“We’re not PC,” the cast sang. “But you’ll laugh so hard you’ll pee.”
About 40 people, mostly Northwestern students, laughed hard – but mostly avoided accidents – at the raucous 90-minute show staged by the African-American Theater Ensemble.
Organizers said the show, co-written and directed by Robin Thede and Andre Gaines, aims to bring taboo issues into the public eye.
“Our job is to bring to the forefront things that you talk about with friends but are afraid to talk about in public,” said Thede, a Medill senior. “And we’re not.”
Gaines, a recent Medill graduate, said addressing sensitive issues with laughter can open up discussions.
“If everyone could laugh, at least it’s a start,” he said.
All but one of the cast members had performed in the show in previous years. The camaraderie of the cast is something that has made the show a special experience, Gaines said.
“We just can’t get that anywhere else,” he said. “We’re really going to miss that.”
In one skit, “My Dad Says … ,” Thede played a young girl whose father drills racial stereotypes into her head. Before playing a game of tag with friends, she tells her darker-skinned friends why she should be the one to chase the other children.
“My dad says only darkies get chased,” she said. “You know – slaves, fugitives, project dwellers.”
In another skit, “Deep Thoughts,” Kristian Aloma, the only non-black member of the cast, asked how he should portray Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in an upcoming skit.
“Jeb doesn’t have a personality,” a cast member responded. “You just play Jeb because you’re the whitest guy in the house.”
The cast also parodied national figures. Aloma, playing then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, responded to a reporter’s questions about jobs for minorities in the skit “Election Scam 2000.”
“Be satisfied with the job we give you or get the electric chair,” he said.
Other skits included “Who Wants to Be On Welfare?” – a parody of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” in which contestants competed for food stamps – and “Home Training.Com,” a service that teaches parents to discipline unruly children with beatings.
Victor Sears, a McCormick junior, said that although the show dealt with many sensitive issues, the audience’s laughter showed that not many were offended.
“If they hadn’t done it tastefully, you would have gotten a lot of silent moments,” he said. “When you have black people making fun of black people and Cuban people making fun of Cuban people, it kind of relaxes things.”
The show returned to NU in 1999 after being taken off the AATE roster in 1994 for being too raunchy. Gaines and Thede said they toned down the show’s raunchiness when they brought it back to the NU stage.
“It was deemed the ‘raunchiest, most stank-nastiest show you’ll ever see in your life,'” Thede said. “It was so nasty people weren’t laughing.”
But the show remains somewhat raunchy, as in “The Chastity Club,” a skit about virgins.
“You have no idea how hard it is to be the only virgin,” a cast member said during the skit.
Another cast member responded: “You have no idea how hard I am right now.”
Although Shanley was not full on Thursday, Gaines and Thede said they were confident that the remaining three performances would sell out. Out ‘da Box continues through Saturday at Shanley.
