By Rachel Vigil

What do you get when you put a group of theater kids in a room with a pen and a piece of paper?

You wouldn’t be wrong if your answer was Cupid’s Comedy Cabaret, which took the stage at Wheat Ridge High School for the 21st year on April 15 and 16. It showcased the ability of Wheat Ridge students to write, direct, and act in their very own comedy skits.

This product of student comedic collaboration had a whole auditorium shaking with side-splitting laughter.Cupid’s wasn’t a work of genius, not every skit stuck the landing. Some went on too long and ended up dragging their concepts to death, while others were promising, but over too soon. The jokes occasionally fell flat and gags didn’t quite blossom into something more.

The show started off with what I considered fairly slow skits. “Blind Jogger,” which told the story of blind marathon runners (and one that would reappear throughout the show), had an interesting premise that was filled with potential, but ultimately didn’t feel utilized. The next skit about an exterminator named Darrell was both long and full of jokes that were neither clever nor engaging. However, the show soon turned around and by the end of the show, the memory of the bad skits was completely overshadowed by the spectacle of the rest of the show.

With the bad came the good, and when Cupid’s succeeded in skits, they were gold. The short but hilarious skit about baseball included amazing physical acting from junior Dillon Thompson and an overall creative premise. This cast seemed to have their greatest strengths when physically acting out scenes. Such acting was showcased in one of my personal favorite skits, “COPS.” In it, a cop, played by Junior Brandi Lyons, pulled over two mimes. The two mimes continued to mess with the cop, who viewed their miming as a form of devil worship.

Lyon played that character perfectly and continued to get the biggest laughs and applause from the audience the whole night. Even when she broke character, she managed to make it work back into the skits. In fact, the entire cast was able to play off of each other very well. That may come from working together on the production for such a long time, but it was impressive nonetheless.
I can’t say that the entire show was strong. However, that’s to be expected in most every variety show. Shows such as Saturday Night Live can have a hilarious skit followed by one that doesn’t pull off one joke. For Cupid’s, that rule definitely applied.

Overall, the majority of the show was fairly entertaining. On top of that, the fact that it was wholly written and acted by students makes their successes even more impressive. While not perfect, Cupid’s provided an entertaining evening to its audience with an impressive look into Wheat Ridge High School’s sense of and ability for humor.