Boris' Kitchen hosted their fourth annual sketch comedy festival this weekend. Friday night turned out to be a night of laughs for the nearly full Shapiro Theater. The event, hosted by Jeremy Toren '05, the director of Boris' Kitchen, also included opening acts by False Advertising, Brown University's Beasts of Funny and Boston University's Slow Children at Play.The show began with False Advertising. Their first skit, performed by Tamara Fleischer '06, Weldon Kennedy '06 and Mike Popper '05, was a general sketch, followed by the same scene, from each of the comedians' perspectives. The scene was very funny and got a lot of laughs from the crowd. The next game featured Abby Orenstein '06, Alex Goldstein '06 and Mark Samburg '07 pretending to be representatives from different magazines while Caitlin Steitzer '05 acted as the host asking questions. This game also called for questions from the audience, at one point resulting in Samburg jumping off the stage and embracing an audience member. As usual, False Ad succeeded in getting the crowd excited. For their final game, Eric Sirota '04 and Jake Kamins '04 played three different characters in the same skit which resulted in them beating themselves up. Watching the two rolling around on the floor being kicked by an invisible person made the whole crowd laugh.

The next group was Brown's Beasts of Funny. A sketch comedy group like Boris' Kitchen, they opened up the show with a skit in an "authentic" Mexican restaurant. The waiter, however, had a thick Scottish accent, yet insisted throughout the entire sketch that he was Mexican. Each time he appeared he had something that made him seem more Scottish, but he insisted on the fact that he was Mexican. Once again, the audience was in fits of laughter. While the Brown group was funny, two skits went over the top. One involved a group of stuffy white men trying to "steal" Def Jam poetry, while the other made fun of Mel Gibson's upcoming movie about Jesus. Although these sketches got some laughter from the audience, they were possibly more offensive than funny, especially since they made a joke about the Holocaust.

After an intermission, the Boston University group Slow Children at Play, False Advertising and Boris' Kitchen played a combined college improv game. The game, called "186," entailed the audience picking a topic and the people playing running up to a stool to tell a short joke. Whoever reached the stool first gets objects the audience picked were turtles, cougars and boots. While some of the jokes were humorous, the funnier part were the races to the stool, which sometimes resulted in people stealing the stool and pushing each other out of the way.

Afterward, Slow Children at Play took the stage with a very funny skit about tipping friends for being good friends. Every time someone said something nice, their friend would put change in the tip cup. It was very funny, especially when an IRS agent said that they were not declaring their tips as income. The next skit was about farmers following a fictional "Farmers Almanac." The book contained predictions for the entire year and at the end of the sketch the predictions came true. Slow Children at Play concluded their set that began with an office having a new African-American employee. While it seemed to go into another sensitive area, it ended with a song about jokes that should never be told.

Boris' Kitchen finally took the stage, opening with skit set at an advertising agency. The four workers sat around trying to find an idea for a puppy euthanizing kit. The banter across the table was very funny as they tried to come up with an idea to sell this "toy." While all the skits were very funny, a few stood out in being especially hilarious. One skit was about how diversity on campuses had gone so overboard that universities would accept a cow for a student. The following skit, presented a couple after a date. For everything the guy did, the woman had a contract for him to sign regarding the rules and regulations of dating her. Next, the group brought the show back to the opening skit with a commercial for the "toy" called "Puppy Goes to Sleep Now."
Two skits that stood out the most included one where a daughter brought home a traffic cone for a boyfriend. While it was very amusing to watch how the parents dealt with the cone, the cone actually spoke. The closing scene portrayed a family therapy session led parents to believe they only had enough love for one of their children. The children fought to the death.

Immediately afterwards, another cast member came out onto the stage dressed in a Shakespearean costume. He then proceeded to give a summary of the scene that was a parody on Romeo and Juliet.
Boris' Kitchen succeeded in holding very successful festival. Their own skits were very funny and they invited other talented groups to perform. The night was entertaining for all who attended.