Red, White, and Blue

For the last few months, I have been part of a sketch team at The PIT called Steve’s Hard Milk. I’ve loved my time on this team so much. A lot of sketch comedy is about getting the reps in and making as much content as possible, and this has certainly been the case with Steve’s Hard Milk. We rehearse for at least 5 hours a week most weeks, and we are all writer-performers - this translates to a lot of writing, and a lot of performing!

We started out in The Underground at The PIT. If you haven’t been to The PIT, there’s essentially three separate spaces. The Striker is the main stage, and is at the primary location along with The Underground, which has a very cool “comedy club” vibe. There’s also The Loft, which is where my shows Sir Reginald, Life’s Yearning, and Doomsday all premiered.

After a few months in The Underground, Super Sketch Tuesday (the house sketch team program night) was moved up to The Striker, which gave us a bunch of opportunities when it came to tech and performance. Firstly there’s a backstage area, which is incredibly useful for hiding big, dumb props. Secondly, the projector is pointed above the stage, meaning performers can utilize a visual joke alongside the stage - in The Underground, the performers would block the projector, so any images or videos had to be on an empty stage. The Striker is also much bigger, seating 99 people.

I think we have used the new space really well. As a writer, I’ve tried to play with it as much as possible. My sketch in our last show is below. Check it out, I even sing!