The Mee-Ow Show: Past, Present, and Future

The Mee-Ow Show is a Northwestern institution that has made an indelible mark on American comedy for the last fifty years. Several of the show’s alums have gone on to become household names in comedy, such as Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Dermot Mulroney, Kristen Schaal, and Seth Meyers. Northwestern University Press is proud to present The Mee-Ow Show at 50, a chronicle of the show’s first half-century. With never-before-published photographs, ephemera, and over one hundred interviews with Mee-Ow Show alums, the book is celebration and time capsule, honoring a rich history and a promising future.  

Author and curator Joseph B. Radding sat down with current Northwestern student leaders of the Mee-Ow Show Brendan Dahl and Shai Bardin to discuss the past, present, and future of Mee-Ow.  

Joe Radding 

Mee-Ow has certainly changed over the years, arriving at the current formula of 1/3 sketch, 1/3 improv, and 1/3 rock and roll by about 2006. Are you considering any changes to that mix? 

Brendan Dahl 

Yeah, we are definitely continuing the formula. What makes Mee-Ow such a unique college show is that integration of the live band. We also view Mee-Ow as writing intensive, and there are people who join Mee-Ow to get a chance to really hone their sketch writing skills. Part of that is a very intensive rehearsal process where we generate a ton of material that prioritizes that writing process first, and then allows improv as an energetic palette cleanser, and a way to flex our comedic muscle outside of the pre-written material. We really like that model. It’s been very successful. In terms of changes for this year, we’ve been talking about adjusting some scheduling to give the cast more time to rehearse the finalized sketches.   

Shai Bardin 

In the actual creative aspect of what Mee-Ow is and how stuff is generated, it works really well. I’m personally fond of the formula, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I’m curious about what specific change happened in 2006 and why? What did it look like in your time, and what has your experience been watching the Mee-Ow show change over the years? 

JR 

In the first year, the impetus was to give students an opportunity to have their voices heard and to express every kind of creativity. That first year we had comedy, but also original music, poetry, dance, and visuals. There was a lot of everything. The most successful part was the comedy, which was more emphasized in the second year, and by the third year it was all sketch comedy. A lot of the sketches were developed, expanded, or improved through improv.  

It’s really interesting that you’re saying you’re going to give more time to rehearse the sketches because comments I heard from some Mee-Ow alums who didn’t want to see improv in Mee-Ow. They wanted to see improv used to develop sketches, but they wanted to see final sketches that were polished, refined, and perfected before they were presented. I think what they missed is that improv, when it works, is like magic for the audience. The audience doesn’t understand how people can do that. That’s when it works. It’s brilliant. Improv came back, then it went away, then it came back, and over the years the balance has been different. 

Music was always there, but sometimes it was just at the beginning or to accompany the improv. There were some years the cast members got up and sang with the band. It settled gradually. I think in 2006, they realized what they were doing, and somebody defined it and wrote it down as 1/3 improv, 1/3 sketch, and 1/3 rock and roll.  

I think little changes happen every year, and I think it’s a good decision to give people more time to refine what they’re doing.  

SB 

What you’re saying about the slight changes every year will continue to happen because when we accept new members, we view it as creating a new ensemble. What I love about the format is the way that those things complement each other and sometimes bleed together. When the band plays between our sketches, they will choose songs that refer to the previous sketch. The audience gets a kick out of that. We get to sing with the band and incorporate some musical sketches. It doesn’t feel or look like we’re sticking to a formula as much as using it to explore sketch writing in new and inventive ways. 

BD 

We love when cast members are able to improvise within a sketch, making new bits and jokes and expanding on what was written. We think that can only happen when there’s a level of comfort and familiarity with the script as it exists so that a performer can add to it without sacrificing the integrity of the original writer’s vision. That’s an area where having extra rehearsal can shine.  

JR 

You’ve got casting coming up, which should be interesting and probably a little nerve wracking. Every year I can think of, there’s been at least one cast member who is a physical comedian, some who are better verbally, some who are more comfortable as writers, some with musical skill. Are you considering how to balance the mix of that? What’s the philosophy of your approach to casting? 

BD 

Something that we really value in our callback process is how well potential cast members work as a collaborator in the writer’s room. What we do is have a mock writer’s room where we bring them in and have them give feedback and make joke pitches to an existing sketch to see how their ideas bounce off of the existing cast and how they fit in that ensemble. We get an idea of the prospective cast member as a performer when we do improv auditions. We’re always looking for a wide range of skills in terms of physicality and musical ability. We have a Google form where people can put in their special skills: if they play an instrument or do good impressions or something like that. It’s always a consideration.  

But first and foremost, we’re looking to build a group that works well together and that is able to create sketches as an ensemble. We really do value taking a sketch that one person has written and making it a Mee-Ow sketch that all of us are adding ideas to, that all of us are performing with our personal skills. It’s more about how they fit with the existing cast than any particular skill set.  

SB 

This is going to be my first round of Mee-Ow auditions where I’m not auditioning. For me, what is important is just getting to see that someone’s got chops. When I started, I didn’t have as much sketch writing experience as I did with improv and performance. I knew where my strengths and my weak points were, but because the Mee-Ow process is so intensive, I was able to learn so much so fast. I think Mee-Ow is such an excellent learning opportunity, so I think we’re also looking for how well somebody can adapt, how excited they are, how invested they are in the comedy.  

BD 

This is a college improv group, but it’s 20 hours a week of rehearsal and writing eight or ten sketches a week. It’s a huge time commitment, and it really has to be your main thing when you’re doing it. We’re looking for someone who has the skills, the writing and performing ability, and someone who really cares and wants to dedicate an entire quarter of their Northwestern life to making this show. Even if they’re really talented, if they’re doing 10 other things, we might not accept them.  

JR 

Many of you involved with Mee-Ow likely know of the people who have gone on to careers starting with Mee-Ow as a kind of training ground. Do you think that prospective cast members are able to put that side and focus on what they’re doing? That ability to focus on what they’re doing and not thinking about what comes next? 

SB 

I’ll speak for myself, but I know I’m not alone in this. Mee-Ow was the thing that I aspired to in my Northwestern career. I knew that when I got on Mee-Ow, I’d have made it. That was my personal goal in coming to campus. I wrote about it in my “why Northwestern” essay. But college students are very young and not particularly forward-thinking. The future after college is scary, so I hadn’t considered people thinking about next steps after Mee-Ow.  

BD 

Honestly, I freaked out at the reunion last year. For me, it solidified the idea of Mee-Ow as an alumni network on top of a great on-campus opportunity. Meeting all of these amazing, successful, talented people at the reunion and knowing that I shared something in common with them did give me a sense of comfort that we have a community beyond the normal Northwestern alumni network to tap into. In terms of doing the show, while we’re on campus, I don’t think the history and larger trajectory of the Mee-Ow as an institution is as much on our minds as making the specific show we’re working on great. Let’s put on a good show for the campus.  

SB 

I think the nature of Mee-Ow itself forces you to operate very much in the present. How do I get two sketches in by 5 p.m., you know? 

BD 

It trains us to be successful when we graduate, more than any alumni network or connections that we build. Being able to get stuff done, efficiently, as a good collaborator, to build a show in four weeks, staged and ready, that experience makes you a competent professional, no matter what you end up doing.  

JR 

I can actually confirm that I have heard from people saying that their writing process, skills, and focus they developed during Mee-Ow is what led to their ability to be a professional writer. Some took improv and made it their career and others took the collaboration and the writing process to their careers.  

What questions do you have for me?  

BD 

Were there noticeable shifts in the show beyond the change from variety show to comedy to the third formula we have now? Were there vibe shifts in terms of the role they played on campus or the energy of the shows?  

JR 

There were definitely some years that shows were political. There were years when social issues were really evident in the title of the show and themed sketches. It’s a response to the times in which the show is created and comes from the student voices themselves. There were some years that were intentionally a rejection or response to the previous year and some years that were a continuation. It’s been all over the place. Some of the most memorable sketches have been humorous but also bittersweet. They had a point to them. They touched people, not just made them laugh. They made people feel something as well. Those are the ones I still hear people talk about.  

SB 

How do you see Mee-Ow going forward? 

JR 

I did a write up of the 2024 year. It was the last thing that went into the book. One of the things I said is that Mee-Ow understands its audience, and that audience is students. I am not the audience. I got stuff, but it was not directed at me. It didn’t speak to me. It wasn’t universal. It was very specific to the audience, that has always been true, and I see that going forward as well.  

What makes shows like Mee-Ow work is knowing the pop culture references of the intended audience. Mee-Ow understands the popular culture and references their current audience will understand. That understanding of your audience, what they’ll find funny, touching, moving, significant, silly, important, comes from speaking their language. You are them. You’re taking their experience and heightening it in a way that will be great.  

SB  

That’s what I love about live theater. We can talk about Mee-Ow as an institution and that can be something we’re completely invested in, but at the end of the day we are just putting on live entertainment, a show for students. We’re excited to be keeping that a priority this winter.

  

The Mee-Ow Show at 50 publishes on October 15, 2024. Preorders can be made via NUP’s website.  

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