Pioneering sketch comedy

Southeast junior Francesca Bucci is taking her passion for comedy to the next level as her comedy group is set to play two Chicago festivals later this month.

Her sketch-comedy group, Spork Nation, will be playing at the Bentwood Comedy Festival and the Chicago Women’s Funny Fest.

The Southeast Bachelor of Fine Arts acting major started the group during her sophomore year of college. After returning from a summer sketch-comedy writing intensive at Second City in Chicago, where she fell in love with this particular style of comedy.

Francesca Bucci high fives Jake Daniels during a “Pilot 01” rehearsal. May 3, 2018.By Matt Taylor ~ A&E Editor

She continued writing sketches at school, and when she was not cast in the spring semester she decided to make her own comedy show.

“Why don’t I write a show? Why don’t I get some people that I think are funny, and I can just do that? That’ll take up my time,” Bucci said.

Bucci said Spork Nation’s first show, “Pilot 01,” was a roaring success, leaving a nearly-full house at the Rust Flexible Theatre laughing the night away.

After the success of the first show Bucci’s instructors encouraged her to take the show to Chicago. She said the Chicago comedy festival slots prove she can follow her comedy dreams.

“It kind of verifies what I’m doing,” Bucci said. “This is something I can make into a career, and it means so much when your hard work pays off.”

Over the summer she applied for festivals and made it in to two of them. Bucci also spent the summer working on her craft.

She attended the 10-week Art of Acting School in Los Angeles this summer. There she studied the Stella Adler technique of acting in a program that is equivalent to 22 credit hours of college.

“It’s so fun, and it’s pushing me and it’s challenging me,” Bucci said. “I can’t believe the amount of stuff I’ve learned.”

Bucci plans to continue Spork Nation at SEMO this year and grow the group from six to eight members. She also plans to use the group as a tool for teaching sketch-writing techniques at SEMO.

As well as running her own sketch-comedy group, Bucci will also be running the SEMO improv group, Dramatically Incorrect, this year. She is a resident assistant and has a heavy class load as well. But she said all the work is worth the reward of bringing the art of comedy to Southeast.

“It’s so special,” Bucci said. “Just getting to do something I love. I mean it’s just so special to me. I get to share comedy that I write with other people, and I get to make people laugh. I literally couldn’t ask for anything else.”