Reflecting Upon Homecoming Comedy Show 2012

Maddy Bersch
Public Relations Director
seepublicrelations@umd.edu

University of Maryland community, SEE hears you.  We’ve read your emails, messages, and tweets about Craig Robinson’s performance at the Homecoming Comedy Show on October 18^th, and would like to respond.

This comedy show had been in the works for months; SEE Comedy Director, Eliana Geller, began researching potential artists this past spring.  Based on survey results and artist availability, Craig Robinson was selected to headline the show.  The SEE Executive Board was excited to bring Robinson to campus based on his success as Darryl on “The Office,” as well as past stand-up performances.  We hoped his backup band would bring a fun atmosphere to the show.

However, Craig’s performance was not what we expected or anticipated.  We agree with many of you that his behavior was unprofessional and inappropriate for a university event.  We were just as shocked as you were, and are embarrassed over this misrepresentation of our student-run organization.  We expressed our dissatisfaction with his performance and unprofessionalism to his agent, who then apologized and informed us that he was not aware of incidents such as this at any other college performance.  Discussions are still ongoing, which limits how much we are able to share at this time.  That being said, per outstanding ticket policy, we are unable to issue refunds.

While we understand that many of you were disappointed with Craig’s performance, we do hope you enjoyed Jermaine Fowler and Michael Ian Black’s opening performances.

Lastly, we would also like to use this opportunity to invite you to take our survey gauging interest for events later this year.  We value student opinion and want your input for future events.  The survey may be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SEE_UpcomingEvents.

Maddy Bersch, SEE Public Relations Director, may be reached at seepublicrelations@umd.edu.

Homecoming Comedy Show 2012: How It All Happens

Eliana Geller
Comedy Director
seecomedy@umd.edu

A new semester means so many different things to different people.  To some it can be the excitement or dread of a sparklingly new course load.  To others it can be the annoyance of having to live in yet another dorm room without air-conditioning.  But to the directors of SEE, it means gearing up for a new year of programming and planning.  While other SEE directors were working on awesome events such as Bo Burnham’s show, a PlayStation Tour, the Back-to-School Slam and a showing of The Hunger Games on McKeldin Mall, I was planning an event that would hopefully put nearly 7000 Terps into laughing hysterics.  That event was the Homecoming Comedy Show, SEE’s largest event of the fall semester.  

My first move in preparing for the show was contacting talent agencies to research comedians that would be in our price range. These comedians also had to be interested and available to perform at UMD.  (This is one of my favorite parts of the planning because agents often divulge a detail or two about some of the comedians).  Based on the information the agents gave me, I put together questions for the Art Attack survey, which reaches more students than any other survey we put out during the year.  When the results came in, Craig Robinson turned out to be #1 in the eyes of the UMD student body.  And so, I pursued him to headline the Homecoming Comedy Show (HCS).  Craig has a huge following among UMD students because of his roles in NBC’s The Office, and the movies Pineapple Express and Hot Tub Time Machine.  He puts a new spin on stand-up comedy since he performs while sitting at a keyboard, often accompanied by a band.  I think he’s a great choice for the show!

Generally, for HCS, the Comedy Director will choose one headliner and one opener to perform.  I chose Michael Ian Black as an opener because firstly, he is hilarious and secondly, I thought his stand-up would bring a different element to the show.  Michael Ian Black has performed at numerous universities and is especially popular among 90s kids who’ve watched him on the I Love the 90s series on VH1.  I thought he would be a perfect fit for UMD.  When I was talking to Craig’s agent, he suggested I add a comedian to the line-up to host the show.  This is a common practice in comedy clubs.  This person works as a transition between the acts with a few jokes in order to make the show flow better.  I really liked that idea and thought it would bring a new dimension to the Homecoming Comedy Show so I looked into Jermaine Fowler, an up and coming 24-year-old comedian from DC who is incredibly funny. 

After the line-up was decided, it was a matter of organizing the production and the promotion of the show.  SEE’s production and promotion teams have this down to a science.  I am so amazed at what this group of students is capable of – whether it is renting a stage and organizing people to build it, or sending out press releases to local newspapers.  Without them, no SEE event could ever occur.  Now that we’ve released the event, we must Promote! Promote! Promote! to get the word out to students and non-students alike.  Look for us near Stamp, we’ll be the ones in front with a giant floor piano!  

SEE is so excited for the Homecoming Comedy Show and we hope you are too! See you at Cole Fieldhouse this Thursday!

Tickets are available at www.umdtickets.com.

Inside the Event: Bo Burnham

Chris Allen
Performing Arts Director
seeperformingarts@umd.edu

            The purpose of this blog is to help students and the general public better understand how SEE operates as an organization.  I would first like to start off by making it entirely clear that Student Entertainment Events is a student organization.  It is made up of students like me, who volunteer their time to organize events on campus for other students to enjoy.  SEE is not some bureaucratic committee of campus big wigs who dole out funds to plan some events that the kids find ‘hip’.  It is a small group of students who genuinely care about what the student body wants.

            That being said, SEE Presents: Bo Burnham is an event I proposed and planned as the organization’s Performing Arts Director.  Initial planning for the show started in February when I began to research performers that would offer a mix of comedy and performing arts.  I was looking for a performer that was available in the fall, talented, relevant and affordable, and began to pursue Bo Burnham as an option.

            Next, SEE conducted a survey of Spring Comedy Show attendees as well as online participants to gauge student interest in Bo.  More than 70 percent of survey respondents indicated that they would be interested in seeing him perform on campus, which was remarkably favorable when contrasted with other survey results.  I began to write up a proposal for the event and proposed it to the board in the middle of April last year.  The date I chose was October 12, which I did not pull out of thin air.

            October 12 was the only weekend date within a range of three weeks for which Bo and the Grand Ballroom were both available.  I was looking to book a weekend date because respondents on last year’s Art Attack survey indicated that they were most willing to attend an event around 7 pm on a weekend night.  Again, we’re organizing these events based on what students want.  As a fan of Maryland Basketball, I also considered that Maryland Madness could potentially fall on the same date.  But I also considered this: the last four Maryland Madness events have occurred on the third weekend of October (Oct. 17 in 2008, Oct. 16 in 2009, and Oct. 15 in 2010, and Oct. 14 in 2011).  I also considered that last year’s event did not begin until 9:30 pm.  Given this information, it did not seem likely that October 12, which falls on the second weekend of October, would conflict with this year’s Maryland Madness.  It also did not seem likely that the two event times would conflict given last year’s later starting time.

            Unfortunately, both the date and time of each event conflict this year.  I realize this presented some students with the choice of exclusively attending one event or the other, and this is not a decision I wished students would have to make.  But, given the circumstances, that is the case.  This is in no way a reflection of my intentions or those of SEE as an organization; we made every effort to plan this event at a time when the most number of students were available.  Contracts were signed for this event at the beginning of the summer and this left us no option to adjust or reschedule the date and time of the event.  Because SEE executes written legal contracts for every event, we are not in a position to make last minute accommodations, despite our interests. 

            I apologize for any inconvenience and I hope this post makes clear the significant planning that goes into not only this show, but every show SEE puts on.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at seeperformingarts@umd.edu.