Run by co-presidents Sammy Levy (senior) and Skye Borch (sophomore), 2 Paws Up is Occidental’s sketch comedy team. Sketch comedy is defined as short comedic scenes or vignettes, usually just a few minutes in length. Every Sunday from 4-5 p.m., students come together in the library’s Brown Lab and participate in table reads and writing sessions.
“This has always been a learning space. We don’t do a lot of explicit training but this is a good place to learn what a sketch is, what writing a good sketch is and to experiment and try things the club has never done before,” Levy said.
Levy said that 2 Paws Up welcomes all students, regardless of how involved in the process they are able to be.
“We love people who wanna be here and write, act, do tech and be a part of every single element,” Levy said. “But we also love the people who are just like, ‘Hey, I don’t have time to write or come to weekly meetings but I would love to be in the show.’ Or are just like ‘Hey, I just wanna write, or act, or be behind the scenes,’ which is how I got into 2 Paws.”
According to Levy, 2 Paws Up has been around since 2018 and was founded by seniors from the class of 2022 who wanted to create a sketch comedy club on campus. Levy said that while they are a successful group today, 2 Paws Up faced some challenges after the founding group graduated.
“We were kind of recovering from the pandemic and the club started to die out a little bit. We’ve really made a push over the last couple of years to bring it back,” Levy said. “Very few of us had sketch comedy experience prior to this, so 2 Paws has been a space to experiment with comedy and try a bunch of different things, and I think that’s what it’s been since its inception.”
After the pandemic, Levy said that 2 Paws Up got things back on track by being more aggressive with advertising, participating in campus tabling events such as the Involvement Fair.
“When we were a much smaller group, we did crossover shows with Fantastiprov, where we did a few sketches before leading into the improv show,” Levy said. “It was a fun way to work with an audience that had already been established and show them our skill at writing and acting and have some fun on stage. They were really fun shows, but we have enough of our own identity as 2 Paws to not need to do them anymore.”
Annelise Seligmann (sophomore), social media manager of 2 Paws Up, said that the organization has a wide range of students in its circle. Seligmann said it’s awesome how there’s at least one person from every grade.
Seligmann said 2 Paws Up isn’t exclusively for theatre kids — any interested students can join.
“Sammy’s a computer science major, another member is a music major. I’d say it’s evenly split where half of us are theatre kids and the other half are from all walks of life,” Seligmann said.
According to the heads of 2 Paws Up, there is a lot in store this school year and for the future of the club.
“We’re doing a fundraiser with the Green Bean in order to raise money for the club. If you’ve ever seen Dropout’s Dirty Laundry, it’s our own little hybrid version of it. It will happen on Nov. 8,” Seligmann said.
Emilio Whitaker-Castañeda (junior), film coordinator and a member of the e-board of 2 Paws Up, said that there’s a mockumentary-style series focused on 2 Paws Up he wants to launch.
“It’s The Office meets community, but about 2 Paws Up specifically, that’s just a bunch of weird hiking comedy where we’re all playing the worst versions of ourselves. It would probably be posted on Instagram and YouTube,” Whitaker-Castañeda said.
Levy said that club members’ roles in 2 Paws Up aren’t well-defined, but rather, everyone is welcome to write and act. Levy said that when they get closer to the show, writers become the directors and actors cast themselves in their sketches.
“This really is a place to experiment,” Levy said. “Figure out what works and what doesn’t, and there’s no consequence for failure.”
Contact Kamaria Williams at kwilliams4@oxy.edu
