­INTERVIEW: Straight White Freshman Hopes To Bring Unique Perspective To NYU’s Comedy Scene

ThunderSlutz is NYU’s oldest and most prestigious comedy team, and they’ve been delighting undergrads with their hilarious shows for years. We sat down with ThunderSlutz’ newest member, Chris Corrigan, to get the real inside scoop about what it’s like to be on NYU’s longest-running comedy team.

WSL: This must be such an exciting time for you. To be placed on the oldest and most prestigious comedy team. 

CC: Yeah, this is really an amazing opportunity to be on ThunderSlutz. With such an amazing history and such storied members, it’s so great to on the oldest comedy team at NYU.

WSL: I understand the group has had quite a wide variety of members in the past, but nobody quite like you. Do you feel a sort of responsibility to prove that straight white men can compete on the same playing field?

CC: Well, as you know, this is the oldest comedy group at NYU, so there are a lot of expectations to live up to, and I understand more than most that I’ll be looked to to speak for and represent my people. I hope that people can understand that I still have a lot to learn, and I’m just one person, and to remember that this university can be a hostile environment when most people at NYU aren’t used to being around people like me every day.

WSL: Wow, amazing. Were there any adverse reactions when you got on the group?

CC: People are surprisingly blunt about it. People have come up to me saying, “oh, they just let you on ThunderSlutz (the oldest comedy team at NYU) because they needed a token white guy so they could do sketches about Donald Trump and have it not be offensive,” but I try not to let that get to me. Even if I was considered more because I fit a specific demographic, I don’t think that promoting a variety of viewpoints is inherently negative.

WSL: How has being on ThunderSlutz changed your college experience at NYU?

CC: Well, I did have to take out an additional $15,000 loan so that I could learn how to be funny from various comedy theatres around the city – the Downright Felons’ Squadron, the Compass Theater, the Filled-In Hole. It’s impossible to be funny without giving them a lot of your money first, so I feel like this is a solid investment on my future, given that it has secured me a spot on the oldest comedy team at NYU.

WSL: You keep bringing up that ThunderSlutz is the oldest team at NYU. This seems like a pretty integral part of the group’s character. When exactly was ThunderSlutz founded?

CC: Around 1865, I believe, just after the treaty being signed at Appomattox Court House.

WSL: Are you sure? I feel like… one sec – yeah, no, on your website it says you were founded just about fifteen years ago. That doesn’t seem like that long ago. 

CC: Oh, right, yes, mixed those up.

WSL: But you continue to emphasize that you’re the oldest group at NYU?

CC: Yes, we are the oldest group to ever do comedy at NYU.

WSL: Are you sure that’s true? I mean, off the top of my head “The State” comes to mind as having been founded at NYU in the late ’80s, and one could reasonably assume that the wealth of comedians to come out of NYU – Billy Crystal, Adam Sandler, Molly Shannon, Andy Samberg, Woody Allen, Whoopi Goldberg – were none of them involved in any sort of group or comedy community whatsoever?

CC: I’m not – I’m sorry, I thought this interview was going to be about my struggle in the comedy scene?

WSL: Alright, so maybe you’re the oldest active comedy group at NYU. If this is the case, and you have a fully rotating cast at least every four years, what significance does the age of the group have, and why do you keep bringing it up, both in person and in Facebook events?

 CC: I told you already, it’s all about the history, and it has NOTHING to do with us enforcing a pecking order to validate our own egos. You know, talk about Appomattox, most people don’t know Ulysses S. Grant was a raging alcoholic – (talking into bluetooth earpiece) I don’t know! I wasn’t prepped for this! What do you want me to – uh, so, we feel, that all the other second-rate, I mean, uh, all the teams “younger” than us, really try their hardest. And we admire them for that.