For the Oswego State students who join The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club, it is about bringing laughter to others, being yourself and having a good time.
The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club is a comedic improv club that was created in the 1990s by Tim Mollen who had an interest in comedy and wanted to gain experience in the field.
“That’s the way to fame for many comedians,” Colin Bateman, a member of the club, said.
As it is almost traditional for an improv troupe to have an outlandish name, the name, The Shaun Cassidy Fan club, came from wanting something that could start a conversation.
“He hosted a party and one of his friends brought this Shaun Cassidy vinyl album. She was talking about how her and her sister were always arguing about who would marry Shaun when they were older. He thought this obsession with this washed up child star from the 70s was just hilarious,” Bateman said.
The president of the club, Kayla Bonasera, is a student studying communication and social interaction and creative writing at Oswego State. Bonasera said for her, having done theater in middle school and elementary school, she wanted something that incorporated performance into college without having to declare a theater major.
“I first came to a Shaun Cass practice thinking it was a show, I had no intention to stay in the club,” Bonasera said. “I would not want to be anywhere else.”
The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club brings great energy and reinforces that by making sure to incorporate their audience’s ideas and stories into their performances.
“I come out there to make them laugh, but at the end of the day I’m laughing at what they say,” Ashley Kent, a performer in The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club, said.
Kent also said that it is a relationship between their consistent audience members and the cast where they can build a community.
The show carries a hard working cast who is dedicated and is always willing to spend time perfecting their craft, just to be the orchestrators of happiness. The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club truly values comfort among one another.
“We are friends, we are friendly, we are performers, comedians,” Chelsea Gualano, vice president of The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club, said.
Carl Neff, a fellow Shaun Cassidy member also said that it is a “skill” and that he encourages anyone of any major to try to participate.
But when it comes down to the performance, Bonesera said it takes a lot of work.
“People who perform have been in the troop for at least a semester and a half and have been through a point where they have worked with the vice president and the president,” Bonasera said.
Gualano and Bonasera are very confident that their fellow Shaun Cassidy members have the fundamentals, tools and experience to put their all into bringing their audience a great show.
Whether it is for great laughs, trying to find a community, looking for a place to perform or leaving troubles behind, The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club performs from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday’s at the Marano Campus Center in room 132.
Photo provided by Ashley Kent
