Foothill’s sixth annual Festival of Fools brought students, parents and staff together, as speech students performed a variety of comedic acts that lit up Spirito Hall with laughter, amusement and entertainment, Wednesday and Thursday night.

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Foothill’s sixth annual Festival of Fools brought students, parents and staff together, as speech students performed a variety of comedic acts that lit up Spirito Hall with laughter, amusement and entertainment, Wednesday and Thursday night.

The acts performed consisted mainly of original skits, with the exception of a few, and ranged from performances entitled “Soccer Mom” to “How I Almost Killed my Mother” to “Kittens” to “Colorblind” to “First Kiss.”

This years event was hosted by junior Isaac Goldstein and senior Blake McAlister, who pitched their taste of “dark” humor in between acts.

“We definitely had some really comedic moments and everyone was really enjoying it. It was an overall wonderful experience to be apart of,” McAlister said.

He also performed his own stand up, which shed light on his experiences with being color blind, as well as a specific occasion when he took his golden retriever into a coffee shop. When asked why his dog was in the shop by a customer, McAlister franticly stated he had a disability.

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Foothill’s Speech and Debate advisor, Jennifer Kindred, describes the process of inspiring the skits that are performed in the actual event.

“What I do all fourth quarter during class is throw out out ideas and they’re sitting in table groups; ‘Tell me about an injury that you had.’ So they all share their stories about who got injured and then vote on the favorite, and those favorites perform in front of the class, and eventually those get worked into routines that get voted by the class who chooses who they want on stage. So the people you see on stage tonight were all the people that the fifth period people said ‘yes,’” Kindred stated.

Foothill alumnus, Ben Limpich, believes that Festival of Fools changes a lot over the years.

“It’s a different vibe every year. This show had a lot more, like as you could see with the beginning, had a little bit more dark humor, and last year, when me and Alexia were the MC’s (Master of Ceremonies), we just had corny joke after corny joke after corny joke… You can’t really pinpoint it, you can’t really articulate it, just sort of the vibe changes,” Limpich says.

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One skit featuring Chloe Yahner, Michael Aguilar, Jonathan Lanteigne and Liz Martinez, was a play on Foothill’s attitude towards Ventura College. The act depicted a new student to the campus who when asked about his aspirations for post-high school, stated that he wanted to go to VC.

The original skit even featured interpretations of teachers. The audience eyes turned to the back of the room where history teacher Daniel Fitz-Patrick was seated as Yahner impersonated him.

“My initial reaction was probably a little bit of shock, but it quickly turned into being flattered,” Fitz-Patrick said. “I couldn’t think of a better person to impersonate me and tease me.”

A crowd pleasing performance came from Tristan Long, bringing the night towards a close on a high note. An act based on an extremely personal experience took a turn for the unexpected as Long explained the story of his first kiss.

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Proceeds from this “foolishly fun night of laughs” helps in the funding of Speech and Debate trips, including those to Fullerton and Berkeley.

“It [Festival of Fools] has two purposes. One is we want to raise money for the speech team because we spend an excess of $25,000 a year in terms of all the tournaments that we go to, so that helps offset those costs. But the second is that I just love stand up comedy and I just love to hear kids tell funny stories, so I get a whole fourth quarter where I get to laugh everyday during fifth period,” Kindred said.

Both were excellent performances in the eyes of Kindred, however “the difference is that we had a bigger audience tonight, and so that gives the performers way more energy because they get feedback from the audience.”

Background Photo Credit: Rachel Horiuchi / The Foothill Dragon Press