IU ‘tWITS’ perform sketch comedy

Under the soft glow of stage lights, about 80 people streamed in and out of the Frangipani Room at the Indiana Memorial Union Saturday evening for the premiere of the University tWITS sketch comedy show. \n“I’ve never been to anything like this before, but I know everyone up there, so it should be pretty good,” freshman Phil Cardenas said. “I have high confidence that they’ll be really funny tonight.”\nAs the lights dimmed and the audience began to quiet, the University tWITS began the show with a skit that mocked improvisational shows to lighten up the crowd. The following acts teetered between fantasy humor, with skits focusing on Zelda and X-Men, to much more controversial material that involved Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Jesus and a gay couple. Boisterous laughter could be heard echoing throughout the room, even as the topics strayed from safe humor.\n“I’ve been tossing around the idea of a comedy group with friends since high school,” junior and University tWITS creator Kyle Cowser said. \nThe original five members of the group applied for sponsorship by the Union Board at the beginning of the semester. \nThe group held tryouts to round out the group, which includes seven sketch artists. Junior Ryan Perisin, junior Jack Dreesen, sophomores Luke Hollingsworth, Tim Boyle and Katie Haddad and freshman Kyle Swick are all in the group along with Cowser.\n“We didn’t have big turnouts from our tryouts, but we did have two funny people show up,” Cowser said. “Luke is pretty good with impressions, and gets better every day.”\nThe group practiced twice a week for its first show and spent the majority of the weekend before the show brushing up on the material. From the reaction of the audience, the group’s practice seemed to pay off.\n“Conceptually, a lot of it was pretty risky, which I thought was good,” graduate student Adam Kornya said. “They didn’t go for safe laughs, and their execution wasn’t always there – but with time under their belt, they will be very good.”\nThe group finished its performance by plugging another upcoming show, Chicago-based sketch comedy group “The Second City.” The group, which will perform at 8 p.m. March 2 in Alumni Hall, has been known to produce various comedians who go on to work on “Saturday Night Live.”\n“I think we are better than ‘Saturday Night Live,’” University tWITS performer Dreesen said. “I have a pretty big ego. I went to a fortune teller once, and she said I’d take over the world.”\nThe group was happy with its performance and was impressed with the audience that came out.\n“I think we had a really good reaction with the nerds out there,” Cowser said. “I’m proud of the people we got together to perform. I think we are all equally part of a whole and each of us is crucial to the group – everyone is important.”\nThe University tWITS haven’t planned their next show, but they will perform again when they think there will be enough quality material to put on a good performance. Cowser stresses quality over quantity.\n“I think that I want to do this professionally,” Cowser said. “Nothing makes me happier than making people laugh.”