Salsations Brings Latino Sketch Comedy To EFF

Story by Broadside Correspondent Adam Bishop. Photo by Molly Maddra.

To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, the Hispanic Student Association and Program Board spiced things up at last week’s Every Freakin’ Friday event by bringing Salsation Theater Company, a Latino sketch comedy group located in Chicago, to George Mason University. Founded in 1998, the group tours college campuses throughout the United States, performing original acts with Latino-themed material.

“I enjoyed the fact that [Salsation] took different aspects of Latino culture, some good and some not so good, and put a positive and comedic spin on them,” said alumna Karishma Patel. “They showed a cool control of their heritage.”

The show started with a day in the life of Mercedes, one of the cast members. During the sketch, Mercedes was struggling to find a balance between raising her son and dating. She goes on a date with a new man and he has a car with a talking navigation system. After he picks Mercedes up, the navigation system starts saying “Caution, you are now entering El Barrio. Please lock your doors and secure jewelry. Do not make eye contact.”

Mercedes was upset about the navigation system suggesting her neighborhood is crime-ridden. “Angry Latina in front-passenger seat,” said the navigation system.

Another skit in the show featured two children visiting their grandmother in the future. They found a VHS tape labeled Menudo, from 1983 and played it in their hologram machine. The tape showed their grandmother dressed in bright tacky clothing in the parking lot of the Kmart in Fairfax.

The grandmother was very excited to see Menudo and she was asked to get an autograph in their trailer. The children started to speculate that their father was the child of one of the members of Menudo. Then, out comes their grandmother, who took the tape and shooed the children off stage. “Oh, Menudo!” she said, and started reminiscing as “My Heart Will Go On,” by Celine Dion started playing in the background.

“It is fun to see a different perspective of sketch comedy and culture,” said Kevin Hartley, Every Freakin’ Friday committee member.

Later in the show was the skit “Al Pacino’s School of Hispanic Acting.” The cast got the audience involved by asking them to yell out a location that would fit on stage. The audience picked Disneyland to which the actor playing Al Pacino responded “Great, we’ll do a strip club at Disneyland!”

The cast also asked the audience for emotions they were feeling to incorporate into the skit. Excited, nervous, nauseous, depressed, frustrated, sleepy and constipated were among the emotions the audience listed. The cast then performed an improv act in a strip club at Disneyland with all of the emotions that the audience suggested.

“[Salsation] incorporated Latino culture that Mason students would not ordinarily get to see. It is not normal to see comedy with this much culture,” said Tara Passwaters, chair of Every Freakin’ Friday committee.

“Salsation is agreeable with Latino core values across all 26 Latino nations,” said Ricky Carmona, one of the cast members of Salsation, who noted that the show includes current issues that are relevant to Latino culture.

For more information about Salsation Theater Company, visit http://www.salsation.com or their MySpace comedy page.

Next week, Every Freakin’ Friday will host Alex Winston. Program Board also is selling tickets for Lewis Black featuring John Bowman on Oct. 18 and One Republic feat. The Spill Canvas and The Hush Sound on Oct. 23. For more information about future Program Board events, visit http://pb.gmu.edu.