Courtesy of Matt Letourneau

A rare sketch comedy collaboration took place at the Hopper Cabaret on Saturday.

The Fifth Humour, the oldest sketch comedy group on Yale’s campus, partnered with Chowdah, a sketch comedy troupe from Columbia University, for a joint performance.

Audience members enjoyed traditional material, with each group set to performing roughly 30 minutes of their respective sketches. But in a new twist, each group’s respective “babies” — an affectionate name for the clubs’ new flocks of sketch comedians — performed sketches written by the other one’s cast.

Alexis Mburu ’27, who co-directs Fifth Humor with Giacomo Sotti ’27, said that swap “is something new that we haven’t done in other joint shows.” 

The new performers handled the exchange with ease. 

Ella Kim ’29 praised the first years’ performances, saying that “they all were seamlessly integrated into the show and projected this air of confidence.”

Emaan Sheik ’29 said she enjoyed the “wide range of comedic references.”

Sheik also enjoyed the intimate performance setting in Hopper. The seating arrangement and set made “it feel more like you’re watching some sort of funny thing that your friends put together,” she said.

It was not the first time the Fifth Humour has joined forces with other groups, including Yale comedy acts like Red Hot Poker and the Purple Crayon and other Ivy League peers, such as their Yale-Harvard collaboration last year with Harvard’s On Thin Ice. But Saturday marked their first performance with Columbia University’s Chowdah.

The idea for the collaboration began earlier this semester when the Fifth Humour received an Instagram message from Chowdah asking if there was interest in a joint show between the two groups.

“We were texting back and forth with their leadership and decided that they would come to New Haven,” Mburu said.

“It’s cool to be able to have another group to perform with, get to know and see other material outside of Yale’s campus,” she added.

Mburu said the collaboration underscored a desire for a stronger community of sketch-comedy groups across the Ivy League. College provides students opportunities to develop and showcase their talents, but in the comedic scene, sketch comedy often lags behind its improvisational counterparts in presence and prevalence, Mburu said.

Chowdah and the Fifth Humour — founded in 2004 and 1994, respectively — were the first sketch comedy groups on their campuses, while improvisational comedy enjoyed a more established presence.

That disparity endures today.

“There’s double the amount of improv groups as there are sketch groups,” Mburu said. “But being able to collaborate and build those bridges and relationships is really exciting. It’s great just meeting other people in the sketch comedy world.”

Looking ahead, the Fifth Humour is enthusiastic about its momentum. 

“We are definitely open to future collaborations,” Mburu said.

The Hopper Cabaret is located in the basement of Grace Hopper College.