Comedy festival brings the laughs to UofL’s Thrust Theatre
It might be happening on April Fools’ Day, but the first “Louisville Loves to Laugh” festival is no joke. March 28, 2014Billing itself as “a variety show of tomfoolery,” the show will feature University of Louisville faculty, students and community members performing various feats of comedy at 8 p.m., Tuesday, April 1, at the Thrust Theatre, 2314 S. Floyd St. The show is a benefit for Clowns Without Borders, a nonprofit that uses humor to provide psychological support to communities in crisis.
The brainchild of UofL assistant theater professor Erin Crites, the variety show will feature 13 different performances including student sketch comedy, stand-up, clown work, storytelling through gibberish, magic acts and a vaudevillian strongman act. More than half of the performers are UofL students.
Crites, a volunteer for Clowns Without Borders, will travel to Lebanon with the nonprofit next month to create original material and perform for Syrian refugees. The “Louisville Loves to Laugh” event is a chance to introduce the work of Clowns Without Borders and showcase several different types of comedy to the community.
The festival is just one of the ways that Crites and UofL have partnered with Clowns Without Borders. In February, Crites held two physical comedy workshops on campus – one for students and one for the community – with the assistance of Clowns Without Borders director Tim Cunningham.
Admission to the April Fools’ variety show is $5. All proceeds go to Clowns Without Borders. For more information, call Crites at 502-852-8447 or watch the YouTube video about the Clowns Without Borders UofL workshop.
Erica Walsh is the marketing director for the Office of Communications and Marketing. Her job lets her share UofL’s good news in all avenues of communications including publications, advertising, content marketing and branding. Walsh joined UofL in 2014 after previously serving as the public relations specialist at Indiana University Southeast. Prior to her career in higher education communications she was an award-winning newspaper reporter. Red is one of her favorite colors and it’s a good thing, too, because she earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Western Kentucky University and her master’s in communication from UofL.