Preview | Father’s Milk comedy sketch club gears up for first live performance since COVID-19

Father’s Milk members Finn Mackimmie (left) and Grant Peters rehearse for the comedy sketch club’s Friday and Saturday performances. DANIEL PEARSON, Photo Editor

Members of Father’s Milk, a comedy sketch club at Chapman, proudly describe themselves as a low-budget version of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” 

“(If) you’ve never been to an ‘SNL’ show, but you want to tell people that you kind of have, then come to our show,” said Jacob Rattner, co-president of Father’s Milk and junior screenwriting major.

The group of nine students rehearsed every night for the last week to prepare for their first live performance since quarantine, which is free to the community and taking place in Irvine Lecture Hall at 7:30 p.m. today (Friday, Nov. 12) and Saturday, Nov. 13. 

The Fall Sketch Show consists of an hour and a half worth of both live and digital sketches. When asked about what these skits would entail, members were adamant about keeping it a surprise — students will just have to come and see for themselves.

Fathers Milk started gaining more traction in September after members brought an inflatable cow suit to the Student Involvement Fair. The gag resulted in an uptick of over 300 new followers on the group’s Instagram. This begs the question — what is Father’s Milk, really?

Fathers Milk Co-President Grant Peters, a junior screenwriting major, said the group performs a variety of sketches on anything from random concepts, such as the knights of the round table, to parodies of well-known television shows and movies.

“I will say — everyone (in Fathers Milk) has a very different style of comedy, which is great, because it meshes very well,” Peters said. “I would call (our club) a melting pot of weird stuff.”

Peters took charge of Father’s Milk with Co-Presidents Rattner and Courtney Archerd, a junior television writing and production major, after most of the club’s former members graduated. Peters told The Panther he is helping to manage the upcoming show but emphasized everyone in the group has put an equal effort into writing, directing and acting. 

“What’s great is that everyone in the club gets to shine; everyone gets to play a lead part,” Peters said. “I have all the faith that everyone’s going to do an amazing job once Friday comes, and I just want there to be an audience to see it.”

During rehearsals, members of Father’s Milk practiced sketches over and over while giving each other comments, perfecting comedic punchlines and figuring out stage directions. The scripted, rehearsed nature of these sketches is what junior Molly Mulligan, secretary of Father’s Milk and junior screenwriting major, said differentiates the club from Chapman’s Improv Inc. 

“Our vision going forward is to do more and just be a bigger presence on campus,” Mulligan said. “Because a lot of people don’t really know who we are.” 

Marit Aurin, a junior political science major, said she joined the club to follow her passion for acting, but has also found the team to be supportive of creative endeavors. The club gave her an outlet to perform without having to major in acting and she’s finding a knack for coming up with ideas and having her team help her bring them to fruition. 

“I definitely contribute in the sense of giving notes or giving ideas, and I think that’s a good partnership,” Aurit said. “Especially since I am not a writer, I can have more of an audience perspective.” 

Though most students involved in Father’s Milk are studying screenwriting or creative writing, all majors are encouraged to come out to their auditions, which occur every semester, as well as their shows and open mic nights, which occur throughout the school year.

Students can get a taste of the club’s comedy style by checking out prior sketches on the Father’s Milk YouTube channel. The videos showcase members’ wide range of comedy covering everything from mocking dominantly male writer’s rooms to a Hooters delivery guy with daddy issues.

“I think anybody who does comedy has that fear in the back of their mind, like, what if people don’t laugh,” Rattner said when asked about his thoughts on performing in front of an audience this weekend. “(But) doing stand up, you can’t be worried about if you’re going to bomb; you just have to have the confidence and say, ‘I think our stuff is funny.’”