Student-created 'Dicktations' to showcase penis-centric comedy.
The Vagina Monologues each year aims to spread awareness of women’s rights issues through personal stories.
Dicktations, a new comedy variety performance, doesn’t really have a goal, other than making people laugh.
All the two shows have in common is that they both are centered on themes of genitalia and they both raise money for My Sister’s Place, an Athens domestic violence agency organization.
Chase Montavon, a junior studying communication studies, said he was inspired to create a comedy show centered around experiences with male genitalia after seeing the Vagina Monologues freshman year, and the idea has finally come to fruition.
“I wanted to make it a charity show because I wanted people to come and have fun, but I also wanted it to have a positive connotation,” Montavon said.
The show, which will take place Friday at Donkey Coffee & Espresso, 17 1/2 W. Washington St., isn’t a parody of the Vagina Monologues, but is instead a variety show performed in a similar format. Athens comedians will take turns on stage doing comedic poetry, musical performances and stand-up sets. Montavon will be hosting the show.
“I wanted people to do their own stories, their own characters, their own whatever,” he said. “So it’s just kind of in the same vein (as the Vagina Monologues).”
Ryan Gabos, a senior studying video production, said he got involved with the project as he knew Montavon through stand-up. He said he’ll be doing a set that’s a mashup of two real-life humorous experiences regarding sleepovers he’d had in elementary school.
“Dick jokes are either celebrated or mocked in stand-up,” Gabos said. “This is a … show where we can take off our serious hats.”
The show won’t be all male performers — Montavon said about 10 people are involved and the split is about 50-50 between men and women.
Montavon’s roommate Gabbi Thacker, a junior studying media arts and studies, had known about the idea since its inception and viewed her participation as a new experience.
“(The type of material) is something I’ve never done before,” she said. “I wanted to challenge myself to do something different than I normally do.”
Thacker said she thinks having women involved makes the show funnier and more colorful than if it were just a bunch of men talking about penises.
“I think everybody has something to say about it,” she said.
@EmilyMBamforth
eb104010@ohiou.edu
