VOL. 23, NO. 10	NOVEMBER 21, 1997

s Saturday Night Live too tame for you? Are you irritated by Dr. Seuss creatures? Do you find airplane safety drills funny? Then you may be ready for TunnelVision, a professional comedy group formed in the first-ever graduate comedy writing course at Columbia.

  The group performs regularly at Caroline's, one of the top comedy clubs in the city, guided by a simple rule: "Anyone is fair game for parody," says Steve Hermanos, one of four TunnelVision writers/performers. "We want to make the audience as uncomfortable as possible," deadpans another writer, M. George Stevenson. "Of course, there is a fine line between funny and offensive but nobody's ever said we were mean—at least not to our faces. We feel everybody can stand to be made fun of at some time."

  In Dave Letterman fashion, TunnelVision takes aim at celebrities like Martha Stewart and O.J. Simpson and spoofs inane television, fairy tales, children's icons like Dr. Seuss and, of course, politicians.

  In a sendup of the Seuss classic "Green Eggs and Ham," a real estate agent named Mr. Samton presses a reluctant yuppie to get in on a Hamptons' share for the summer. "The sun will give me melanoma... I'll drink myself into a coma," the yuppie whines.

  A recent 90-minute live act skewered sensitivity training for New York City police, martial arts movies and a man and woman's belabored attempts to try to reach an intimate understanding.

  Other shows feature "Fairy Tale Court," a sendup of The People's Court in which Cinderella sues the prince for breach of promise, and "Crashy the Bear," a drunk airline safety spokesman who cheerily tells young passengers, "Just think of the Atlantic Ocean as a giant kiddie pool, but remember—don't pet the sharks!"

  In addition to Stevenson and Hermanos, the writers include Devin Crowley and Kirk Davis. The four are screenwriting and directing students in the School of the Arts Film Division currently at work on their theses.

  Professional actors perform with the group, which is now preparing a new version of the show, which will debut in the city in January.

  The group teamed up two years ago in a comedy sketch writing course being offered for the first time by School of the Arts Professor Janet Roach, an award-winning screenwriter of the dark comedy "Prizzi's Honor" with Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston, among other films.

  Though a sense of humor is probably not teachable, the exquisite timing and structure great comedy demands are, Roach said.

  The high-minded impulse to create great drama motivates most film students, she says. Yet she helps students realize that making people laugh is as noble—and no less demanding.

  New York City has inspired generations of humorists—try to think of Woody Allen or Neil Simon anywhere else—and is home today to many of the leading film and television comedy writers, said Roach.

  "It makes absolute sense for a top-notch film school in New York to establish itself in comedy," she said.

  Despite its New York location and its considerable entertainment connections, Roach said, Columbia graduates have not had a strong tradition as top-level comedy writers.

  She said the edge has gone to Harvard. "There seems to be a network of Harvard Lampoon and Hasty Pudding Club people in film and television," she said. "We hope to change this."