Giving Back with Laughter and Love

Giving Back with Laughter and Love
October 6, 2014 Nate Stauffer

By Spencer Winson, Stage Crew ’17

Making people laugh is one way Wig likes to do something good for the world, but giving back to charity is just as important to us. On September 27, the comedy groups from around Penn’s campus together for the 11th annual Charitable Laughter, a charity event that not only made people laugh but also benefitted a charity, with proceeds from a raffle and ticket sales donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The event featured Mask and Wig, Bloomers, Without a Net, Strictly Chaos and Penn Six-5000. Mask and Wig helped a great deal with the running of the event, not only with our hilarious headlining performance, but behind the scenes as well. The underclassmen crew members who ran tech and stage-managed the show, while the upperclassmen coordinated the space and groups. In addition, Danny Rodriguez, a senior in the cast, served as co-Emcee for the show along with fellow comedian Jake Lerner from Simply Chaos. Even so, all five of the performing groups and the rest of the SMAC community were instrumental in making the event a success.

The event ran very smoothly, and each act brought more laughs than the next. The freshmen in Mask and Wig crew learned how to run lights and sound for a show for the first time, which also served as preparation for their work on our upcoming Fall Show. Emcees Danny and Jake juggled oranges, arm wrestled and kept the show moving at an increasingly funny pace. The real hit of the night was the raffle, especially for the winners, two of whom were in fact Mask and Wig guys!

We love helping to run this event every year. It is tremendously fulfilling to put time into an event that helps the community by providing entertainment as well as donations for a charity that has hit close to home for many students as of late. As a member of the Penn community as well as Mask and Wig, it felt great to be part of a show with the ability to impact a cause that continues to be relevant at Penn, while all the while creating an enjoyable evening for the audience. While it put extra responsibility on us in the stressful weeks leading up to Fall Show, knowing the good cause to which we were contributing and seeing the audience laugh while showing their support made it all worthwhile.

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