Spring Break
Bamboozled
BETA's Theatrical Comedy Show
Brittany Younger
Issue date: 10/12/07 Section: Entertainment
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The title of the show was suggested by Curtis Scott, senior theater major. "It just popped into my head. I felt it would be easier for writers to channel [the theme of the show]. It's also easily recognizable for promotional purposes," said Scott.
The title and theme of the show is a reference to the satirical Spike Lee film entitled Bamboozled (2000). Both the movie and the show satirize typical stereotypes of African Americans.
"Bamboozled - The Comedy Show" featured several skits with titles such as "Language of Love," "Daycare Gangsta," and "African American vs. Nigga: Parts I, II and III." All of the skits were written and directed by students in the show.
"Language of Love" featured freshmen Ray Knight and Alisia Thompson, of whom only the former is a theatre major. The skit comedictly depicted the way that the simple messages that Knight left his girlfriend, played by Thompson, could be misconstrued.
"You said, 'What's crackin', ma?' And I thought to myself, 'Hmm, what cracks?' Eggs crack. I have eggs. And you called me 'ma' which definitely means you want to have children," said Thompson during the skit.
"Daycare Gangsta" featured several of the actors playing young children in a daycare and the conversations and actions that occurred while the supervisor (played by Sharonda Harris, a cinema-television critical studies and fine arts and interactive media double major) was not around.
One of the characters, played by Scott, was a hustler selling oatmeal cream pies while another, played by Knight, was a little different than the rest of the children.
"He wasn't originally supposed to be retarded. [Knight] just decided to take it to another level. It was very good acting though," said Thompson.
The "African American vs. Nigga" sequences were distributed in the beginning, middle and end of the show. All three parts featured Kaylon Hunt, senior and cinema-television critical studies major, as the African American, and Scott as the Nigga.
BETA has 10 to 15 active members and was formed in 2001. "The group died off in 2001 and came back in 2004," said Taylor Hawthorne, a senior, theater major and business secretary of BETA.
BETA's next production is entitled, "The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World," by Suzan-Lori Parks. Auditions have already taken place and the play is scheduled to be performed between Nov. 15 and Nov. 18.
BETA's next comedy show is scheduled for some time at the beginning of the spring semester.
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