Underwear Society, SFUAD’s resident sketch-comedy group, has just moved into the callbacks phase of auditions for its spring 2016 cast, and writing the show is under way.

As a part of an ongoing Q&A session with the Creative Writing and Literature Department’s Senior Reading class, Jackalope Magazine sat down with screenwriter Mark Feigenbutz. Feigenbutz discussed bad poetry, bears and dead comedians.   Jackalope Magazine: How dare you? Mark Feigenbutz: How dare I? How dare I not?   JM: How did you get into writing? MF: I started writing poetry when I was, like, 6th grade. I was not 6th grade, I was 13.   JM: What genre do you work in and why? MF: Pretty much exclusively comedy at this point. If I don’t have funny elements in something, it just doesn’t ring true. After poetry, I got into stand-up comedy, and started writing bits. When I was in L.A. I had to sell my motorcycle, and I couldn’t do comedy anymore, so I started screenwriting.   JM: What three words would you use to describe your writing? MF: My writing in three words? Bear. (laughs)   JM: Like B-A-R-E? MF: No, like a grizzly. Bear. Machine. Uhh, squeek.   JM: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever written? MF: Probably my early poetry, when I first started writing. I didn’t know anything about poetry, so I thought everything had to rhyme. It was pretty embarassing, very morose and melodramatic.   JM: Do you have a piece in mind? MF: (long pause) Yeah. Yes, I do.   JM: How do you balance work and family? MF: I try to work as little as possible, and it’s going really good.   JM: OK, now it’s time for the dead stand-up edition of Marry, Fuck, Kill. Bill Hicks, George Carlin and Mitch Hedburg. MF: Marry George Carlin, Fuck Bill Hicks and Kill Mitch Hedburg, as difficult as that was. Bill Hicks is fucking Jesus, and I...

Tickling a whole student body’s funny bone may sound like a daunting task, but Jacey Ellis makes it look easy. In addition to being a senior in the Creative Writing and Literature Department, Ellis is one of the senior-most members of Underwear Society, SFUAD’s only sketch comedy group, which at the end of each semester puts on a show written and performed solely by students. Jackalope Magazine sat down with Ellis to discuss her three years in Underwear Society and her passion for comedy. Jackalope Magazine: Why did you want to join Underwear Society? Jacey Ellis: Probably for the same reason anyone wants to join. You go see a show and you can’t believe it’s all students doing everything. But I think probably one of the most important things about the group and why I wanted to join is that it’s such a healthy culture to promote, of comedy on campus, especially amongst students. JM: What attracts you to sketch comedy? JE: What doesn’t?! Probably because it doesn’t have to be about any one certain thing, it doesn’t have to ever be written a certain way, so there’s a lot of room for improv, which we do, interpretation, and everything like that. But sketch comedy is its own weird little genre of things, and as a performer you can always change or manipulate that to make it all about you or more funny or anything. It’s great. JM: What’s the process of preparing an Underwear Society sketch? JE: Oh, lots of tears…and liquor! But I would say, for mine in particular, I can’t speak for the group, I usually start with either some ridiculous characteristic that is common on campus or that’s really popular. Sophomore year I wrote about a roommate that yells a...