Mask and Wig hosts intercollegiate comedy festival

Laughter filled the Mask and Wig Clubhouse on Saturday night as four comedy groups sang, danced and cross-dressed in the first-ever Intercollegiate Comedy Festival. Mask and Wig sponsored the event to bring together a variety of groups from four different schools and comedic styles. But the sold-out house buzzed in anticipation of another attraction as the event director David Baronoff took the stage. "A really good friend of mine was supposed to be here tonight," the College senior announced. "But there were some complications and he's coming to you via satellite." A screen dropped from the middle of the stage and comedian Bob Saget's face appeared, marveling at the size of the audience. In reference to his work on the sitcom Full House, Saget joked that Michelle, DJ and Stephanie stole his plane ticket. Baronoff said Mask and Wig wanted to get a national celebrity appearance to add notoriety to the event. The group was unable to book a live appearance so they showed a tape of Saget they filmed while touring in California over spring break. Baronoff then introduced the emcee for the show, 1977 Mask and Wig alumnus Rex Morgan. Morgan warmed the audience up by asking them to try out different types of applause, starting with the "golf clap." Finally, Morgan instructed the crowd to welcome the Princeton Triangle club with "a nice 'your football team just won the championships and the cheerleaders are running naked across the field' welcome!" The Princeton Triangle appeared on stage and greeted the crowd enthusiastically. "Bonjourno principessa," a member called, impersonating Roberto Benigni's character in the Oscar-winning film Life is Beautiful. The audience laughed at Princeton's skits, including one about a"Chinese Jewish Cowboy" that mocked Princeton's diversity. The next group, the University of Maryland's Sketchup, worked their way forward from the back of the stage, chanting softly and then louder as they neared the audience. "Sketchup -- we're not Ivy League," they shouted. The small group parodied a number of popular songs, including a revision of Poison's famous heartfelt ballad, "Every Rose Has its Thorn." "All my toes have a corn," Sketchup members sang instead. Taking the stage next were Cornell's Skits-o-Phrenics, who went back in a time machine to beat up Herman Melville and acted out scenes from an average Saturday night at "Haiku Frat Party." Morgan then introduced Penn's own Mask and Wig, which opened with the introduction from their spring show, "From Here to Maturity." College junior Knox Peden, posing as Jimmy Sunshine, sang a dark parody on children's songs. "We're all the same on the inside," Peden sang, strumming his guitar. "All passengers on the same ship, but there's nothing at the end of this whole trip." The four groups joined each other for a true Mask and Wig finale in the Fiddler on the Roof spoof "Tuition." The audience, which laughed and clapped their way through the show, seemed generally impressed with the festival. "It was great to get all these different groups together," College freshman Cara Kusko said. Mask and Wig aside, College senior Rachel Lewis said that Sketchup was her favorite group. "Everything they did was so funny, she said. "They were the most creative." Baronoff praised Mask and Wig and the three other groups for coming together at the last minute. "This translated into what I think was an extremely successful evening," Baronoff said, adding that they plan to make this a "Mask and Wig tradition."