West Coast’s largest college comedy festival returns

A Sigmund Freud seance. “Avatar” stuntmen with big dicks. Commentary on generational trauma inside a Subway. The horniest Kowalski fan around. 

All this could only mean one thing: Sketchella was back. 

The largest collegiate comedy festival on the West Coast, created by the sketch comedy troupe Fourth Quarter All-Stars in 2018, brought comedy troupes from campuses across the country together and shined a light on USC’s comedy scene. This past weekend marked the fifth time the festival was held. 

“The biggest thing is trying to foster a spirit of community among the different sketch groups because you’re only as good as your best competitor,” said Arabella Varieur, a member of 4QAS and a freshman majoring in politics, philosophy and law. “It’s just nice to meet other people who are interested in the same thing as you and get to see their work and be inspired by them.”

This year, four of USC’s comedy troupes, two sketch — 4QAS and The Suspenders — and two improv — Commedus Interuptus and Spoiler Alert — took the stage at the Brain and Creativity Institute for two nights of non-stop comedy. Joining them in the action were Cal Poly SLO’s The Nightcap, UC Berkeley’s Bootleg Comedy, UCLA’s Shenanigans, Stanford’s Robber Barons and Emerson’s Jimmy’s Travelling All-Stars.

President of 4QAS Karan Menon, a senior majoring in narrative studies, began organizing the festival in December. Despite receiving “like no money” from USG and facing a University “skeptical” of whether the event could garner attendance, 4QAS remained determined to put on the festival, believing its work could finally earn the troupes the recognition they deserve.

“The level of comedy at USC is really high … but it doesn’t get enough credit for how good it is. There [are] classes for comedy and stuff, but I don’t think the school recognizes how strong the groups are on campus,” Menon said. “Sketchella was a way of bringing attention to the quality that’s on campus and around other colleges.”

The budget for the weekend came from the members’ own pockets, fundraising and “begging [their] families to donate to a GoFundMe.” 

“We were just told [by USG], ‘Oh, sorry, even though you applied for the grant or the funding by the deadline, like everyone else did, we just don’t have the funding,’” Varieur said. “A lot of other groups got told the same thing, which is like, good to know that we’re not special. But like, girl, it’s USC, where’s the money at?” 

Despite its monetary struggles, the troupe filled out the BCI for two nights and even secured Ben Schwartz (“Parks and Rec,” “Middleditch & Schwartz”) as a guest speaker. Throughout the weekend, the nine troupes spent time chatting, learning and, of course, laughing. 

4QAS tours the country every year, traveling to NYU, Northwestern and Stanford in past years, with the goal of learning from new groups and pushing its work further each year. Sketchella is another opportunity for the group to do so.

“Emerson’s group last year had some crazy sketches. Stanford, UCLA, all of them — they have really good ideas, and they change your perception of what is possible,” Menon said. “Because otherwise you’re just looking at ‘SNL’ for your inspiration and that can only get you so far … There’s also inspiration to look at around you.” 

Past years’ performers included ASU’s Tempe Underground and BYU’s Divine Comedy. Menon said there’s never been a shortage of groups interested in participating. Most are always looking for new opportunities to perform, but they just never considered cross-campus performances a possibility until 4QAS created it.

Melissa Beining, sketch co-head of the Shenanigans and a senior at UCLA majoring in political science, English and philosophy, received an invitation via DM. After discovering the festival would take place the day after their quarterly sketch show, she knew the tight schedule would be stressful, but also that her group absolutely had to make the trip from Westwood.

“[Sketchella] was a really great opportunity to not only show what we’ve been able to put together and what we can do and get some more stage minutes in, but also get some inspiration from other sketch groups, and get to see what else is out there in [Los Angeles] comedy scenes and throughout California, to hopefully give us more ideas for our future too,” Beining said. 

Many of the performers of the weekend never planned on getting involved with comedy on campus, but had it grow to be one of the most important parts of their lives, finding community and confidence through performance and workshopping.

For Maya Gardner, a junior majoring in theater and assistant director of The Suspenders, comedy is a way to get out of their head and comfort zone. As a perfectionist and a usually dramatic actor, Gardner’s work in sketch serves as a necessary outlet, reminding them that “nothing is that serious.”

“Comedy is mostly about the audience,” Gardner said. “As much as it is for the performers to get up there and show off their talent, having an audience there that you can feed off of the energy of and play off of things they shout at you and just get them involved in the piece. It brings it to life. And it’s what makes comedy so special.”

Menon said 4QAS plans to continue to host Sketchella annually, with hopes of the event growing each year. This weekend, cross-country comedians came together for a triumphant six hours of sketch and improvisation — creating friendships spanning campuses.

“Comedy is one of those things that really brings people together. It allows us to just kind of poke fun at everything,” said Vincent Demonte, a sophomore majoring in journalism and a member of The Suspenders. “Comedy is one of those things that’s timeless, and it’s just an art that survives ages.”