Students from Fishbowl Improv prepares for their two-day comedy festival, Tides 6. Credit: Courtesy of Fishbowl Improv
Fishbowl Improv, one of Ohio State’s student comedy groups, is hosting its sixth annual Tides Comedy Festival on Friday and Saturday.
The two-night comedy festival will feature Ohio State groups such as Fishbowl, 8th Floor Improv, Buckeye Standup Comedy Club and Backburner Sketch Comedy Group. There will also be comedy groups from various universities around the Midwest, professional improv teams and comedians from across the country.
The festival is a great opportunity for those who are not well-acquainted with comedy to have a great experience, and it provides the collegiate comedians a way to network and improve their skills, said Jackson Donaldson, a fourth-year in electrical engineering and president of Fishbowl Improv.
“All of the performers get to do workshops with the pros the next day,” he said.
Some of the professional comedians in attendance will be Hannah Boone, who got her start at the famous Laugh Factory in Hollywood, and Jenn Snyder, who began at a comedy club in Columbia, South Carolina.
Collegiate comedy groups will be visiting from Michigan State, Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and more. The groups will be performing a combination of stand-up, sketch and improv comedy skits. In previous years, the festival has been dedicated specifically to improv.
Fishbowl Improv hosts smaller comedy shows every other week, but hopes the magnitude of this festival will help spread laughs and appreciation for comedy.
“I’m excited to share my passion for comedy with the other comedians who are coming, and I’m excited to just experience the marathon of comedy,” said Sam Bloch, a second-year in logistics management and aviation management and a performing member of Fishbowl Improv. “It’s really fun to sit and watch and sort of lose yourself in the foolishness that’s going on on stage.”
The Tides 6 Comedy Festival will be taking place Feb. 1 and 2 in the U.S. Bank Conference Theatre in the Ohio Union from 6:30 p.m. to midnight. Admission is free.
Corrections made at 11:40 a.m. on Jan. 31: Fishbowl Improv performs every other week, not every other month. The festival was originally an improv festival and not a standup festival. Women of OSU is not a student organization, but a collective of female members of 8th Floor and Fishbowl.
