Friday, I'ebruary 20,2009
They never thought
COMEDY TROUPE THE LONELY ISLAND
By Evan Koser
arts Milo!
milk II Iva h,u.alu
What happens when three cre
ative and very imaginative child
hood friends grow up together
\\ melting movies and aspire to
create their own?
Top photo: The Lonely 'dowry cover-m - 0 . 0r their
,lirvt album, Incredibad. Bottom photo: pictured from
hit to right, .lorma faccone. Andr ,S'amherg, and Akira Schaffet
Jessi Campbell entertains Bruno's
crowd, laughter abounds
By Heather McGovern
tt ritel
H ill soN4w p,u.cdu
!flanstudents attended the
cafe coined N, event in Bruno's on
Friday. Feb 6.
The Lion Entertainment Board
LEB t sponsored Jessi Campbell
help in funding from the
Student Activity Fee. Jessi Camp
bell. an enthusiastic and success
ful comedian, brought her quirky,
vet w itty sense of humor to the
Behrend crowd. which gathered
in Bruno's Friday night.
"She was great and I really en
joyed her stories, all thanks to the
LEB for bringing her." shares
Michelle Wunderley about
Campbell's performance two Fri
days ago. Andrew Voris, LEB
Comedy Chair, thought. "she was
a great storyteller and was very
endearing to the crowd." Another
spectator. Dan Fuhrman, also
commented on Campbell's com
edy act. "I thought she was really
fun and I cannot wait to see what
LEB comedy holds in the future."
One of Campbell's comedic
skits involved a phobia of bears
and a rather humorous story
about a woman being eaten alive
by a hear after feeding it fruity
pebbles from the palm of, her
hand. Campbell followed up the
story by commenting on the
Food For Thought
"Keep your mouth shut and let others think you are stupid,
rather than open your mouth and give evidence of the same.'"
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
First. they hav e to make it big
in the mainstream media (with the
help of the Internet and
YouTuhe ). Then. they have to au
dition for .S'aturday Night Live,
hoping their talent is good
enough: from there they. has e to
sign contracts and basically sell
themselves to different agencies.
hear's perfectly natural motives.
She compared the hear's
hunger for the NlOlllllll to her
hunger for donuts and pizza. She
stated that if a pizza approached
her with a donut, she would
highly consider devouring the
pizza after finishing the donut. In
her opinion, the hear had every
right to eat that woman since she
had obviously not thought
through the situation extensively
enough
Another comedic skit involved
the conflict between the owner
ship of a gun and encounters with
police officers. As mandated by
state law, a driver must admit to
the possession of a gun when
pulled over by a police officer.
Campbell questioned her capabil
ity in declaring the possession of
this weapon. Her weapon decla
ration began sounding more
along the lines of a threat than a
pure admittance.
Jessi Campbell performs at nu
merous colleges and clubs across
the country. She performs at two
other campuses of Penn State:
Penn State Shenango and Penn
State Mount Alto. Her acts are
booked in locations from the Uni
versity of Texas to Boston Uni
versity. She has also made
appearances at Clark College in
Vancouver, WA and Georgia
—English proverb
Finally, they have to sit through a
year or so of SNL to finally be
able to produce and write their
own scripts.
Technicalities aside, the com
edy troupe known as The Lonely
Island has gone from nothing to
everything in a typical fashion.
The Lonely Island (ILI) was
official! created in 2001 when
Southern University to name a
few. Campbell is also featured in
the Life and Style Magazine and
is a favorite at the NACA and
APCA Conferences around the
country. NACA and APCA are
conferences that bring together
talents from all areas of entertain
ment including comedy, music,
and spoken word so that college
and universities have the oppor
tunity to book numerous acts dur
ing one compact weekend.
LEB, who sponsored Jessi
Campbell two Fridays ago, is the
organization for scheduling a ma
jority of the entertainment that
occurs on campus. LEB books
music and comedy acts that usu
ally occur on Friday and Saturday
nights in Bruno's. LEB is, also,
responsible for the weekly
movies that play in Reed 117 on
Wednesday and Thursday at 9
p.m., and Friday and Saturday at
10 p.m. LEB is open for new
members to join. The organiza
tion is free of cost and general
meetings are held on Wednesdays
at 8 p.m. Even if incapable of at
tending the general body meet
ings on Wednesday, contact Brad
Kovalcik at bcksol3@psu.edu if
interested in becoming involved
with LEB.
they'd be on a boat:
SAILING THROUGH AN OCEAN OF MEDIA
(who also writes for SNL) hooked
the three up for the positions.
Since their SNL audition in
2004, the three have written (with
the exception of actor, Samberg)
almost exclusively for the show.
Many of their skits have been for
the popular SNL "Digital Shorts,"
while another large portion of
their popularity has spawned
from You Tube. Recently, the
"Dudes" have received a lot of
recognition for their musical tal
ent, most notably Taccone who
won the 2007 Emmy for Out
standing Original Music and
Lyrics (under the title of "music
by") for the song "Dick In A
Box," which featured Justin Tim
berlake. In particular, the group's
music video for "I'm On A Boat"
(which features rap artist T-Pain),
has reached almost four million
views in less than two weeks
since its release. Though not di
rectly stated, some may notice
striking similarities between this
video and the video for Akon's
"I'm So Paid."
TLl's popularity has increased
exceptionally with the help of the
interne. Their hit videos, "Jizz In
My Pants" and "I'm On A Boat,"
have become a huge pop culture
success. However, the aforemen
tioned songs are merely singles
from their full-length album, In
credibad, released under the artist
The Lonely Island. As of Feb 11
(one day after the official release),
the album had reached the num
ber one spot on iTunes, but has
since dropped to number three.
According to their website, Th
eLonelylsland.com, a second
album is already in the works.
"The Lonely Island epitomizes
the genre of comedic music, and
will probably remain popular
through many generations," says
Jay Trott, a freshman accounting
major.
While the trio may be best
known for its work with SNL and
their music videos, they are all
avid writers. After parting at the
Henry Selick sows up a box office
By Neil J. Peters
assistant arts editor
njpsoB3(aysu.edu
Following in the footsteps of
his previous Oscar nominated
film A Nightmare Before Christ
mas, Selick weaves a tail that
both scares and entertains on an
innocent level. Though it never
genuinely scares you, it still
makes your heart race as the
creepy factor increases exponen
tially in the film's last hour. It's
original, fun, frightening and the
best film so far this year.
Coraline chronicles the tale of
a preteen girl as she moves into a
new apartment complex with her
emotionally distant parents. She
is constantly competing with her
parents' jobs for attention and is
always sent on bogus errands
whenever she gets in the way.
After spending some time in her
new home, she stumbles across a
small door, covered by wallpaper.
During the day, the door only
opens to a brick wall, but by night
it opens a gate to a world that
seems like a dream come true.
Though advertised as a children's• movie, Coraline definitely pushes the hotimhiry between /,at is and is
Andrew Samberg is
,s4aining fame and fOrnme due to his increasing
popularity on Saturday Night Live.
end of high school only to form
TLI in 2001. the "Dudes' . began
writing sitcoms and sketch shows
with the hopes of landing a net
work deal. Their very first feature
"White Power - was an episode
produced for the then low-budget
sitcom also titled The Lone/v R
h/nil.
Unfortunately, the show never
took off, and the three began
work on their parody of The Of.,
The • Bu. Notably, Sarah Chalke
(best known as Dr. Elliot Reid on
Scrubs) also starred on the web
sitcom. The show aired eight
episodes on Channel 101 .com be
fore FOX approached them to
film a pilot in 2005. The show. an
SNL-like comedy sketch show,
was titled Awesome/own and w as
success with Coraline
what seems too good to be true
usually is
An oddball cast of characters
always keeps the story fresh and
brings a chuckle that breaks the
evergrowing tension. From the
Russian gymnast that lives in the
attic to the retired thespians that
dwell in the basement, each have
their unique quirks and senses of
humor that bring laughs you
never see coming. In some cases.
the humor is so dark and different
that it can only really be com
pared to a distasteful joke. One
wouldn't be sure whether or not
to laugh of cringe in the after
math, but usually smiles prevail.
However, as the film enters its
halfway point, the tone shifts
from a Disney-esque fairly tale to
a more Brothers Grimm format.
The wonderous world that Cora
line once enjoyed is twisted into
a perverse monstrosity filled with
danger and fear. It is up to her to
save herself and the lives of her
loved ones. For being pitched
and advertised as a children's
movie, it revolves around a lot of
not suitable for children
The Behrend Beacon I 7
never picked up. In 2007. TLI
wrote, produced, directed, and
starred in their first feature-film,
Hot Rod. Samherg starred as the
central character. while Taccone
played a supporting role. Schaf
fer did not star in the film. but di
rected it.
Tmiether. the three tall who in
dependently majored in film at
their respective colleges) continue
to write for SNI„ but each has dif
ferent plans for the future. Schaf
fer also directs music videos and
has done so for the hands We Are
Scientists and Eagles of Death
Metal. Taccone is scheduled to
appear in the upcoming movie.
Lam/ al the Lost (starring Will
Ferrell) while Samberg is set to
star in / Lore } n n, Man.
To he honest. this really seems
like a film that would scare any
child under the age of ten to
death.
The film is also played in 3-D
and delivers the effects with great
precision. Most previous en
deavors into the third dimension
flopped thanks to blurred vision
and cheap "audience poking, -
such as Journey to the Center of
the Earth, Beowulf, and Spykids
Corahne, however, chooses
not to throw things into the view
ers face, but displays a much
more subtle and continuous im-
mersion where everything is pop
ping off the screen. There are no
corny 3-D gags of flying objects
or things of that nature: just well
designed and tasteful displays of
the refilled technology's power.
Cora/i//e has been loved by
critics all over the country and is
already being considered a clas
sic. This film is definitely worth
seeing on the big screen in all its
glory. So, pick a day this week
end and check it out while the op
portunity is there.