The Treatise

Greetings,

What is Comedy for the Masses? Can you truly appreciate something without knowing anything about it? I have come today with the idea to inform those who care enough. By the way, I think the commercial I was watching said that like…6000 young drivers go for a drive and never return home. The easy way out of this situation is to claim that they are all involved in accidents…but what about those that run away to Canada. This has been a public service announcement from the National Football League…VOTE REPUBLICAN

But in all not seriousness, Comedy for the Masses is a Student Organization at Ohio University, and the best source of edgy Sketch and Stand-Up comedy. Yes, I used the word edgy, I feel that it’s an appropriate adjective based on our last show. Look for more video on the YouTube page. Search “Comedy for the Masses”, it works now. Go team. The Comedian of Comedy is a wonderful investment. I’m not a fan of money, but you should go spend some of yours on the DVD(s). There may be more than one, though I’m not certain.

Once upon a time, it was 1999. The group called Comedy for the Masses is created from the previous antics of a group called Four Funny Guys and Matt. CFTM was the invention of Mr. Michael Busch and a Mr. Allen Kellogg. But why should I reword things, I will take the English major approach and cite this sort of thing, “…then 4fgm kind of disbanded in 01, and i wanted to leave something behind for ou students interested in comedy; it’s hard to start from scratch and hopefully having a group already there would help people get into it,” says Mr. Busch. It was around this time that Mr. Eric Moneypenny had been around and thus, the first set of leadership this group experienced was the Busch/Moneypenny administration, as I understand it.

As I now sit where people could be looking in through my Union Street windows, I reflect that I will not attempt to explain more things that I do not know. That being said, I will fast forward from the immaculate conception of the group, to the essential State of the Union that I will now indulge my own inadequate ego and address.

The Comedy for the Masses Fall 2005 Pledge Class featured the likes of Mike Reynolds, Bryan Cain, Tim Gaydos, and Nicole Mermer. There may have been more, but what sort of environment was ready to accept us? Comedy for the Masses was competing with a group called Comedy on the Rocks, a group that would fold and disappear after that quarter. The group was headed up by the administration consisting of Liz Maguire and Chris Bauman, but Chris was also serving as the President of the Lost Flamingo Company and that left Liz to do most of the work. People you should know? Bryson Turner was finishing out his last year as a student, as was Linton Lewis and Dusty Wilson. It was a pleasure to serve as a member of the new kids and understudy behind people such as these. It was a flourishing time with these minds alongside the contributions of Eli Sairs and Eric Janeczek. If ever there was a Renaissance for CFTM, I feel as though this may have been a time underneath the Maguire/Bauman administration.

Which leads into the reign of the Reynolds/Cain administration which many who read this already know about. The 2007-2008 school year is the year of rebirth for Comedy for the Masses. The previous year saw a great deal of apathy as the group relied primarily on the writing talents of a couple individuals. The importance of writing is being stressed. My personal desire is to raise the standing of Comedy for the Masses to the glory it deserves. The people I know of through this group each have the potential to do something great, and audience members have the opportunity to be able to say that they saw So-and-So at Ohio University when they were just getting started. That is my goal for Comedy for the Masses as we forge through this academic year, the year that will see the end of the Reynolds/Cain administration. A lot will be riding on the next chapter.

I know of no better way to end this than to pose the question: Do you know the way to the Great Valley?

–Mike Reynolds