Thank you (pause, followed by mood-setting piano music) Colin Lauer and Graeme Little (pause) for being one of the very few original and genuinely funny SPOT acts of the night.
My own opinion aside, from what I’ve heard, the general consensus among upperclassmen who have witnessed some very popular previous SPOTs is that the annual Purple and Gold variety show fell flat this year. The jokes were repetitive, the show was too long, and some humor was in bad taste.
“I think this year’s show had some issues,” said senior SPOT performer Sarah Jacoby. “It did not seem as well organized as past years. I know there was some trouble getting auditions, which I think was a factor.”
If the unsuccessfulness of the night can be partially attributed to disorganization, another key influence was duration. “It definitely went too long,” said Jacoby. “I know there have been SPOTS that have gone longer, but by the end people were ready to go. I think the length contributed to how people felt about the night.”
In response to how the show could have been better executed Jacoby said, “More cowbell. But seriously, I liked the SNL theme and thought that if the hosts stuck to that it would have given the night more structure.”
Despite difficulties, according to Jacoby there were some featured strengths of the night. “Mike Amico did a great job. Also, I really enjoyed the stepping act and the pitch perfect medley, because it’s nice to have things that are actually more talent than comedy,” she said.
“The community sweater was unique and funny, but overall the community jokes have been beaten to death. Colin’s last thank you was very appropriate.”
Senior class president Sydnie Cunningham shared similar sentiments to Jacoby’s.
“I did not enjoy SPOT as much as previous years,” said Cunningham. “I felt that most of the acts weren’t funny and some were border-line offensive, especially regarding Sodexo.”
Cunningham enjoyed having a DJ in place of a stage band, but thought that the organizers should have been more selective concerning the acts. One aspect of last semester’s SPOT which Cunningham found to be effective was its cohesiveness and she wished that tactic could have been employed this semester.
“In the fall Anthony and Scott went above and beyond to plan out a theme and create good transitions,” said Cunningham.
Cunningham also commented that SPOT may have been stronger if it were less Houghton-conscious. “It was a good idea to have Shirley Mullen in the weekend report, especially since that is a consistent act, and it was nice of her to participate, but people need to realize that you don’t have to make fun of Houghton to be funny,” said Cunningham.
Senior Liz Chevalier agreed with Jacoby and Cunningham’s overall assessments.
“It was longer than it needed to be and there were some acts we could have done without,” said Chevalier.
Chevalier acknowledged that she wishes the hosts would have done more skits themselves. She also echoed the praise for Amico’s remixes and the thanks to Lauer for “putting the community joke to rest,” and commented that the offenses committed during this SPOT were more implicit than explicit.
Like Cunningham, Chevalier speculated that future SPOT skits may be fresher, more creative, and better received if they do not exclusively revolve around Houghtonisms. “We should think about what’s funny to people outside of Houghton, things that you don’t have to go to Houghton to understand,” said Chevalier. “Most of the Houghton jokes are way overused, so for the sake of originality we should step outside of what is normally joked around about.”