Image via DSUCCL
New club promotes and practices comedy
By Caroline Ho, Arts Editor
For budding comedians, masters of witty one-liners, and anyone who enjoys funny things, this new club at Douglas might be for you.
The freshly formed DSU Comedy Club aims to foster the appreciation and performance of comedy, providing an opportunity for members to develop their own comedy skills and enjoy the welcoming company of fellow fans.
The club meets every Thursday from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the DSU building, room 328. Their meetings consist of activities such as watching skits and shows by professional comedians, playing improv games, and having open mic sessions where people can practice their own routines in front of the club. They kicked things off with their inaugural meeting last Thursday, October 19.
Carter Grenier, the club’s president—although he joked to the Other Press he prefers the official title of “Supreme Leader”—said he hopes to eventually have the club putting on actual shows in front of public audiences, though he doesn’t expect they’ll be ready for that until late into second semester at the earliest. For now, the aspiring comedians have plenty of opportunity to hone their skills at meetings.
Grenier told the Other Press that he decided to start the club because he felt like it was one that every school needed.
“I thought of it as a staple that a university should have, a comedy club, so I was really surprised when [Douglas] didn’t have one, something that I was really looking forward to,” said Grenier. The only solution, he felt, was to create the club himself.
Grenier said he doesn’t have any experience performing comedy, and he expects that most or all of his club members don’t either. However, he said he believes anybody has the potential to be funny—all it takes is timing, subverting expectations, and good delivery. This accessibility makes comedy, and by extension the Comedy Club, inherently very inclusive.
“I think comedy by its nature is welcoming and open. And comedy makes fun of everybody too—everybody—and so it’s very open in that regard,” he said.
However, he also wants to stress that people absolutely do not have to do comedy themselves to join the club. Although they are of course encouraged to participate in games and open mics if they wish, newcomers are more than welcome to simply come to the meetings as audience members.
“Not everybody wants to do the comedy, but a lot of people still like to laugh. Who doesn’t like to laugh?” he said.
Fore more information on the club and details on how to contact them, the Comedy Club is listed on the DSU website’s club directory and on the DSU app, and newcomers are always free to drop by and give it a try in room 328 on Thursday evenings.
