Pack Comedy Troupe apologizes for offensive sketch

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - 4:17 AM

The Wolf Pack Comedy Troupe issued a formal apology to university students and faculty after performing a skit that many said mirrored blackface minstrelsy and was offensive. The skit, performed at a leadership conference Feb. 20, included performers wearing brown paint on their face and poking fun at President Barack Obama.

Members of the troupe said they attended a racism forum held Feb. 23 in order to address the student body’s concerns and apologize.

“We used that forum as an opportunity,” Ryan Nelson, a member of the troupe, said. “We took the constructive criticism and will use it to try and make the next show better. I think they received our apology well. A lot of the students there hadn’t attended the conference and just heard about it. I think in their eyes they were glad to see we didn’t mean to be racist and that we were sincerely sorry.”

Since the forum, members said they planned on changing the skit for later shows because they didn’t want to offend the community.

“Based on people’s reactions it was a big deal,” said Steven Dente, a member of the Wolf Pack Comedy Troupe who performed in the skit. “We were naïve and maybe a little insensitive to what was going on. But in no way are we racist or was our skit intended to be racist.”

The skit, which was one of seven separate pieces the group performed, was initially written because a member could do an impersonation of President Obama, Nelson said.

“That’s what prompted the whole sketch,” Nelson said. “We thought, ‘Let’s incorporate this impression.’ So we were writing about his policies and stuff even though people didn’t really get that. We talked about him making health care universal, winning the Nobel Peace Prize and deploying 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in the same year. We thought that was ironic but nobody got that.”

The skit gathered attention in the days after the leadership conference, which was meant to emphasize the importance of working together. Molly McCormack, assistant director of student activities, clubs and organizations, sent an e-mail apologizing to anyone present at the conference.

“Had we known the troupe’s choice of content and their views, despite having previously communicated the mission and purpose of the conference, they would not have been included,” McCormack wrote.

Members of the comedy troupe, however, said they had never been given guidelines of what their skits should include.

“We were asked to do this event for the conference,” Dente said. “But we never met with (Molly) once. We performed for Greek Week and we know different organizations have themes, but our performance for Greek was meant to entertain people. Every sketch we did (there) wasn’t meant to enhance Greek Life.”

A discussion also began on The Nevada Sagebrush Web site, where last week’s story regarding the skit in question garnered a thread about the troupe and the meaning of racism and minstrelsy.

“I’ve been keeping up on that thing,” Dente said. “I’m anxious to see what people are saying. There’s people that are arguing for us and against us. We don’t have a side but we appreciate the discourse taking place. Both sides are right in different ways. Our only job is to perform comedy and right wrongs. And we want to right this wrong.”

The troupe, however, said they are not worried that their reputation has been damaged.

“Our material is edgy; there’s no way around that,” Dente said. “We swear in our sketches. There are a lot of sexual undertones. But in terms of our relationship with people, we are fine. We are still doing a show at Relay for Life.”