Amid the ramp up to final exams, students gathered in Fulton 511 on Thursday as Hello…Shovelhead! orchestrated a night of laughter with its show “They’re Doing WHAT!?!?!?! At the Beach?”
The comedy group opened its performance with a pre-recorded video sketch that introduced each of its comedians. The sketch showed the comedians trying to arrive in Fulton 511 in time for the show, emerging from the Res after a swim and The Circle Tavern after what appeared to be a late night out.
Shovelhead also performed the show, which consisted of 15 pre-recorded and live skits, on Dec. 2 and 3.
The crowd roared with laughter throughout a video skit that mocked tours around Boston College’s campus. Mary Carol Phelan, MCAS ’24, played the role of the tour guide, visiting notable buildings such as Gasson Hall and making jokes about each while receiving cheers and hollers from the audience.
Phelan’s comparison of Fulton Hall and Carney Hall prompted roaring applause.
“The interior of this building is supposedly inspired by the movie The Wizard of Oz, whereas the interior of Carney is inspired by the South Delaware Correctional Facility,” Phelan said.
Students cheered on Phelan as she chased fellow Shovelhead member Liam Connor, MCAS ’25, up the stairs leading from McGuinn Hall up to Stokes Lawn, where she tackled him for an interview on the Student Admission Program’s social media pages.
In another skit, the comedians used a combination of live acting and a projection of a student’s laptop screen. Thomas Chen, MCAS ’24, played a professor teaching a lecture on American history. The skit began with Chen asking the class who is considered a citizen.
All of the comedians that raised their hands to answer the professor’s question were white men.
“That’s right, only white land-owning males,” Chen responded.
The projection on the screen portrayed a student switching between tabs on her computer. The tabs consisted of class notes, a game of 2048, a running document about why she believed the professor is a loser, and a document entitled, “Romance Novel Draft 122,” which contained a sexual narrative the student was writing.
At the end of the skit, the professor told one of the female students that no computers were allowed in class, and as she shut it, the projection turned off.
In another skit, Shovelhead co-director Sam Stevenson, MCAS ’23, pretended to be hosting her own Clue-themed 37th birthday party. The guests were clearly bored the whole time, and the party went awry when guests discovered Stevenson kidnapped and murdered someone for the game.
The show’s 12 other sketches provoked laughter and cheering from the crowd, some more than others, and at the end of the show each comedian individually ran back on stage to receive a huge round of applause.
