Farce Side Comedy Hour
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Farce Side Comedy Hour (aka Farce Side) is a sketch comedy show that performs weekly at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. They perform alongside Barren Mind, a separate troupe that performs improvisational comedy. It is common for members to be cast in both troupes at any given time.
Created in 1985, the group celebrated their 20th Anniversary on October 24, 2005 with a reunion show, in which current cast members and alumni alike shared the stage. Former cast members have gone on to post-university success in writing, performing, and production work for movies, the stage, syndicated comics, and television. So far, troupe alumni have won 3 Emmy awards for writing and sound production.
The group performs every Friday at 12:40 at Union Stage in ASU's Memorial Union.
[edit] History
In 1985, University of Arizona student and former U of A Comedy Corner member Michael Sterner moved to Tempe and started a weekly sketch comedy show at ASU. This new troupe also called itself Comedy Corner, and it performed to passing students in a Memorial Union study lounge each Friday. The show consisted of one half hour of original sketch comedy (much of it written by Sterner during his stint at U of A) followed by a half hour of standup comedy, performed by local or touring comics, or most often by Sterner himself. The standup gig paid a small stipend.
Although the show had a small and loyal following, the content was offensive to some students, and the MUAB (Memorial Union Activities Board) ordered the group to move its show from the large public area to smaller meeting rooms or be shut down. Audience attendance dropped below 10 for many shows. In early 1986, Sterner appealed to MUAB, who allowed the show to move to the Union Cinema, where it had access to a makeshift stage, a sound system, and dedicated audience seating.
At this point, the group voted to change the show's name to Comedy 101, to differentiate itself from the show at U of A and to make it sound more collegiate. The troupe advertised the show heavily and it increased in popularity significantly throughout the year, ending with a "Best Of" performance for an audience of about 150.
Not realizing that advertising for Comedy 101 referred to a show, students began requesting ASU for the line number to register for the "course". In early 1987, member Jeff Smallidge suggested the name Farce Side during a brainstorm session, and it was unanimously accepted. The group was taken over by the Memorial Union Activities Board (MUAB) and, after a year, the Comedy Committee was given a board seat and budgeted money to begin.
By the 1993 fall semester, the show would often drop the standup segment and perform an entire hour of sketch comedy. The group began using the title "Farce Side Comedy Hour". Occasionally some improvisation was scheduled into the show, which was originally substituted for a missing standup host. The show moved to an all-sketch format in the 1994 fall semester.
ASU built the current home of the Farce Side Comedy Hour, Union Stage, in 1991. The show continued to grow in popularity until weekly audiences of 200-250 were common, and the "Best Of" shows would tally crowds of 400 or more.
In 1994, the Barren Mind improvisational troupe was born out of the improv sessions that originated with Farce Side. It is worthwhile to note that during the existence of Barren Mind and Farce Side, both groups have existed without rivalry or competition.
At one point in 1995, members of Farce Side were kicked out of the group. These former members went on to form a troupe called Naked which only lasted a few weeks before dissolving.
Farce Side and Barren Mind remained part of the MUAB until the fall of 1999 when it became the Student Programming Board. At the end of the spring 2000 semester, the Student Programming Board was dropped entirely in hopes of creating a new student-intensive center on campus. With all of the change (including loss of funding), the existence and performing space of both comedy groups was threatened. Audience members voiced their opinions, and Farce Side and Barren Mind remained alive and active at Union Stage.
The existence of the shows was threatened as a result of the infamous 2004 "Sock Incident", in which a male performer appeared on stage wearing nothing but a tube sock. As a result, the first shows of the season were pushed back a week in order for cast members to attend a risk-management seminar at the insistence of the university. Since then, the troupes have been forced to display prominent signs that read:
"Warning! This performance may contain one or more of the following: crude or indecent language, violence, reference to sexual sitations, and inappropriate use of controlled substances."
Currently, Barren Mind and Farce Side are their own organizations run through the Student Organization Resource Center (SORC). This comedy program remains one of the few student-run university troupes that perform on a weekly basis in a permanent location. Barren Mind Improv and the Farce Side Comedy Hour regularly draw audiences of 200+ on Thursdays and Fridays respectively.
