The Lilting Banshees are a sketch comedy troupe at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. [1] [2] They are notable for launching the entertainment careers of several alumni [3] and for being a popular campus attraction. [1]
The sketch comedy troupe was founded in 1998 by Ben Tomlin '94, Matt Jones '96, and several other theatre students. [4] The founders based their name on a CD of Irish harp music that Tomlin found in the theatre department sound booth. [5] In 2019, they celebrated their 25th reunion. [6] Over 40 alumni attended the reunion show. They performed classic sketches and unveiled a new fund in memory of alumnus James Buscher ‘98, who died in a car accident in 2010. [4] [7]
Members plan each show three months in advance. They meet regularly to pitch ideas for sketches, and after there are a sufficient number of them, they host a “War Room” session where they choose the sketches; according to tradition, each decision must be unanimous. [8] Previous topics have included the excessively long lines at Chick-Fil-A and how cavemen first discovered cow's milk. Some performances feature sexually suggestive content. [4]
The Banshees have helped to launch the careers of several notable alumni in entertainment-related fields. [3]
Monty Python were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus, which aired on the BBC from 1969 to 1974. Their work then developed into a larger collection that included live shows, films, albums, books, and musicals; their influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music. Their sketch show has been called "an important moment in the evolution of television comedy".
The "Dead Parrot Sketch", alternatively and originally known as the "Pet Shop Sketch" or "Parrot Sketch", is a sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus about a non-existent species of parrot, called a "Norwegian Blue". A satire on poor customer service, it was written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman and initially performed in the show's first series, in the eighth episode.
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984 in Calgary and Toronto, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1989 to 1995, on CBC, in Canada. It also appeared on CBS, HBO, and Comedy Central in the United States.
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In is an American sketch comedy television program which ran for six seasons from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network. The show, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8 pm (ET). It quickly became the most popular television show in the United States.
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Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, has been located north of downtown Winston-Salem since the university moved there in 1956. Wake Forest also maintains other academic campuses in Charlotte, North Carolina; Washington, D.C.; Venice; Vienna; and London.
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The Scales Fine Arts Center is home to Wake Forest University's performing and visual arts departments.
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Wake Forest Department of Theatre and Dance is a department within Wake Forest University which instructs students in theatre and dance and puts on four productions each school season and maintains the university's theatre. The department is based at the Scales Fine Arts Center on campus. The department cooperates with other branches of the university to focus to contemporary topics in the media by sponsoring films and other activities, lectures and workshops, charitable events and guest performers. In 2011, the department had eleven full-time theatre faculty and five full-time dance faculty.
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...The Lilting Banshees, led by senior Sam Ederle, is a student-run organization that performs three comedy shows a year with two in the fall and one in the spring....
...If you have the special skill of making others laugh, join the Lilting Banshees – our comedy troupe on campus....