The people who brought “Club B-Cafe” to the 2011 Spring Sing stage are back with new comedic creations.
Tonight, the group of student emcees, known collectively as Company, will be the entertainment hosts of Spring Sing.
Company is comprised of 13 students who write and put on a variety show of comedy sketches, original songs and video shorts in between the Spring Sing acts.
Company member Lauren Vally, a fourth-year theater student, said that the group’s goal is to keep the show moving and the audience laughing.
“Even though Company is similar to “˜Saturday Night Live’ or other sketch comedy groups, all our humor is UCLA-centric,” Vally said. “We are trying to hit jokes that 99 percent of the audience will get.”
Second-year theater student Alex Vergel had no intention of applying to UCLA until online videos of past Spring Sing performances inspired him to join Company.
Without prematurely revealing any surprises of what Company’s performance will entail, Vergel said that this year’s members all use different styles of humor.
“You get people who are very energetic and active, and you get people who are subtle. Everyone brings their own brand. … But you can imagine there are creative differences,” Vergel said.
Vergel said that, because everyone has different taste, it is difficult for the members to agree on what should be in the show and the majority of written scripts are ultimately rejected.
“We just got to crank out as many ideas as we can because while the 13 of us might find something funny, we will pitch it (to Spring Sing Committee) and nobody else will think it is funny,” Vergel said.
Company members have been constantly writing new sketches, memorizing scripts, filming videos and rehearsing choreography since the middle of January.
Maddy Grubman, a fourth-year communication studies student, is in her third year with Company. Grubman said her favorite way to convey humor is through her characters.
“I love being able to go from a crazy old bat lady, to a rapper with an attitude,” Grubman said.
She added that the demographic of Company has changed drastically since she first joined.
“My first year, we were almost all sophomores and it was a whole kind of youth movement that came in,” Grubman said. “This year, there’s a bunch of new people as well, but they are mostly theater majors, so every year there’s a different vibe.”
Vally said that while Company has typically been male-dominated in the past few years, women compose the majority in this year’s bunch, making up seven out of the 13 members.
“I think people are going to get how funny women are,” Vally said.
“I think they got a taste of it last year, but they’ll really get it this year. There’s a strong force of creative talented women on this campus.”
Last year, Company had five more weeks of rehearsal time. This year, within days prior to Spring Sing, Company was given the assignment of writing two more sketches. Instead of using sketches they had previously scrapped, every member came in the next day with new material.
“We definitely hold ourselves to a high standard,” Vally said.
“We weren’t just going to give (the audience) two sketches we didn’t like as much. We wrote new things so that they’d be as high-caliber as the rest of the show.”
Vally said the most exciting moment as a performer in Spring Sing is watching thousands of people crowd into Los Angeles Tennis Center ready to have a good time.
“Hearing thousands of people laughing for you is the best natural drug out there,” Vally said. “I know that every performer in Spring Sing loves those moments where the performers and the audience are connected.”