Analysis | The Chapman comedy boom

From Improv Inc. to “Father’s Milk,” Chapman University has seen an increase of comedy platforms throughout the last few years. So what’s driving the boom? Pictured above: Father’s Milk holds a script read-through meeting. Photo courtesy of Jack Ruhl

The birth of a golden age of student comedy at Chapman University may have started from humble beginnings: callbacks for the comedy club “Improv Inc.” in the spring of 2018. After a few students invited didn’t make the team, they went on to start their own ventures — sketch comedy show “Father’s Milk,” the stand-up show “On Wednesdays We Are Gay” and “The Kumquat.” 

“If you didn’t make it on Improv Inc., there was no other comedy outlet,” said Reed Buck, the former president and founder of Father’s Milk. “Improv was great and we didn’t want to compete with them. We wanted to do our own thing.”

Chapman is currently in the midst of a golden age of student comedy. Today, students can audition for Improv Inc., apply for Father’s Milk or The Kumquat, do standup at a Zoom show, start a Chapman meme account on Instagram or try to break into the Chapman Twitter scene. 

However, just a few years ago, this wasn’t the case. In 2017, the only comedy club on campus was Improv Inc. The Kumquat was founded in 2018 and Father’s Milk in 2019. In 2020, as a result of COVID-19, Chapman saw the rise of digital comedy, with Zoom standup shows like On Wednesdays We Are Gay and social media accounts like Instagram’s @dodgecollegememes. 

So what explains the sudden boom in platforms? Ironically, the lack of a Chapman comedy community is what created one — inspiring students like Buck and Izzi Cavotta, the founder of On Wednesdays We Are Gay,  to explore their own ventures. But nowadays, there’s no sense of animosity or resentment between any of the groups.

“I’ve been delighted to see all the new comedy clubs pop over the past few years. The more opportunities for people to make silly jokes, the better,” said Sam Bailey, a Chapman junior and the president of Improv Inc. “The ‘comedy boom’ has been good for me, personally, because I’ve found a lot of people who get me motivated to do comedy — not (just) at the times I’m obligated to because of the club I’m in.”

Comedy at Chapman isn’t limited to clubs. “Chapman Twitter,” as it was referred to by multiple sources The Panther spoke with, is the name given to an ineffable community of students on Twitter who tweet about Chapman and their lives, interacting with each other’s tweets. 

“It's fun being known for your Twitter,” said Sarah Gindy, a junior known as @sarahgindy on Twitter. “People would come up to me at parties and be like, ‘I’ve seen you on Twitter.’”

Gindy said the online community is something that transcends the university.

“One of my friends from home texted me about how she was seeing so many Chapman tweets and they were following her,” Gindy said. “She said something like, ‘Your people are flooding my timeline — so many quirky comedy boys on my Twitter feed.’ I think that’s really cool that we have that, that some other schools don’t and that my friends from other schools know about it.”

Chapman Twitter is a great place for people to express themselves who aren’t in comedy clubs, according to junior Ben Rotenberg, a member of “Improv Inc.” His account @susBENded is a prominent member of the Chapman Twitter community, as Gindy said multiple friends texted her after seeing his tweet about being hit by a van. 

“Chapman comedy is still a relatively small scene — it’s not necessarily exclusive, but it’s small,” Rotenberg said. “Between Father’s Milk, (Improv Inc.) and The Kumquat, there’s like 20 to 30 people involved.” 

With that small number, despite the intimate community, Rotenberg thinks comedy at Chapman could go much further. 

“There’s a ton of funny people at Chapman,” Rotenberg said. “Not all of them can fit on a 12-person improv team or a 15-person newspaper staff.”

Others agreed, and encouraged anyone thinking about pursuing comedy at Chapman to dream big, just as Buck and Cavotta once did.

“I think people should just do it. Make your own sketches; do your own comedy,” said Alex Lyon, the current president of Father’s Milk. “Do it because you love it.”