Throat Culture throws together 24-hour show

By ELLA CAMMARARTO For The News-Letter

Throat Culture, Hopkins’ student-run sketch comedy group, wrote and directed 11 original skits in 24 hours, debuting their hasty work at their Sketchtoberfest show in the Arellano Theater on Saturday night.

The group sourced all of their material for the skits from suggestions that were submitted through posts on their Facebook event page.

Although 24 hours is a short time to pull off such an ambitious stunt, their skits were clever, thoughtful and very funny. As a first-time Throat Culture audience member, this writer was pleasantly surprised by the wit and execution of the performances.

Some of the stand-out sketches included a “Real Housewives of Mount Olympus”-style skit, an erotic encounter at Subway, a man in a horse mask discussing a possible pregnancy and a very conceptual haunted house.

The skit featured the Greek goddesses Hera, Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite and a Muse acting catty with each other in true Bravo-reality-TV fashion. They trashed each other about their actions in Greek myths, most notably for some sexual involvement with the Minotaur.

The sexy Subway skit, which featured two Throat Culture newcomers, junior Dubray Kinney and freshman Val Hernandez, drew its humor from sexual innuendo. It was raunchy and not at all subtle. The crowd loved it so much that there was riotous laughter throughout the auditorium and audible disappointment when it ended.

The skit about a man who thought he was pregnant but was actually a horse drew its humor from its absurd premise as well as its use of a horse mask. Featuring senior Michael Kelly as the man in the horse mask and junior Will Bernish as a doctor, some of the most notable jokes were the horse-based jokes. Kelly refuted questions by saying “neigh” instead of “no.”

This writer’s personal favorite was the opening skit, which poked fun at pretentious artistic culture in a very conceptual haunted house setting. Senior Charlie McGeorge acted as a tour guide, showing senior Francesca D’Uva the scariest attractions, including a box full of nothingness. The audience was included in the joke, as McGeorge quipped that seeing the crowd was one of the most horrifying parts of the house.

Overall the 13 student actors presented an inventive and witty show. Videos of many of their past skits are posted online on Throat Culture’s YouTube channel.