For your immediate release - April 9, 2008

For more information contact: Harry M. Bagdasian 240-381-3196

COMEDY CLUB’S FINAL CURTAIN AT LEE MIDDLE SCHOOL

AS COMEDY CLUB PROGRAM EXPANDS TO SERVE WIDER POPULATION

Spoofs of “High School Musical,” “Heroes” and more to be featured

On May 1 & 2, “Fresh From the Funny Farm – Local Laughs” will be the final two performances of The Comedy Club at Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School in Wheaton, MD.  The Comedy Club’s annual original comedy revue features new sketches written and performed by student members of this popular afterschool comedy program.  The Comedy Club, founded in 1995 by Harry M. Bagdasian and Lisa Levin Itte, has produced a total of 15 productions at Lee Middle School since 1995.  The Comedy Club is moving later this year to Northwood High School in Wheaton to offer creative writing and comedy sketch performance workshops to a broader segment of the area’s downcounty students.

“Fresh From The Funny Farm – Local Laughs” will be performed at 7:30 PM on Thursday May 1 and Friday May 2 at Lee Middle School.  Ticket prices have been slashed to a recession-beating $3.00 for everyone and are available at the door.

Student-written sketches in “Fresh From The Funny Farm – Local Laughs” include parodies of TV shows, movies and more.  “Heroes?” by Avery Chiasson lampoons the TV show “Heroes,” and “Confidential Disaney” by Noely Jacobs & Chelsea Vanderweele is a send-up of “High School Musical”.  Seventh grader James Cheamitru (with an assist from his mom Cindy) has created a spoof of school life entitled “Scary Student Tales: Locker Combination Theft.”  Eighth grade student Liam Brennan has contributed two sketches: the first lampoons car technology – “Smart Car, The Grumpy Gramps” and the second, a spoof of life in middle school he simply calls “Frogs Legs.”  Brennan’s comic sketch is as wild as any Monty Python bit and involves several students, a tap-dancing chicken, a pirate, a flying spaghetti monster and an 800-pound gorilla.  Will the 800 pound gorilla really break open a safe and tear up the only remaining copy of this year’s MSA test?  Come to the show and find out.  Additional sketches include comic looks at 21^st century living including the obesity epidemic, the power of the media, “celebrity credibility,” educational budget cutting, the wonders of male body spray and an extended sketch which examines the possibility that the “for more information go to www dot etc. etc.” has gotten out of hand.

The cast of this year’s Comedy Club production includes performers Liam Brennan, Maira Bruck, Avery Chiasson, James Cheamitru, Miriam Finley, Hannah Gizau, Nicole Gregory, Andy Greig, Noely Jacobs, Matthias Kelterman, Bala Mah’moud, Jonny Moser, James Mott, Jonathan Rabinovich, Mike Sattler, Andrew Soncrant, James Syverson, Chelsea VanderWeele, Sasha Vierling, Peter Walderhaug, Fanaye Zewdu.  The show is direted by Harry M. Bagdasian and Beck Krefting with an assist from comedy writer and improv actor Austen Villemez.

FINAL CURTAIN AT LEE

Following 13 years of successful afterschool arts programming at the middle school level, the Comedy Club is expanding into the high school arena.  Starting at Northwood High School in September 2008, the Comedy Club will offer comedy workshops and performance opportunities for 9^th through 12^th graders.  Plans are underway for additional expansion in 2008 to out-of-school community venues that will allow an even broader spectrum of the Downcounty Consortium’s youth population to participate in this exciting comedy program.

COMEDY CLUB MISSION STATEMENT

The Comedy Club’s mission is to develop the skills and abilities of young people in the areas of creative comedy writing and live comedy performance.  This program enables middle and high school students to create and perform an original revue of comedy sketch material, in the format of Saturday Night Live, that is scripted based on students’ original ideas.  The average show consists of 15–20 comedy sketches that are drawn from the students’ own experiences and focuses on their likes, dislikes, fears, and worries about themselves, siblings, and parents as well as their social, school, and home lives.   Through humor and parody, these youth are given an effective way to examine the events in their lives and to “respond” with their own authentic and personal voices.  This comedy focus appeals to these adolescents in a unique way enticing them to relate to the material on a very personal level and enhancing their engagement.  The emphasis of the Comedy Club is on experiential, participatory learning – on teamwork, problem solving, decision-making, and creative expression. 

Under the direction of stage director Harry M. Bagdasian, the Comedy Club youth have an opportunity to work with an adult mentoring team on creative comedy writing, improvisation, live comedy performance, and such technical areas as sound, lights, props, costumes, and stage management.  In addition, scripts from the Comedy Club are published, wholly or in part, by Meriwether Publishing’s Contemporary Drama Services.  Through this distribution network the scripts are available to schools and community youth groups around the world.  To date, Comedy Club scripts have been performed in nearly 3,000 schools and venues in every state in the U.S., throughout Canada, in Australia, Germany, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore.