Lauren Avis

I have always loved sketch comedy - I grew up on DerrickComedy, SNL, and Monty Python. My friends and I would film dumb videos of us acting out absurd scenarios involving distinct characters, which we would immediately delete afterwards because we didn't want people knowing that that was how we spent our time. Joining the Graters this year has been pretty cool, as it's nice to have delusional streams of consciousness that were written down at 2 am validated as funny and creative! As sketch producer, I would not only follow the standard sketch of group-editing submissions, but I would also make sketch meetings a space where members can pitch ideas, co-create sketches, and focus-group comedic acting techniques and tone - you know, democracy and all that jazz. I think that the Graters would also benefit greatly from the regular production of video sketches, where there are less limitations and would open the door for more collaboration among members from video editing, acting, and writing. Like, if you want to do a dinosaur sketch, it would be a lot easier to edit in a dino than buy a costume (I checked). If you have an idea you think is funny, I want to do everything to help you realise it - unless it's not funny. I would also make the Graters more organised - everyone can take on a task for a given project and set themselves a personal deadline with my support - this way we can work as a team! I can also do a good hillbilly accent and that's gotta count for something.