Wicked Sketchy: A Reminder to Commit to the Bit
By Carmelle Jagaselvan ’26
From Thursday afternoon to Saturday night, students and families filled King Theater to watch Wicked Sketchy, Milton’s annual sketch comedy show written by students. After laughing for over an hour straight, I was among many who left King on Saturday night marveling at my peers’ performances.
Aside from performing, the creation of Wicked Sketchy is an art in itself. The process of turning a simple joke or idea into a sketch performed on stage is lengthy and requires more preparation than a casual viewer of the show may think. The origin of a sketch can come from students in many different forms. “Sometimes they’ll have an idea for a whole sketch, sometimes they'll have an idea for funny characters, sometimes they'll have just a line or a phrase that they want to incorporate, sometimes it's a visual,” explained Peter Parisi, the director of the show.
After a preliminary idea is established, it goes through several iterations before reaching its final product. During this process, the idea can change dramatically and comes under the ownership of the entire cast rather than one specific writer. “Wicked Sketchy is such a unique, amazing opportunity. It is one of the only, if not the only instance where students are able to kind of participate in the creation of a theater production from the very beginning to the very end. And it is so impactful to be able to really show your peers something on stage, not only your performance, but also your writing,” explained Al Ptaszek ’27, a cast member and co-director of the show.
One of the greatest challenges for the cast members in the process of creating the show was the risk in putting their ideas out there, unsure of whether students would laugh at their jokes or whether their cast members would reject their ideas. Even still, there are many rewarding parts of the process that outweigh the challenges. “Being able to see your idea through from the absolute very beginning to the moment that it hits the stage is so rewarding. I think humor is a form of storytelling and it’s incredibly rewarding to be able to tell your story and show your sense of humor on the stage,” stated Ptaszek.
My personal favorite sketch from the show was titled “Once a Cheater…”. It starts with a wife returning home from grocery shopping, her husband seeming on edge. The wife finds a red and white striped hat and a white glove in their living room, and then finds out that her husband is cheating on her with the Cat in the Hat. The slow build up to the reveal was so well done, and even when that already seemed so unexpected, we find out that the wife is cheating on her husband with the Grinch. The completely unexpected nature of the sketch really encapsulated what Wicked Sketchy is all about: taking a risk on such a crazy idea that leads to the creation of a sketch that the whole audience enjoys.
I would, of course, be remiss if I failed to mention the musical parody of “All That Jazz” to celebrate the beloved Ms. Sugrue. In the song, students in short and curled blonde wigs sang of “all that math” Ms. Sugrue will get to do after leaving Milton. It was both a hilarious and heartfelt ending to the show.
After watching Wicked Sketchy, I was reminded of how much joy comedy can bring when it resonates with an audience. Whether it be through a song praising the mayor of Boston Michelle Wu or through a grade school student spiraling about the future of the world, there was something in the show for everyone to connect to. By taking risks and being creative, the cast of Wicked Sketchy helped us forget the stressors in our lives to just laugh. I hope that creative and fun spirit doesn’t dwindle as the year comes to a close, and instead, we are able to find the small sources of humor in our everyday lives that can help us all continue to laugh together.