Charismatic Hosts and Original Acts Win Over the Crowd
There is a definite formula to SPOT. Like a long-running TV show, we come back to it each semester to be reminded of things we all like through means that become more familiar each year. We know, walking into the building, that we will hear jokes about “Ring by Spring,” housing, and Sodexo because these are things we all observe as Houghton students. They are artifacts of Houghton pop culture. Watching American popular culture get blended up with Houghton community has a certain charm to it.
This iteration was one of the more consistently exceptional productions I’ve seen in my three years at this school. The key word here is “consistency.” Former SPOTs have consisted of a slew of weaker acts, with strong acts peppered in between. This semester started strong and stayed funny throughout.
I sat in the balcony, a bit neurotic for taking notes during SPOT. All around me, people were Snapchatting, Instagramming, and “Yakking” as the heavy beat accompanied the countdown to showtime. I saw a lot of selfies being taken.
Connor Vogan and Matt Dean had great charisma as they entered and began the show. They were skilled at hosting without putting too much focus on themselves. They glued the acts together in a way that was memorable without being narcissistic. That takes nuance and it is exactly what hosts should do.
The choice to begin the night with Mike Kerr’s love song to squirrels was a great one. He held the joke until the moment when you almost expected him to be earnest. The reveal was a well executed head to the show.
Connor and Matt did a great job of developing original bits that involved students and faculty. Houghton Superlatives were clever and delivered with great comedic timing. The Minute to Win It challenge was a fantastic feat of human athleticism with high anxiety provided by the tick-tocking of the band. SPOT Hashtags is a bit I hope returns in the future, with its highlight being the phrase “#WombMate” from the Webb twins. Midway through the show, Shelly Hillman was able to enact revenge on her boss, Dr. Plate by giving him a pie in the face.
As happens each semester, President Mullen was involved in a skit. She and her husband Paul Mills performed in a lip sync battle against Professors Johnson and Gaerte. The crowd elicited a choral “aww” as the proverbial Houghton couple synced to “A Whole New World” from Aladdin. The crowd ultimately gave the win to Johnson and Gaerte who performed “No Air”. The purple and gold competitions for the night ended with an egg roulette challenge between JL Miller and Jason Stephens. An all too quick win by Jason gave the prize to the purple team for the night.
Throughout the show, a few acts and common themes stuck out to me. I firstly think that recognition needs to be given to the trio of Malcolm Bell, Jerbrel Bowens, and Marc Legrand who made each transition between acts incredibly smooth. People were dancing in their seats instead of impatiently waiting for the next act to be ready which has cursed some SPOTs of the past.
An oddity that stuck out to me was that only one video was shown during the course of the night. It was a hilarious parody of MTV Cribs that mimicked the editing of that show perfectly, but the majority of acts were on stage. That being said, there was a real trend of acts being accompanied by slides on the projector. The Yearbook bit and “Upperclassmen” gave the audience two subjects to look at and ultimately made the performances funnier and more interesting.
The night ended with an ensemble dance to “Move Your Body” by Beyoncé. SPOT wasn’t too long or too short. It was consistent and held a good mood throughout the night. There is some argument to be made that the criterion of parody for the acts was too limiting, but I think it resulted in a better show in this case. When we gather to enjoy comedy, we ought to gather around some familiar totem.
We have for many years needed something to hold us together as a community. As our sources of entertainment have become more diverse, it’s nice to know there are still instances of common culture for us to form around. That is the purpose of SPOT, I think. Not simply a night of enjoyment, but a common Houghton event that spurs on conversation and an occasional controversy. It’s a lighthearted way of lampooning our decision to spend four years freezing with 900 other people, at the same time appreciating each other in our unity.