Giggle Jones has set out to make their audiences wail with laughter.
The founding University of Memphis students Nate Eppler, Julia Hinson, Nick Dobbins, David Williams, and Dan Poor formed the Giggle Jones sketch comedy troop during the summer of 1999 and are preparing three to four shows for this semester.
A Giggle Jones show usually runs for one hour and consists of five-to-seven minute sketches.
According to Eppler, Giggle Jones plans to do one show a month each containing new material.
"We have to have new material for every show because the same people keep coming back and we want to keep them interested," Eppler said.
The troop meets twice a week to write, plan and discuss upcoming shows.
The troop said their material has been influenced by "Mr. Show," "The Victorian Era," "The Bizarro World," "The State" and "The Ways of the Samurai."
"My writing for Giggle Jones has a lot of nerdy influences behind it too, like 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe,'" Logan said.
"The humor I like is a combination of 'Bob Newhart' and Animal from 'The Muppets,'" Williams said.
Giggle Jones also has recurring sketches, some of which are "News 5," "Potato-bot," "The Dave Show," "Will Your Head Fit Here?" and "Giggle Jones," which is a sketch making fun of themselves.
The troop explained that their writing process is fueled by their competition to be the funniest.
"We get along really well though," Dobbins said. "These are the people we hang out with and the people we work with."
The troop said they try to write their sketches using minimal props and no set.
"This makes it easy for us to take the show anywhere," Dobbins said. "There has been several instances where we wanted to do something we couldn't because we were on the stage, but we've always found a way around it."
As of now, Giggle Jones is comfortable using the live theatrical medium for their material.
"We just enjoy seeing the audience laugh until it hurts," Eppler said.
The troop said they are all interested in following Giggle Jones or something similar for the rest of their lives, which may lead to film, television or even an audio endeavor.
All members are either theater or film majors and said writing and producing their own material is harder than doing a normal play under a director.
"It puts more responsibility on us," Eppler said. "But it's so much fun that it doesn't even seem like work."
Giggle Jones has performed in the studio theater in the theater building on campus, but has since moved to Malco's Studio on the Square in order to accommodate a growing audience.
Junior theater major Clare Johnson said Giggle Jones is a group full of talented, witty and creative people.
"They know how to connect to people by bringing the humor out of everything," Johnson said.
The next Giggle Jones show, entitled "Run Giggle Jones Run" is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 22 at 11 a.m. at the Studio on the Square. It will be followed in March by "Crouching Giggle, Hidden Jones." The cost is $5.
The troop also plans to do a show in April which will benefit Fred Mertz, The U of M theater organization.
For more information about Giggle Jones, visit their website at www.geocities.com/meetgigglejones.
