Big Show Writing Workshops

Big Show Writing Workshops are now on Wednesday Uni Periods at the Writing Center in room 106S. The directors continue to encourage students of all ages to attend, participate, and submit sketches to Big Show.

Big Show is a sketch comedy show featuring witty videos and short plays that are written and produced by students. It occurs at the end of X-week and all the money gained from the show goes to charity. Co-director Umar Hanif compares Big Show sketches to those by the comedy show SNL (“Except good”, he adds with a smile) and by comedians Key and Peele.

According to Hanif, he and co-director Kat Williams decided to host the writing workshops since they are a “good environment to work in” and to “bounce ideas off each other”. An audience to test material on is especially important in comedy, according to Hanif, and the workshops would be a perfect opportunity for that.

Hanif says he usually begins the writing process by watching sketches online. He says, “that will warm you up, sort of get you in the feel for writing sketches.”

Hanif also provides different approaches writers can take. He says, “A lot of the times my sketches are satirical, so they’re commenting on school or a social issue, like politics.” Another technique he suggests is to “take something you know and make it really weird.”

He encourages all Uni students, regardless of grade, to submit their sketches and attend workshops, because “there are funny subbies and freshman just like there are funny seniors and juniors.”