Just as end-of-the-semester stress was beginning to set in, Stevens’ comedy group Off Center presented their final sketch comedy show of the semester. Off Center hit the bull’s-eye with Free Tupac Concert. Students enjoyed two nights of free laughs and snacks, including cake to celebrate ten years of shows by Off Center.
“All good shows start with good writing,” said Off Center’s Captain Hook Zach Kastner, 3/4 Mechanical Engineering major. As president of the club, Kastner organizes the membership to get together and start writing, complete the sketch selection process, choose the show name, and then rehearse. “Rehearsals began two weeks before the show. It should have been earlier than that, but I wanted to make sure that all of our sketches were good before the show,” said Kastner.
Many audience members were in agreement that Free Tupac Concert was one of Off Center’s funniest shows. “My main goal was to have a funny show that offends zero people. It’s a challenge for people under the age of 22 to create a comedic bit that isn’t purely shock humor, and I think that we did that with our last show. So, I’d say, mission accomplished.”
The talent and humor of Off Center members expands beyond the stage. Kastner recently helped Kristie Damell with the script for College 101, a show for next fall’s Freshmen Orientation. “It was a very difficult challenge because I had to take dark subject matter and make it funny without offending people. It was so hard,” said Kastner. When it comes to collaborations with other RSOs, Off Center plans to do a radio show with WCPR.
There are about 25 voting members in the club. “I was told that it started as a part of Stevens Dramatic Society in 2005. That’s when they put on their first shows, and they titled the project Off Center,” said Kastner. They officially became an RSO in 2008. The purpose of the club is to promote the creation of sketch comedy and improv comedy by Stevens students.
“We can teach you how to act, be funny, and how to draw a free-body diagram. We’ve done it for a long time, and we’ve learned a lot and taught a lot. For example, I was only in one play before college and I was an understudy for a main role and I did nothing. The show was School House Rock Jr. Even if I got the main role, I wouldn’t have done anything impressive.” Kastner humbly joked, “I also wasn’t funny in high school because nobody talked to me. People don’t realize how funny they are if they’ve never told a joke.”
This was Kastner’s first semester being president of Off Center, and he’s going to be president next semester. “I won unanimously; I mean, at least I like to think I did”. Off Center has executive board elections every semester. They put on four shows a semester – a heavy load for each Captain Hook. He commented on his jobs as president: “I have to do everything. If something doesn’t go right, it’s my fault. First, I have to start with getting everyone to get together to start writing. Then, basically just regular events going to 10th floor of Howe, organize meetings to rehearse. The sketch selection process was sort of awful and I made it more efficient in various ways.”
“The way we pick names, is we have a google form and we have people write in Show suggestions, and I have to filter through them. And basically my criteria for getting rid of if it’s not going to get approved, if it’s not funny at all, or if it’s any inside joke. This is way more efficient than the way it was done before because we used to just have people suggest names in an open forum and 0 people put any thought in the names they suggested and it took up too much time, while making every president have a small mental break-down.”
Congratulations to Off Center for ten years of shows!
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