Laughter is the Ultimate Cure for Stress

          I think almost everybody can agree that laughter is a great way to relieve stress. Every Thursday at 9 PM, after the busy part of my week is over, my friends and I go to the TCU student comedy show called Senseless Acts of Comedy or “SAC” for short. There are nine improvisation comedians and two hosts. SAC is especially funny because most of the time they relate to the humorous things that go on at TCU. For example, they made a spoof of the Super Bowl commercial called “God Made a Farmer” and turned it into “God Made a Horned Frog”. The video pokes fun at an array of TCU student problems including high tuition, construction, parking issues, and more that I am sure most of us can easily relate to.

            One of their main techniques is playing improvisational games similar to the way the show “Whose Line is it Anyway” does. One game they play often is where a few of the comedians are given specific roles and must portray those roles at a “party”. Another comedian, who is unaware of the roles the others are given, must guess based on their behavior that person’s role. For example, one week they had three “partygoers”, and one “host” that was in charge of guessing the roles. The first partygoer was assigned the role of behaving like a Pokemon master. He would do things such as sneezing and saying “Pikachu” instead of “achoo”. The second partygoer was assigned the role of being a person obsessed with licking his hands. This person would constantly be licking his hands during the entirety of the skit (which was disgusting!). The third partygoer was given the role of being a KU basketball player. This person acted depressed through the whole skit and when one of the partygoers exclaimed they had recently had a death in their family, the KU player exclaimed, “I am sorry for your loss…but not as sorry as I am about mine!” This was extremely funny to the crowd because KU had recently lost to TCU in a big way.

            Another thing they do a lot of the time is harmlessly make fun of each other on stage. For example, they are always making fun of Grant Moore because of his beard and Kelly Ryan because of her “awkwardness”. They also enjoy putting each other in uncomfortable situations on stage. One example was during their Valentine’s Day special where they had two of the improvisational comedians kiss and stay frozen in that position for a long time while the crowd laughed and teasingly made fun of their awkward frozen position. I think a lot of what makes this group so hilarious is their ability to carelessly act ridiculous for the pure joy of the crowd. Also, everyone in the room is consciously in “play mode” where they know that everything that happens is for the sake of laughter and enjoyment. The laughter in the room is highly contagious and it also helps cheer on the performers when they are on stage.

            As Acquinas said, “humor and play are words and deeds in which nothing is sought beyond the soul’s pleasure.” Comedy shows, such as SAC, are performances that have the sole purpose of enjoyment and laughter. Everything that happens on stage is done is playful manner and everyone is aware that the comedians are “only joking”. I personally think SAC is a great way to reduce weekly stress and relax in a healthy way. I encourage everybody who has never been to attend and add a little more laughter to his or her lives!

Let the Conversations Begin: Meeting My ESL Partner

My Conversation Partner is named Christian Castañedo and we met on Friday, February 1^st at Einstein’s Bagels. He is from Guadalupe, Mexico and he is new to TCU. He was extremely nice and even bought me a smoothie while we were there. I asked him about school and he wants to major in film and become a producer in the future. His English was surprisingly pretty good and during the whole meeting, he would ask me to correct him if he said something incorrectly. He lived in New York for a while before coming to Texas but said it was too expensive there and he likes it better here (which I can’t blame him, Texas is awesome). He says that Americans have funny sayings and he thought the saying “Don’t count your eggs before they hatch” was odd. I asked him if he liked America compared to Mexico and he said that he loves the opportunities in America but misses all the traditions that Mexico has. I told him that America celebrates certain special holidays but other than that, Americans do not have that many traditions. He also said that America seems fast-paced and he constantly feels the need to always be doing something when he’s here. We also discussed how the food differs from Mexico. He said that “Tex-Mex” food is not nearly as spicy/flavorful as true Mexican food. When I exclaimed that I also enjoyed spicy foods, he said that he would bring me some true spicy food next time (but hopefully not too spicy!). He said that Taco Bell is not even close to Mexican food (especially the tacos) but he does like Fuzzy’s and Salsa Limón. He says that he enjoys all the fast food options here but they are dangerously fattening. He works at the Hilton hotel to help pay for his house that he has close to campus and he says that he likes his job there. I asked him if he misses his family and he said yes but that he has a cousin that also lives here and his family is planning on moving here soon. We also talked about sports and he said he enjoys more extreme sports and also soccer, sand volleyball, and swimming. He says that American football (not futból) is confusing to him and so he does not normally watch it. I attempted to speak some Spanish to him thinking that maybe the Spanish I learned in high school would come back to me…But it didn’t and I ended up telling him that I lived on “el rancho” (on a farm), which he thought was hilarious. He also didn’t understand me when I said I ran track because he didn’t know what a track was. I had a hard time trying to explain what a track is but I did manage to remember the Spanish word for running (It’s correr in case you were wondering). Overall, the meeting went well and it was unexpectedly easy to talk to him. I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed getting to know someone from a different culture and I look forward to the experience of further getting to know Christian and learning about each other’s cultures.