More video from our 10 year anniversary show at the Fisch Haus:

The story behind these skits is a little more involved than what you see on stage. This is a sampling of a collection of skits called “10 skits in 10 minutes” from a piece we entered into a theatre competition at Wichita State University- Hippodrome. The competition had 2 groups: Group 1 was Fraternities and Sorrorities, and Group 2 was open to other campus organizations, both of which had a long list of rules (showing up to director meetings, show can only be 10 minutes, don’t show up drunk, etc, etc, etc). There was a strict point system, and for each rule infraction you lost points. You could gain points for different categories of excellence (music, use of a random assigned prop, writing, etc.). The group with the most points wins.

The first year we competed in Group 2, we won first place and $200. I believe it bares mentioning that we were the only team to compete in Group 2, which had a tremendous impact on our success. Having tasted the victory of winning by default, the following year we entered twice: once as the WSU Men’s Scrapbooking Club, and once as the WSU Men’s Scrapbooking Club with Moustaches.

Again, we were the only group to enter (or groups I guess you could say), so we ended up competing against ourselves. So here was the mission: we would write one skit really straight forward: plot line, story arc, real jokes, etc., and then we would write one skit that would be complete bullshit, Oh! And! we would break a shit load of rules because…well… we were the only two groups and we were likely to win 1st and 2nd place. Thus was born “10 Skits in 10 Minutes” which actually ran about 15 minutes long. It was 10 “skits” that shrived to push the audience to a point where they wanted to leave, but couldn’t because they had to see what was next.

To our surprise, “10 skits” won, and the skit that we took months to write and rehearse and put together got second place. Looking back, I can’t blame them. There’s just something about a bowling ball rolling across the stage out of context that is hilarious every time.

(*Note* in the second segment, what you can’t see is a cabbage patch doll being dragged across the stage on fishing wire.)

In the script, this skit is titled “Symphonic Nose-Lyres”, but our skits never really get beyond the point of working titles. This skit was performed in one of the very first few shows we did outside of Wichita State University.

Jarett swore REPEATEDLY before performing this skit that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for ear buds to be used as microphones in our noses. It’s amazing what you can do when you let your heart explore your mind’s imagination!

 

Little known fact! The Wichita State University basketball team recently drew attention with their success in sports games, but the MSC has also brought positive attention to Wichita State, as a recent look at Youtube statistics revealed that one of the videos was viewed over 100 TIMES! Comgratulations Wichita State for producing such remarkable alumni!

This skit was written by Brent Duncan, and argued over repeatedly by Brent and Jarett.

Specialer thanks to Ian Blume for videotaping this on a video tape camera.

See more:

Anniversary Videos Part 3  Or go back to Anniversary Videos Part 1