This Thursday, just minutes before the show’s scheduled start, Fulton 511 reached capacity as people struggled to find seats, resulting in all the walking room being occupied by standing audience members.
Shovelhead’s “Best Of” show happens every three years, presenting the Boston College community with the group’s biggest and most popular sketch comedy pieces.
Starting strong, the first act was a sketch of a British trial of a boy convicted of murdering his whole family with a rusty pie tin, written by Dana Connolly, BC ’22. The young boy on trial was played by Paige MacDougall, MCAS ’27, while the young boy’s girlfriend who keeps fainting was played by Alexa Steckel, MCAS ’27. The members of the jury were spread out around the room, even mixed in with an audience, screaming hilarious comments as the trial went on.
Following was a shorter skit where a girl goes on a blind date with a silly Italian man who brought food from home, written also by Connolly. The Italian man was played by Erik Winkler, MCAS ’25, while the girl was played by Johanna Seng, MCAS ’26.
Shifting focus to one person, Emily Dyer, CSON ’25, delivered a monologue of a young college girl praying to God, originally written by Mary Carol Phelan, BC ’24 and Grace Hone, BC ’24. This mid-length sketch consisted of her checking up on God and lamenting about her embarrassing love life and history.
Three shorter acts followed. The first featured parents trying to decode acronyms their daughter is using to text her new boyfriend, written by Phelan, Hone, and Dyer, and performed by Kevin Carnes, CSOM ’25, and Dyer. Adjoining was a sexy M&M sketch calling out Tucker Carlson for hating on their sexiness, written by Phelan and Hone. A new purple M&M was featured in the sketch, played by the group’s new addition Daniel Rodriguez, MCAS ’28. Finally, a short sketch of two old-fashioned suitemate pen pals written by Tom Flanagan, BC ’22, was performed by Liam Conner, LSEHD ’25, and David Reddig, MCAS ’25, with eloquent, old-fashioned British speech and wigs.
Some mid-length sketches that followed included one of a singing group that ignores the pleas of injured people, written by Mary Catherine Daly, BC ’22; Jack Tunguz, BC ’21; and Matt Wilson BC ’21. Two others written by Flanagan depicted the clever concept of a father going fishing for birds with his son and another about what life is like when Simon Says is your roommate.
One of the most dramatic and fan-favorite sketches of the night was one that tells a Death of a Salesman parody written by Connolly, where instead of it being a salesman, it was a mailman. Conner’s eccentric energy as the mailman garnered much laughter from the crowd.
The shortest act of the night, “Bambi,” written by an unknown member from BC ’09, featured MacDougall as Bambi and Charles Phillips, MCAS ’28, as the hunter. The retelling of the classic tale resulted in Bambi getting shot instead.
The final act of the night was a middle school poetry contest with a haiku about puberty written by Reddig and Bea Pugeda, BC ’24. The haiku was performed by Seng, who was accompanied by backup dancers Jake Green, CSOM ’26, and Jackson Rowley, MCAS ’27, pointing out private areas on their bodies.
“I just want to say that I feel so proud,” said Conner, co-director of Hello…Shovelhead!, following the successful show. “It means a lot for our amazing group to get together and really work hard for the whole week to put on this performance.”
As the actors stood on stage to take their bows, the audience was wild, wishing there was more of the show to come.
“I’m also just proud that we got to put on some of our best sketches from the past few years and from our history,” Conner said. “That just really shows how fantastic Hello…Shovelhead! is.”
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