La Petite Teet Gets Enhanced

Three years ago, a small group of students frustrated with the U.Va. comedy community formed Amuse Bouche to broaden their options. Focused more on longform improv than the already well-known Whethermen, Amushe Bouche was U.Va’s second improv organization. After three years of development, members of this same innovative group have again furthered the scope of organized comedy at the University. The recently spawned La Petite Teet is the first live and video sketch comedy approved CIO.

Those who have attended Amuse Bouche shows may recognize the mildly vulgar title of the CIO. Sam Taggart, creative director of the newly christened group, explained, “When Amuse Bouche started making videos last year we were like, ‘Let’s make up a fake name for it and say it’s a sketch comedy group performing at our show.’” It was only recently that La Petite Teet acquired members outside of the cast of Amuse Bouche as well as its CIO status, though Taggart notes, “Pretty much from the start we wanted it to be its own thing.”

The founding board of La Petite Teet is comprised of faces already familiar to those who know Amuse Bouche. Taggart, the Creative Director, Public Relations and Booking Manager Josh Luchenbach, Technical Director David Sawchack, and Producer Jordan Pridgen are all members of Amuse Bouche. But Taggart stressed, “This is the last time it will be like this.” La Petite Teet is moving in a different direction than its mother improv comedy organization. The newly formed group’s shows, while featuring live performance like those of Amuse Bouche, will be much less frequent and will focus on pre-written sketch comedy instead of improvised humor.

“It’s harder, I think,” Taggart said, speaking of the difference between improv and sketch. “We’re good at improv but writing is still kind of hard. It’s something we need to practice.” While in an improv setting the audience finds the joke with the performers, in sketch comedy the audience waits to be presented with the jokes that are written, rehearsed, and presented in a play-like format. “It is expected to be funnier,” he said.

Making videos is also a time consuming and difficult business. In order to have half of each of their bi-semester shows filled with video sketch, “We will probably be shooting every weekend,” Taggart said. “We want to have it so we can have multiple shoots going on at once.”

Spectrum Theatre is currently the only other organization that does sketch comedy at the University with its annual Voices of the Class. “But they’re not a group; they only have one show,” Taggart pointed out. “People have tried to do sketch video groups before but never official CIOs. Getting CIO status seemed a little too easy, especially because they let us have the name La Petite Teet,” Taggart admitted. This status entitles the organization to possible funding next year.

The board is currently accepting applications for cast members and writers that they want to eventually number around fifteen. “We are going to meet once a week for a writing meeting where we brainstorm ideas for an hour and a half, and then for the last half hour we talk about videos and plan shoots. When it gets closer to the show we will have rehearsals and then tech week the week of the show.”

The group’s first interesting meeting brought out about twenty-five people from a variety of different backgrounds. “I was happy and surprised, especially because we don’t really have a name for ourselves yet,” Taggart said of the turnout. Due to its multi-media format, La Petite Teet has a unique opportunity to bring together members of the comedy and video communities at the University. In addition to broadening the U.Va. comedy community, the organization will hopefully also make it more cohesive.