Laughter filled the room at the Seaside Jesters Comedy Club first ever “Night with the Jesters” comedy show. "Night with the Jesters" was hosted in the Brittany Wilcox, a junior from Alaska studying English who performed in the show, said, “We wanted to make everyone laugh but we also wanted everyone to think of us as a super classy thing like ‘Saturday Night Live’. We had tables for everyone and center pieces on them. The different atmosphere put a little more pressure on us performers because it seemed like a much more classy event.” "Night with the Jesters" included a larger venue, a three hour show compared to the normal two hours, and free food provided by Food Services and more improv games played by the actors. The show featured music segments from Trevor McCord and Hannah Larsen and student bands Hoopla and Mixed Plate. The Japanese and Kiwi clubs helped usher, setup and takedown the event. Taylor Countrymen, a sophomore from Laie majoring in computer science, drummed for the band Hoopla. Countrymen said the constant action of the night worked to create a more appealing vibe. Countrymen commented, “It was a relaxed atmosphere but there was always something going on whether it was the show, music, or food.” The students there had a good time and there wasn’t any pressure. People were coming and going throughout the night.” William Walter Arnett III, a junior from Arizona studying music, is one of the club’s presidency members and said, “We played a game that’s never been done in the shows before called ‘Movie Dub’ where a scene was shown from an old film with no sound and we had to dub the voices. In the scene, they cut off the tail of a horse and made it into a wig for a guy and I said, ‘This is perfect for the Führer!’ It always makes me happy when a good Hitler joke is made.” Arnett felt the new area microphones that bordered the stage made “a huge difference. I think that is one of the biggest triumphs of the Night with the Jesters. We were trying to figure out how to truly perform for a big audience. People always laugh, but sometimes it’s hard to get everyone to laugh. At first, we were on the floor of the HGB and it was hard for people to see and hear if they were in the back. It can still be funny but not ‘really’ funny.” Countrymen felt the performance value was heightened by the crowd involvement. Countryman said, “I remember watching ‘Whose Line is it Anyway’ with my family and this show was a lot like that. They got audience members to come in for the games and were in the crowd like for 'Sound Effects' where they had two audience members come up and make the sound effects for all the little actions the performers did.” Amber Blair, a senior from Utah studying music and elementary education, said the structure helped contribute to the comedy. “This was the third comedy show I’ve been to and what made this one much more fun was that it was really well put together. I loved the game Scenes from Facebook where the audience posted a topic on the Jester Facebook page and the performers made something up right there on the spot, just like Scenes from a Hat on ‘Whose Line is it Anyways’.” Arnett said the turnout from the community for the Jesters is increasing. “We’re becoming more professional in our comedy and much more popular,” Arnett said. “We’ve always filled up in the small rooms we’ve been in but this was a much larger crowd and venue.” Lindsey Ferrin, a junior from Oklahoma studying psychology, said, “The fact that it was a little more structured and fancy than normal was really cool. I love going and seeing fellow students be hilarious and enjoy themselves and allow us to have a good time.”
Writer: Joshua Mason ~ Multimedia Journalist
