Friday Night Laughs The Tradition Continues
Friday Night Live changed hands this semester from an SGA event to a club all its own.
Friday Night Live, or FNL, is a skit-based event that takes place each semester. The comedy stage production is similar to the popular “Saturday Night Live” show — but with an MVNU twist.
Students write and act out their own skits poking fun at MVNU campus life and other relevant cultural trends and issues.
The semester premiere is Nov. 17. The event features two showings, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Junior Eddie Dilts and senior Spencer Chajkowski run the new FNL Club, but they continue to answer to Director of Campus Life Rochel Furniss and the new club adviser Justin Nowicki.
Nowicki was one of the originators of FNL during his time as an undergrad here from 2007 to 2011. He is now the Director of Development for MVNU.
Nowicki said his presence and the shift of FNL to club status won’t make much of a difference to most of campus.
“The average student wouldn’t know the difference, except those who are behind the scenes,” Nowicki said.
Student Life continues to review scripts, except now both student leaders and Nowicki review them before passing them on to Furniss for the final check.
Leadership of the club is balanced between two people, President Dilts and Vice President Chajkowski.
Dilts said the change has helped create a faster turnaround for skits. And, there has been less pressure on the president, he said.
While the shift has not caused major changes in the way FNL runs, it has prompted the club’s leaders to renew the focus on the event’s legacy.
With FNL no longer connected to SGA, it becomes more important to find people willing to keep the FNL tradition alive year to year, Dilts said. If no one wants to step up and run the club, the FNL tradition won’t survive.
One of this year’s goals is to create a system that encourages students to invest in FNL and makes FNL a permanent part of the MVNU culture.
As always, students this year were given the opportunity to audition skits for the event. There was a large interest by students, especially freshmen, for this semester, Dilts said.
Although not everyone could be accepted, the interest from underclassmen was encouraging, Dilts said.
“I would have loved to take more freshmen,” said Dilts. “I want freshmen perspective. I don’t want it to seem like it’s a clique or I know who I already pick going into auditions.”
About 13 students are a part of this semester’s FNL event. The group has formed a close bond, Dilts said, and everyone is putting more effort than usual into the show’s success.
He said the skits include a lot of diversity.
“I really want to hit multiple types of humor,” Dilts said.
Dilts hopes more students, after watching this semester’s show, will want to become a part of future productions of FNL.
Tickets are $5 and go on sale next week. The money collected will go to the local Food for the Hungry drive.