Modified On October 15, 2007
An article in the Harvard Crimson tells of a club, formed by two ’07 grads, that produces shows on the Cambridge campus and is known by its initials, HCSUCS.
In part, the level of polish some of these novice comedians display is doubtlessly attributable to the collaborative workshopping of routines– a vital part of HCSUCS.
“Stand-up can be an isolating, solitary pursuit,” says Petri. “You usually come up with things you think are funny, you go and do your set, and if you people think you’re funny, you know you’ve got some good material. If not, you walk off with your tail between your legs.”
“The Harvard community is great because you get to bounce ideas off of this little cadre of people,” Petri continues. “It’s sort of weird, that’s not the way things usually work.”
Collaborative? Yipe! Standup can be a solitary pursuit, say the Harvard novices. Standup should be a solitary pursuit, say we. One of the problems of any “collaborative approach” to writing an act is that it invariably results in a tussle over authorship. The “Stand-up” that is the SU part of HCSUCS is a misnomer– what is described is more along the lines of improv or sketch comedy.
Some of the founders of the club have struck out for NYC and have met with some success. We hope the Comedy Infrastructure doesn’t overcompensate– we have flashbacks to the mid-90s, when countless articles told of television talk shows and sitcoms that were disproportionately peopled by Ivy League grads. The diploma from Harvard went from being a curiosity– enabling the odd writer to scramble onboard this staff or that– to being a near-automatic ticket into the lucrative world of television writing. (This development was heralded by television critics and other pop culture vultures. At last, they crowed, Newton Minnow’s vast wasteland would be lush, verdant and a laugh a minute. The plethora of Crimson staffers and Yalie show runners didn’t result in an uptick in quality, rather it yielded a sameness and a predictability. It was the ’90s– Irony ruled, wit, inexplicably, drooled.)
We hope that the future doesn’t see a “degree” from HCSUCS as a suitable replacement for seven or eight years on the road or in NYC or LA, doing actual standup.