By: Elizabeth Mccuen
For a very brief time when I was young, I had a dream of becoming President of the U.S. of A. How I went from that to becoming an actress is beyond me, but I’m happy to report that dream still kind of came true. This past spring, I was elected President of After Dark Sketch Comedy and the first Performing Arts- sorry aCtInG- major to be elected president. As always, a new president means changing a whole bunch of shit, and I particularly wanted this to be the biggest and best year After Dark has ever had (kinda because it’s my senior year but also maybe because I care about the club a lot) To my surprise, we started popping off on social media recently, and that’s pretty awesome. It’s like I’m the leader of an army of little chipmunks but if the chipmunks were really loud and funny all the time.
Right now you’re probably thinking to yourself, “But Liz, you’re a woman. How did you get elected president of the funny club?” The process was not pretty, let me tell you. Predictions were being made left and right about who would win. My opponent was the then social media manager, and he had experience running things like this in the past. I was just the lowly secretary at the time, and although I had leadership experience I wasn’t sure if I was cut out for running an entire club with over 50 members. Not to be dramatic, but I was more stressed about my election than I am about “Trump v. Biden, The Sequel, This Time They’re Even Older”. I spent hours writing, planning, and constructing the greatest Google Slides presentation the world had ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on. (I’ll link it down below in case you’re really curious) The day came, and I was stressed as fuck. To make this all the more complicated, I was not only preparing to give the best presentation of my life, but I was also responsible for helping select the new line of officers- minus Prez of course. I gave my presentation, and sat down to watch my opponent give his. Ngl, he gave some pretty good points, and I was starting to get a little nervous. But as the good book says, “Thou shalt not waver in the face of man-speak” or something like that idk I just made it up. I digress. We finished up presentations for every position, and the rest of the officers went into a different room to discuss the president position. It was the longest 5 minutes of my life. Finally, they brought me and my opponent into the room and announced I won. I was obviously super cool and professional in the room, but RAAAAHHH WOMEN RAAAAAHHH. I was internally ecstatic. And not to get sentimental or anything, but it solidified for me that the club believed in me and my abilities to make big changes to the club and lead it, and that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Flash forward to this quarter. I’m slaying, as the kids say. I’m excited to get things going and make changes to improve the club. My first big test as president though was Fall Fest- SCAD’s big club fair. I had to promote the club and gather as many new gremlins as I possibly could. We didn’t have a script, but eventually the improvised script went something like, “We’re like the SNL of SCAD but if SNL was way hotter and funnier and sexier.” Best pitch ever, right? Yeah well I think the freshies thought so too because we doubled in size after that. Who knew buzzwords actually work in promoting shit?
Something I was warned about by past presidents is that I will constantly be clashing with my officers. And yeah ok I’ll admit: they’re kinda right. I’m sure this is the case for anyone who just so happens to be the president of another super sexy club, but clashing with your officers in terms of ideas and how to go about things is a constant struggle. I’m very lucky that I have such a mature and intelligent group of officers because nothing we’ve ever discussed like that has gotten so out of hand that it becomes a bitch fight. I would win that though, let me make that clear. As sidetracked as we get sometimes, I know we are all dedicated to making After Dark better than it ever has been and better for the next generation of Darklings. That’s like if Swifties had a better name btw.
If you’ve made it this far into the article, congratulations! I’m gonna end this with some shameless self-promo lol. You can find After Dark on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube! Just search “After Dark Sketch Comedy” and you’ll find us. Shoutout to my officers and to the entire After Dark club. You guys are super sexy and funny and I love you.
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