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Show CULTURE B5 `She Stoops to Conquer' Club teaches audiences why laughing matters By Kelly Cannon Culture Editor "Laughing matters because it sure beats the hell out of crying." Such is the motto of the sketch comedy club Laughing Matters. Started in August of 2010, the members of Laughing Matters put on two shows every semester that consist of sketches written and performed by the cast, much like the television show Saturday Night Live. The club started out with just four members, Greg Larson, Kyle Oram, Eric Phillips and Robbie Pierce. "We wanted to start a club after we saw the Divine Comedy Club at BYU," said Larson. Since then, Rusty Carnahan, Joshua Michael French, Cherie Julander and Meg Rush have been added to the cast, along with crew-members Kayla Benson, Kristy Benson, Michael Gray, Evan Mabry, Casey Price and Zoe Wilde. The group meets twice a week for about two hours and bring in sketches that have been written on their own time. Having no director, the cast collaborates to see which sketches and jokes are good, need work or need to be thrown out. "It's hard to keep eight minds all on the same page," said Larson. Once the week of a show comes, the cast and crew are practicing nearly every '7' L.A. tour Twitter updates day to perfect each sketch. "It's hard to keep it fresh," said Julander. "The first time we do a joke, it's so funny. But after we do it a hundred times, it can get stale." Typical sketches parody a variety of not only pop culture on a national level, such as "Jersey Shore" or the 90's television show "Are You Afraid of the Dark?," but also satirize things within the valley. One such sketch makes fun of the fanatical devotion some men have to the Utah Jazz team. Another, titled "Provo Girls," perfectly parodies the mentality and mannerism of girls living in Provo, with lines like, "Your dress is modest, but also sexylicious." There is a running joke within Laughing Matters that appears in nearly every show: how they are not an improv group. "When we tell people we're a comedy group, they usually say, 'Oh, I love improv'," said Pierce. "The improv jokes are there to get people to understand we do sketch comedy." The goal of Laughing Matters is to fill seats and make people laugh. Their very name evokes the overall maxim of the group. Newcomer French explained how much being a part of the group has helped him throughout the semester. "When all hell is breaking loose, you need to laugh," said French. Last month, the cast of She Stoops to Conquer was able to take their show on the road and perform in front of other universities and professional state actors at the prestigious Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Since the show uniquely incorporated an eighteenth century play with the modem technologies of Facebook and Twitter, cast member Robbie Pierce made sure to update his Twitter while participating in this exciting opportunity. 3:43 p.m. Hopefully everyone gets a chance to see all the displays from all the lighting, costume, makeup, sound, and set designers up in the theater. We've got some great work on display! Monday 7 Feb 6:55 a.m. a.m. Rise and shine, everyone! Time to board the bus and leave the frozen state of Utah! 11:04 a.m. There are so many workshops to attend here for actors, directors, writers, and designers. Plus free shows to watch and all the competitions. There's not enough time to do everything! 11:22 a.m. So far still to go. I hope all the designers and the driver brought earplugs, 'cause we actors don't really ever shut up. 3:40 p.m. Congratulations to Dan Anderson and Levi Brown for making it to callbacks for a few different acting companies through Next Step! Those will be in a few weeks! 7:20 p.m. It's 78 degrees! 78 Jeffing degrees! So worth the bus drive down here.! 9:25 p.m. Several UVU students have made it to finals for design, including Jason Sullivan (Wiley, Scenery); Daniel Whiting (She Stoops, Scenery); Jared Lewis (Wiley, Costumes); Kirsti Christensen (She Stoops, Lighting); Casey Price (Wiley, Lighting); Caitlin Webb (Wiley, Makeup); Becca Acosta (Noises Off, Makeup); & Jason Jensen (She Stoops, Sound) Tuesday 8 Feb 11:15 a.m. If you're not in the hotel lobby now, you're late. We're all headed to load our set into the space. Friday 11 Feb 12:07 a.m. Congratulations to Jake Suazo and partner Cherie Julander for moving on to semi-finals! Now time for bed! 12:03 p.m. We have a problem. The theater's in a basement that doesn't get cell service, and we text the audience in our show. Time to think outside the box. Sending Chase Brown and Jake Porter to find a solution. Saturday 12 Feb 4? 5:17 p.m. Success Jake and chase found a magical box that you plug in and it increases your cell signal in a room! It's working! Now if only there were such a box that would hang and focus stage lights for us, we'd be set. 9:27 p.m. time for the awards ceremony! Wednesday 9 Feb 6:32 a.m. Two performances today, the first at 9:00 a.m. We'll be ready! Costume and makeup time! 4:56 p.m. The crowd is huge! And they're loving us! And everyone keeps breaknig props! It's Ok, though. Jake Suazo is hamming it up and they're loving him for it. 6:27 p.m. Standing ovation! We rocked it! 12:14 a.m. Jake and Cherie are moving on to finals! Congrats! 10:25 p.m. We just won the golden wrench award for best load in! go UVU! 10:39 p.m. Congrats to Heather Oberlander for winning an honorable mention for her dramaturgical work on last season's "A Doll House." Our school rocks. 11:12 p.m. Jason Jensen won for his Sound & Multimedia designs for "She Stoops." Congratulations Jason for a job well done! 11:47 p.m. Jake and Cherie come in third in the Irene Ryans! That means that if someone else drops, they'll get to go to Nationals. This is a huge honor! Thursday 10 Feb Sunday 13 Feb 7:45 a.m. Getting ready for the meeting for all Irene Ryan nominees. Our school has 17 this year, plus their partners! 8:57 p.m. Back at good old UVU. And it's almost kinda warm! Didn't think we could all miss this place, but it feels good to be back! Now we start work on Tea With Mint or Lemon! it never ends! 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