Uni Stuff: Orientation and Capping Show - and no, I'm not a student

My sister works (worked :( she's gone now!) for OUSA - the Otago University Student Association, which is in charge of planning orientation every year.  It's a week full of comedians, concerts, and parties for all the new students.  Seeing as I'm not a student and didn't want to pay full price (or at all) for any of the events, I happily volunteered to sell tickets to the events.  Having a sister at OUSA is a good deal. 

The first event I sold tickets for was a night of comedians.  There were 4 different comedians and they did 3 shows.  The first one was early and half full, but the next two shows were packed and the students more inebriated and the comics just played off the energy so needless to say, the shows got more interesting despite the fact that the shows were almost verbatim.

Amidst all the ticket selling fervor, I made a new friend - one of the Beck boys, Mikey.  The Becks are friends of V's and there are 7 Beck boys, I've now met 3 of them.  Mike and I sold tickets together each night and when it wasn't busy, we had nothing to do but chat and be amused by the intoxicated students running amok. 

The second evening I worked, we sold tickets for the hypnotist.  I can't say I really believe what's happening there and I feel like everyone's putting on an act.  Regardless, the hypnotist was a comedian himself and the students who were "hypnotized" were really funny.  In the final show (yes, I went to all 3, and a good thing too!) the hypnotized students were the best.  The hypnotist programmed them to do a particular thing when a certain song played.  When marching music was played, they all marched around the auditorium like the best soldiers you've ever seen.  When a phone started ringing, everyone looked for the phone in someone's shoe.  And the best part was Elvis' "love me tender", when that played the hypnotized students had to look deeply into the eyes of whoever was closest and profess their undying love.  In the final show, two of the hypnotized students ran into each other during "love me tender" and they just started kissing each other - passionately.  It was a little awkward to watch but realllllly funny.  Shocking too.  So, I don't really believe in hypnotists, but I can't believe that two randoms would make out in front of 500 people they don't know unless something else was going in their minds... so maybe hypnotists are real?

The nights of concerts were pretty sweet.  Kids of 88 played one night (apparently a popular Kiwi band).  I got to hear the last few songs they played - didn't recognize any of them.  The band looked like mis-placed hipsters and there were some sound issues, but some of the songs were kinda catchy!  For the BIG concert night, Laura got DJ Rekha, of Basement Bhangra, to come down from Brooklyn and play.  She chilled with Mike and Todd and I in the OUSA office and we chatted about Brooklyn and Queens and had dinner together.  She's awesome, her music is GREAT and I totally felt like the cool kid at school who gets to hang with the band before the show.  So cool.  Ladi6 and Minuit were the headliners (I didn't hang out with them :( ) but I thoroughly enjoyed Ladi6.  Everyone was super keen on Minuit (apparently a HUGE kiwi fave) but I have to say, on first impressions, I liked Ladi6 better - but Minuit was still great!

So, fast forward MONTHS (cuz I'm a blogging slacker) and we get to graduation time and Capping Show.  Every year in May the students put on a comedy show (very similar to Senior Production to all my high school peeps) and this year's show was "Let There Be Capping Show", a not-so-subtle allusion to the Bible and "Let There Be Light".  The whole show was a farse involving God, Adam and Eve and Satan (or Santa as it turns out).   There were lots of cute wee skits, commercials included, but the best part was the acapella interludes.  There was an all male group and an all female group.  The men were better (sorry ladies!), their harmonies and performance were amazing.  Most of the songs were popular tunes with re-worked and rather lewd lyrics - but really really funny.  Here's the only one I could find on youtube:  Otago Uni Sextet - I Have Got Tourettes (note: this link definitely includes explicit lyrics!)

The second best part was the men's ballet.  One of the colleges (dorms in American speak) got all their first year boys to perform Swan Lake - and it was aaaaaa-mazing. Fortunately, someone taped it and posted it to youtube: Selwyn Ballet. Genius, truly. 

So, Laura, Todd, Vanessa and my not-quite-so-new-now-best-friend Matt Tucker and I went on opening night, and we confirmed that Laura and I have the same sense of humor since we were always laughing at the same time - and sometimes the only ones laughing...but that's normal, right?  Anyways, it was all good times at Otago University.  Sadly, Laura is now gone but Vanessa, Kitty  and Matt Tucker are still there so hopefully my hookups to fun things at the Uni aren't yet over!