The year is young, and any work that is assigned in January can pretty much be put off until February, so take advantage of the opportunity to get the hell out of Morningside Heights and enjoy yourself. Columbia’s only sketch comedy group, Chowdah, is performing at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on Saturday January 28th. They are competing in the “Back Yard Brawl” against another upstart sketch comedy group. Reservations are required, and the theatre is small.

Bwog caught up with Charlie Dinkin from Chowdah for a quick chat:

Bwog: So, uh, what in the world is this?

Chowdah: As comedy geeks our favorite (and only…) date spot is the UCB, where you can see great comedy fo’ cheap or free every night of the week. This particular show we’d all heard of but never actually seen, but Charlie found out that NYU had been doing it for 8 months, got jealous and sent an email application with a sample sketch. We were only accepted last week so we don’t have much time to prepare…but we’re so excited and ready to do our best!

Bwog: NYU-envy. Cool. So, why are you worthy?

Chowdah: We sent a sketch and said a prayer…each week a team is eliminated so the turnover rate was probably in our favor. We didn’t have to battle any dragons, so we’re suspicious that the hard part is yet to come…

Bwog: Who are you matched up against? What are your odds? What’s the master plan?

Chowdah: We’re going to be ‘brawling’ against Dinner for One, which is a team of Emerson graduates. They’re great, so we need to bring our A-game, but we’re using some of our biggest and best sketches and we’re going to have more than one rehearsal. As model Columbia students we’re obviously there to WIN, but also we just want to have fun, give as many members of the group a chance to perform in this special theater, and share the evening with our friends and community.

Bwog: Alright. So the most important question: Why should we get off our of asses and actually LEAVE Morningside Heights?

Chowdah: Well, this is the best way to demonstrate some actual school pride for a Columbia team that doesn’t suck…it’s more fun than Butler, only $5, there’ll be a great atmosphere, you can look like you know all about fringe comedy in New York, and you can drink with Chowdah afterwards!! The winner is decided by a vote so you’ll be directly contributing to Chowdah’s landslide victory and exercising your democratic right. Also we’ll give you free tickets to our next (free) show!!! What a deal!!!

UCB logo via Dasariski