Cultivating Comedy Culture: Call Westlands

“There’s something beautiful about doing improv,”  says Eva Nemiroff. “You have to have the other person’s back, the objective in the scene is to make the other person look good⁠— it's not about yourself, it's about the scene succeeding.” 

Nemiroff ‘22 and Ann Nelson ‘21 revived “Call Westlands” during the 2019 spring semester, a sketch comedy and improvisation club that strives to be an inclusive comedic space and an alternative option for rehearsing and learning about comedy. 

Nelson and Nemiroff decided to take their love for sketch comedy and run with it. They contacted Katy Gretskovitch ‘19 and Austin Halpern-Graser ‘19, two seniors at the time (both SLC alumni), who had created the club Call Westlands during their freshman year when they too  felt a lack of comedy opportunities on campus. The four of them teamed up, along with Hrannar Björnsson ‘21, and put on two informal sketch comedy shows during the 2019 spring semester. 

“Laughter is healing. When you do as much work as Sarah Lawrence students do, you’ve gotta laugh. Sketches can say so much about the world around you; comedy is a medium for very important expression.” says the former head of the SLC Theatre department, Christine Farrell. Farrell teaches comedy workshop to undergraduate students, as well as to MFA theatre students. 

This year, Nelson and Nemiroff have continued Call Westlands, registered it as an official club on campus and began holding auditions. They plan to hold bi-weekly informal improv jams open to everyone, and put on two sketch shows a semester. Previously, the only long-standing improv group on campus has been Lampoon, which is a class as well as a club.

 “It’s really hard to get into Lampoon, and everything depends on the year,” Björnsson says, “Some years they take two people, others seven, it just depends. I know Austin [Halpern-Graser ‘19], who I thought was so funny, and I auditioned together and he was auditioning for his fourth time so he had been having to do independent stuff his entire time at Sarah Lawrence, which is hard, but if there's only one group on campus that's all you can do.” says Hrannar Björnsson. 

“My freshman year I saw Lampoon perform and I thought, “I have to get into this”, but I didn’t know what it was till later on because I’m not a theatre student so I didn’t know about auditions,” says Björnsson. “If you didn't know about auditions during orientation week then you have to wait a whole year.”

“I decided that I wasn't going to wait an entire year.” says Nemiroff, “So I did my own sketch show. It was called “The Lies I Told My Therapist”. I wrote the music for it, I directed it, I was the head writer for it, everyone was so supportive.” 

“When I met Eva, she also hadn’t gotten into Lampoon and she was just like, ‘I’m gonna do my own sketch show anyways!’ which I really admired, because as a freshman I probably wouldn't have done that. It was only one night and there was a packed house, so there's definitely a demand for something like that on campus.” says Nelson.

“I auditioned for Lampoon my freshman year but I didn't get in and I was upset, I thought I wasn’t going to be able to do comedy here and it felt like I wasn't going to get to be a part of this community that I had been wanting to be a part of for so long.” says Nemiroff.

“Sarah Lawrence theatre can be so exclusive and it's hard to get into things. We just felt there was a need for more improv opportunities, especially more informal ones.” says Nelson. 

“There are other options. There's Melancholy Players, there's Downstage, there are open mics as well. I’ve only ever been in one main stage show and I found myself to be frustrated with that and I know other students are frustrated with that too.” says Sarah Morse ‘21, “Christine Ferral teaches her comedy workshop, and last year she taught another improv class. I didn't get into Lampoon last year so that class was a great resource for me, especially since it wasn't audition based.”

“Since Sarah Lawrence doesn't have a regular improv class or improv comedy class, Lampoon is sort of the only outlet. And I’ve been vocal with Christine [Farrell] and Dave McCree, that I just wish there were more opportunities here, because that's a lot of pressure on Lampoon itself.” says the current Lampoon teacher and SLC alum, Katie Hartman. 

“I think I’ve done every possible outlet of comedy available on campus,” Björnsson says. “I’ve done stand up at open mics at the Black Squirrel, I’ve been in both of the sketch groups that I know exist so far, I’ve down Clownstage, which was a comedy show mimicking a comedy club and that was made by Katy Greskovich as well.” says Björnsson.

Nemiroff also noted that other colleges and universities have numerous improv and sketch comedy troupes —  NYU with thirteen, and Emerson with nine — so the pair felt that only having one troupe was definitely a gap in the comedy scene. 

Nemiroff and Nelson took it upon themselves to create more opportunities for themselves and for others on campus looking to get more involved with comedy, to have more rehearsal time, have a place to try out some new material, or just have fun onstage. 

“I don't think one group should be the end-all be-all of comedy,” Nemiroff says. There's something to be said about having a community where anybody can come and create anything and have fun with improv. Call Westlands’ goal is to give a lot of opportunities to people to do comedy. I think there is definitely a need for a group on this campus to do comedy.

“Lampoon is made up of all actors, all theatre thirds, and so a lot of them have similar perspectives,” Björnsson says. “Call Westlands is trying to get all types of people, having different types of people and different backgrounds can really help for great comedy.” 

Call Westlands aims to be an independent sketch and improv troupe that cultivate a more inclusive and open environment in the theatre and comedy community on campus. They encourage everyone to come to their improv jam sessions where anyone can watch, participate, and be involved. The club hopes to bring together people from all walks of life to create an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable taking risks, learning, and honing their craft. 

“I remember when I was there I was too scared, I didn't do any writing in college and my comedy partner didn’t either,” says Hartman. “Christine would say to us, “‘You guys have to write!”’ and we know that's the thing that has gotten us to where we are, which is professional actors and comedians, and it’s because we started writing.”

“It’s just about having fun and getting together and doing improv,” says Björnsson.

“There’s something beautiful about doing improv,”  says Nemiroff. 

“Comedy is something where in order to be really good you have to fail publicly and people are really afraid to fail. You have to have the other person’s back, the objective in the scene is to make the other person look good⁠— it's not about yourself it's about the scene succeeding,” Nemiroff adds.

Maggie Cole ‘21