Dear friends at TUCP Comedy,

I’d first and foremost like to thank and congratulate you for bringing such big-name acts like Cecily Strong and the renowned Second City to our campus for performances. Bravo. My issue though, is the lack of any stand-up so far this year.

Yes, Strong and Second City are major players in the comedy world. Strong shares the Saturday Night Live stage with some incredibly talented comedians, and Second City launched the careers of both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, but they were both improvisation performers.

I have no issue with improv, but we’ve been leaving out the real lifeblood of the comedy world with our lack of any stand-up comedy. The comedy world exists in three main parts: improv, stand-up, and boys who wrote for the Harvard Lampoon and now run the television industry. Since no one wants a 45-minute, extremely condescending speech on why Tulane isn’t really the Harvard of the South, it goes without saying that we don’t really want Harvard writers coming here.

Stand-up also varies immensely from improvisational comedy in a great way. Everything said on stage during a performance, with a few exceptions for hecklers, is scripted. A comedian can spend hours working on a joke to give it a good enough punch for an audience. It tends to lead to less flops on stage, and doesn’t rely as heavily on, frankly, unoriginal college students yelling vaguely sexual things to performers so they have to tell a story about a penis.

Last year we had Anthony Jeselnik and David Koechnir; both delivered excellent sets, and held few punches. I, regrettably, missed Second City’s performance, but Cecily Strong’s sketch style comedy was pretty weak. These performances fostered way too many long periods of silence from the crowd for a comedy show.

Let’s get Tulane students laughing. If you’re looking for suggestions, why Not Kristen Schaal (Louise Belcher, “Bob’s Burgers,”) Chelsea Peretti (Gina Linetta “Brooklyn 99,”) or Aisha Tyler, (Lana Kane, “Archer.”) There are plenty of male comedians too, John Mulaney (himself, “Mulaney,) Pete Holmes (Himself, “The Pete Holmes Show,”) or Hannibal Burress (Lincoln, “Broad City.”) Any of the mentioned performers would kill it at a college venue. Just imagine Peretti bouncing around Mccalister auditorium with talk of three legged dogs, and weird sex, or Burress with his lovable swagger.

I say, let there be laughter. We’ve had enough silly sketches, we need some good old fashion raunchiness. We need some stand-up.

Sincerely,

Sick of Sketches