Northwestern Sketch Television writers plan to step out from behind the curtain for the first time this Thursday night. During the new show “A Night With the Writers of NSTV,” they take a turn in front of the audience, not only writing but performing their own skteches. And just so you don't feel too guilty about taking time to laugh during Reading Week, all proceeds from the show will go to charity.
“At the beginning of the show we’ll be taking audience suggestions and each one of us will get a turn at writing a sketch on stage while the sketch comedy is going on,” Communication junior and NSTV co-head writer, Brandon Daley, explains. “And then we’ll perform it at the end.”
In addition to sketches, musical acts and standup, the writers will be incorporating jokes written by the kids in the benefitting charity, 826CHI.
A Chicago youth after school creative writing program, 826CHI is meant to give kids a chance to express themselves with art and humor.
“826CHI fits in really well with the structure of our show,” says Communication junior Breanne Ward, a co-producer for NSTV.
But the show is meant to benefit the members of NSTV, too, Ward says.
“We think it’s really going to be cool because it’s the writers who perform in pitches every week and are used to performing in the writers room but not for an audience,” she says. “So I think they’re all really excited to be performing.”
Daley explains that, at the end of Winter Quarter, the writers are cooling down from creating sketches to be filmed in the spring for NSTV’s show on May 18. The writers’ extra time while the actors are still busy is part of why they chose to perform themselves instead of including actors in their sketches.
But Daley also says writers performing their own sketches offers a different experience to the audience.
“Writers have a different relationship with the sketches because they’re the ones who wrote them,” he says. “So there’s certain jokes that I think will get played up more in this show than it would if actors were doing the same sketches.”
NSTV writer and Communication senior Harrison Atkins emphasizes that this doesn’t downplay the importance of actors in sketch comedy overall.
“There’s no writers versus actors rivalry—it’s not like that,” Atkins says. “It’s for charity. It’s just, like, a fun night for writers to do something.”
The show, described as a “classy, Vegas-style” event, will be in the McCormick Tribune Center Forum this Thursday, Mar. 8. All of the proceeds from the $5 admission will go to 826CHI.