Campus comedy group Backdoor Comedy will have its second show of the season at 9 p.m. Saturday in the Indiana Memorial Union Stateroom East.
Co-president and senior Winnie Lyon said the show is called “The New Kids Show” and is the group’s first performance featuring new members.
“We're really jazzed about our new members and what we think they can do,” Lyon said. “We're just a group of friends having a lot of fun on stage and I think that that translates to an audience.”
Co-president and IU senior Justin Baise said Backdoor Comedy’s first show on Sept. 4 was a success. After taking a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said he is happy to be back performing with the group.
“We try to do something interesting and fun every single show,” Baise said. “We got the rust off and this should be the first show that we're really good and things will be a little smoother.”
Lyon said a show lasts about an hour and begins with a cold-open sketch. After, the group does 30 to 40 minutes of sketch comedy and 20 minutes of improv. That includes short-form improv games and a long-form improv montage of scenes.
Backdoor Comedy is the only comedy group on campus to do a hybrid of sketch comedy and improv. IU junior Sasha Sears said this makes Backdoor Comedy different from other comedy groups on campus.
“I think sometimes when people approach comedy, they believe that you're funny or you're not and I don't think that's the case,” Sears said. “There are different types of comedians and there's different types of humor that tickles people and gets people to laugh.”
Baise said Backdoor Comedy’s hybrid approach is the reason he joined the group. He said doing both improv and sketch comedy allows members to expand their abilities and have fun while laughing and cracking jokes.
“Everyone's welcome and it's just a chance to laugh and have a sense of community especially after a long time of not doing that,” Baise said. “We just like to make people laugh and make ourselves laugh.”
