When the Nevergreens Spring Comedy Show opened on Friday night for a two-night event with a joke about Hilary Clinton the audience got a taste of what they were in for. The Nevergreens are Loyola’s sketch comedy group.  The ten Nevergreen members ranging from seniors and freshman to guys and girls, wrote and performed in all 10 of the sketches performed on Friday night.  The simple fact that all of the skits are student written made them more relatable, and even more honest.  From cursing and violence to jokes that only Loyola students would understand, the Nevergreens knew how to make the audience laugh.  If you like Saturday Night Live, you would love the Nevergreens, and each and every member could be performing next to Taran Killan and Kate McKinnon; that is how good they were.

For the first time in the four years of the Nevergreens, the show was held in McManus Theatre.  The crowd shuffled in one by one filling up the seats.  The show started and got the crowds attention through jokes on current events.  From Twitter, How I Met Your Mother, selfies, #tbt and The Real World, all of their pop culture references were spot on and perfect for college students.

Showing just how diverse they can be, the second skit, “The Real World: Nevergreens” was a video created with the help of GreyComm studios.  Though there were some technical difficulties with the projection screen, the crowd laughed and played along.The skit added a different, non-live element to the show, and kept it interesting for the audience.  For me, The Real World is the ultimate guilty pleasure, so seeing the group mock the show was hilarious.

Each sketch was funny in its own way, and had a punch line at the end.  From study abroad (In Antartica…), to gross elevators (Campion?), to hipsters who love Starbucks but hate shoes (we all know that type) and Desk Assistants who are so indifferent you can get away with murder (literally), the Nevergreens hour and fifteen minute show was an episode of SNL entirely  for Loyola students.  Seeing the show on Friday meant missing out on two bonus skits being performed on Saturday.  The skits were the “Saturday Night Special Guest Throat Culture”.   What exactly those two skits consisted of and who the special guest was, I will never know, but forever be curious.

All of the actors are talented and clearly know how to think on their toes. One of the most original skits of the night, Armless Thanksgiving, was entertaining because of the way that the actors treated the scene.  The actors fed off of one another, and when they broke out into “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”, the crowd loved it.  Seeing a preview of The Nevergreens at Relay for Life was a completely different experience than seeing them on stage on Friday night.  Not only because they had a stage, but also because the audience was completely mesmerized and into the show.

The Nevergreens are great because as an audience member, you know they are having as much fun as you are.From being able to perform with their friends, to the fact that they are making an audience laugh, you think to yourself, how could they not be having fun? From identifying that they are a part of a Jesuit University, to critiquing their skits within a skit, the Nevergreens not only know how to make the audience laugh, but know how to laugh at themselves.

Seeing your peers and friends up on the stage is the most rewarding part.  My Evergreen, Michael Drager, is a Nevergreen, and I know that a lot of the audience was there to support and see their friends on stage.  The Nevergreens know how to take risks, and that is what makes the comedy so authentic and real.  They are willing to say foolish things, and have everyone judge them, for a laugh.  The tagline, “The voices of a generation” might just be the best way to describe this group of students looking for a good time and way to express themselves.