Friday, Oct. 2, AMP hosted its Night of Comedy event in the Sadler Center’s Commonwealth Auditorium, featuring comedian and actor Grace Kuhlenschmidt.
While Kuhlenschmidt’s set was the Night of Comedy’s main event, her two openers were student comedy groups Pink Tax and Trippin’ on Brix. TOB is the College of William and Mary’s oldest sketch and improvisational fusion comedy group, while Pink Tax is dedicated to showcasing underrepresented gender identities in comedy.
Audiences may have recognized Kuhlenschmidt from her appearances as a correspondent for “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” her social media sketches and featured her acting roles, including a cameo in the FX show “Adults.”
The show began with a TOB sketch with topics spanning from Satan as a toxic boyfriend to a tooth fairy second-chance romance. Their set helped to warm the audience up before Kuhlenschmidt took the stage by mixing in improv participation.
After TOB’s performance, Pink Tax followed a similar structure with a mix of sketches and improv games that incorporated prompts from the audience.
AMP has often featured student groups as opening acts for live performances, including their Tribechella and Pitch Perfect Night events. By highlighting TOB and Pink Tax, the Night of Comedy followed a similar approach.
“By bringing in the student comedy, people want to show up and support their friends, so that hopefully helps the event’s success,” AMP Live Committee member Mimi Chapman ’28 said.
Live Committee member Cate Shepherd ’29 agreed that showcasing student groups improves student engagement with AMP events. She also added another reason AMP likes to highlight student performers.
“A lot of these comedy groups, improv groups, a cappella, they want to perform,” she said. “These student groups want to show what they can do, and they’re all really good at what they do, so it’s really awesome to be able to give them an opportunity to show that to the wider student body.”
After the 40-minute combined opening from the student groups, Kuhlenschmidt arrived on stage with an immediately contagious energy, shouting, “What the f— is up William and Mary?” and foreshadowing the chaotic nature of the rest of her stand-up.
Kuhlenschmidt was prepared to deliver on her knowledge of the College, immediately opening with a not-so-subtle diss about its long-deceased notable alumni. The audience was receptive to her barbs, which she balanced with self-deprecating jokes about her own alma mater, Skidmore College.
Kuhlenschmidt’s combination of deadpan and surrealist comedy brought her online fame on TikTok during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her online popularity has since allowed her to be featured in more mainstream media.
Chapman originally pitched Kuhlenschmidt as a headliner possibility when AMP began planning the Night of Comedy last semester.
“It was really fun being able to pick an act that I actually knew,” Chapman said. “So many times, we have to pick something because it falls within our budget or because we think that it’s best suited for the student body, but this, I felt like it was something that I enjoyed and I think the student body would enjoy.”
Ava Canadé ’28 took charge of planning this event as the Live Committee’s chair. As a member of AMP, she has always been passionate about the work that events like this one are able to achieve.
“I originally joined because I wanted to find a way to get really involved in the William and Mary community and figure out a way to hopefully bring as many positive experiences at the school to people as possible, which AMP is really great at just because we have such a wide reach and such a diverse amount of programming that we do,” she said.
The committee’s work on the event was mostly done over the summer; their fall preparations largely revolved around marketing materials. Shepherd took charge of these, creating Instagram Reel advertisements featuring the student comedy groups.
Canadé said one of her favorite parts of planning the event was seeing the videos members of her committee created.
“For marketing, there’s a lot of leeway given in the design or the format or for the reels, like what trends to try and recreate, so it’s just been really cool seeing what my committee members come up with,” she said.
As the night continued, Kuhlenschmidt continued to test the boundaries of the crowd’s imagination as she led them through her unhinged fantasies and unfiltered thoughts. Her openness with her own identity also added to her crowd appeal. Her jokes prominently featured self-reflections on her identity as a lesbian while also digressing into a long-winded story about her “husband” that served as a satire on heterosexual relationships.
One of the show’s most notable moments was Kuhlenschmidt’s struggle with technical difficulties as she attempted to present a slide deck she prepared for a special segment on baby names. While the technology team worked to get it fixed, Kuhlenschmidt allowed the unexpected interruption to fuel her energy and jumped back in with more stand-up material. She even did a bit of crowdwork with the students despite previously claiming that she had an anti-crowdwork stance since she has trouble trusting her audiences.
“I thought that she had great material. Even though there were some technical difficulties, she handled them really well,” audience member Alexandra Foss ’30 said.
Once the slideshow began working, Kuhlenschmidt launched into a presentation on possible baby names that were heavily inspired by celebrities and popular artists, notably garnering crowd reactions for “Lactose Pratt” and “Pee Pee Bridgers.”
Kuhlenschmidt continued her audience interaction when she went through a series of Reddit threads that talked about the “quirky” nature of the College and had audience members read out notable words from the posts.
The stand-up set ended with Kuhlenschmidt’s take on a “day in the life” vlog accompanied by a voiceover she performed live on stage. She kept up her signature brand of mixing the jarring with the mundane, leaving the audience alternating between laughing and covering their shocked reactions.
“I thought it was super funny and very creative. I love the audio/visual presentation. I also thought TOB was super funny and Pink Tax did a really good job. So overall, lots of laughs,” Pink Tax member Yasmeen Mogharbel ’27 said.
