Boris’ Kitchen elicited much laughter from audience members at their 17th Annual Sketch Comedy Festival with students from Emerson’s Jimmy’s Traveling All-Stars, Cornell’s Humor Us and Skidmore’s Sketchies, on Friday, Dec. 2. They continued the show on Saturday, Dec. 3, where they hosted Yale’s 5th Humor, Boston University’s Callbacks, Tuft’s Major: Undecided and Tuft’s TFL comedy, which is a group for female identifying, gender-non conforming, gender-queer and transgender students.
Friday’s show began with Emerson’s comedy group. They performed a variety of sketches, including a creative take on Hansel and Gretel and a running joke about annoying twins.
“Emerson was my favorite group, especially due to their “We’re Twins!” sketch that was simply hilarious,” Boris’ Kitchen troupe member Jason Kwan ’20 said.
Cornell presented a number of funny skits, including some about sadistic snobs, Romeo and Juliet gone wrong and a couple upset over the infamous black-and-blue-or-white-and-gold dress controversy. Skidmore had skits about people who bragged about their professions and Zeus’ promiscuity in Greek Mythology.
Boris’ Kitchen occupied the stage throughout all of the second act. One skit, “Samples,” was about a trip to Costco. “Bless you my son, for you have sneezed” was about a religious cult that gave Zephry Wright ’17 a “real blessing” by performing “Hooked on a feeling” and rubbing him down with baby oil.
The comedy show carried a light and witty mood. Music that reflected the sketches played during transitions. For example, the song “Bad Boys” played after Boris’ Kitchen’s “The Bad Boyz” sketch, and Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” played after Cornell’s sketch about people converting others to homosexuality.
Boris’ Kitchen’s success can be attributed in part to the many people involved in creating the show. In addition to comedy performers, Boris’ Kitchen also has student members who write skits for them.
“We have our own team of Boris’ Kitchen writers who create the skits for us. Some of the actors also write, so a lot of what we performed were also skits written by troupe members,” Sarah Sharpe ’20 said.
Kwan is an example of a member who both writes and performs for the comedy group. “I am part of the Boris’ Kitchen sketch writing team. We’re the ones who write the sketches for each show. We make drafts for sketches, edit them, and perform them for the people’s enjoyment. Not all members of Boris’ Kitchen write. We also have fantastic writers from other comedy groups,” he explained.
The teams works well together and put a lot of effort into making sure everyone plays a part in their shows. The team is tight-knit, and the members are always there for one another.
Boris’ Kitchen had two shows this semester, and the members loved hosting other comedy troupes. “What I like about performing with other schools is being able to see a variety of talent,” Sharpe said. “My favorite part was getting to know them individually after having put so much of ourselves on stage.”
