and they still had a fun time performing.
“Our show started off very slow, and it was difficult getting a reaction out of the audience,” Voss wrote, “but I would say we won them over by the end. The audience reacted strongly to the “divorce” sketch, and they really liked Spencer’s “cat” character in the sketch after that. It’s a good feeling knowing we won them over with our writing and acting, instead of some engineering feat.”
He wrote that he wished Sketch had more people attend its show, but the biggest thing to take away from the experience is the importance of marketing and promotions.
However, Voss also wrote that “Missed Connections” did a great job of incorporating the talents of all the writers.
“Each of the writers played at least one role on stage,” he wrote. “In the past, the head writers tend to swoop in and do heavy rewrites on sketches without including the original writers, which, while making a funnier sketch, can get frustrating for younger writers. We were better about that for this show, and I’d like to keep it up.”
The group realizes they all share the same robot dad: Destructron! Courtesy of Mike Jenkins.
It’s pretty clear that TSF Sketch will continue to plan bigger and better things. It is a group that thrives off of each others’ creative minds, and they are minds that cannot stay dormant for too long.
“We try to gather the smartest and funniest minds in TSF together in a room to generate ideas, to write, to try to make each other laugh, to rewrite and refine, and to ultimately turn out a polished product,” Voss wrote. “The writers room is the only place I feel comfortable asking the question: “Is this funny?” Because I know I’ll get an answer I can trust.”
In Liz Anderson’s life, TSF Sketch is more than a simple extracurricular.
“It’s what gave me confidence in my comedic ability; the people in it supported me but didn’t baby me, told me how I was good but how I could be much better,” Anderson wrote.
And now, she’s gearing up to produce one heck of a show in the spring semester.
“What I want out of future shows is more of everything,” she wrote. “We’ve done our intimate show. I think it’s time for something big. I’m still trying to find my role in sketch, and I want to be able to have a big hand in a major production.”
