Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be one of the ladies on Cal Poly’s famed Smile and Nod Team? Well, thanks to Her Campus, you’ve now got a chance to get up close and personal with them!
First up, meet the lovely second year biomedical engineering major: Brianna Rodebaugh!
“The real kind of ADD, not just the expression.”
Next, second year architectural engineering major: Hannah Moser!
“Hey, check out my album dropping next fall: ‘Coffee On The Dance Floor: Dancing in Garbage’.”
Next, third year biology major: Sasha Smolgovsky
“A Russian in hot temperature: my average adequate life.”
And finally, fourth year theatre arts major: Kelly Jackson!
“Procrastination and Bodily Functions.”
HC: Who would play you in a movie about your life?
Brianna: “Rashida Jones.”
Hannah: “Kristen Wig.”
Sasha: “Jennifer Lawrence.”
Kelly: “Lindsay Lohan.”
HC: If you could only sing one song on American Idol, what would it be?
Brianna: “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” by Celine Dion – the full-length version, not the edited version. I would like dancers to dance out the music video behind me, including the ghost part. I’d like to be wearing white.
Hannah: “He Lives In You Reprise” from The Lion King The Musical, while I act out every single role and harmonize by myself.
Sasha: “Larger Than Life” by the Backstreet Boys.
Kelly: “Something” by Rihanna, who is my spirit animal.
HC: If someone wrote a biography about you, what would the title be?
Brianna: “Can I Pee First?”
Hannah: “Loose Sanity”
Sasha: “A Russian Living in Hot Temperature: My Average, Adequate Life”
Kelly: “She Has Too Much On Her Plate, So She Stuffs Her Face Directly”
HC: If you were a scented marker, what would you smell like?
Brianna: Those Nutrigrain bars that come in the green wrapper and make a lot of crumbs.
Hannah: Probably Eggs. That seems right.
Sasha: Citrus.
Kelly: Devil’s lettuce.
HC: What is the one, surefire way for a boy to win your heart?
Brianna: I would like him to take me to taco bell and quote “Parks and Recreation” while we’re there. Also he should very subtly let me know that he’s a feminist. He should swear a lot too, but not in a mean way, just a funny way.
Hannah: The easiest way to win my heart is to just be a living boy without any real murderous qualities. I don’t have a type – just not anyone that will murder me in my sleep or insult animals. He can’t be an animal abuser. Just be someone who is down to earth.
Sasha: If a guy can tell me to calm my sh*t without pissing me off, then he’s the one.
Kelly: If he takes a stand against heteronormativity.
HC: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Brianna: I’ll be the really weird engineer at my firm that invites everyone to come to my improv shows after work. Hopefully I’ll do well in engineering and still get to perform, even if it’s sh*tty and nobody comes to watch me.
Hannah: I see my midlife crisis happening early. I’ll be really worried about settling down and finding love, which I’m sure won’t happen at that point because there’s a lot I need to accomplish before I get married. I think I’ll still be involved in improv, and hopefully my career will intertwine with theatre or comedy.
Sasha: I’m going to be thirty, so I’ll probably be getting close to that imminent stress induced heart attack. I’ll probably be really successful monetarily, but be alone.
Kelly: I honestly have no clue.
HC: How do you feel about the opinion that men tend to be funnier than women?
Brianna: I think it sucks that girls acting as guys is not as funny as if a guy were to act as a girl. I mean, that’s not really sexist; it’s just life. Like if I were to say “I’ve got a penis” it’s not nearly as funny as a guy speaking as a woman.
Hannah: Generally speaking, girls are not known to be as funny as boys, but I don’t think that’s true. I think it happens, but only because girls are being held back. This idea is being thrown at them that they can’t act silly or raunchy because they have to be pretty. You can’t make dirty jokes. You can’t have crude humor. You have to be a lady. I think a lot more women could be active in comedy if they would just let loose a little bit.
Sasha: I’ve seen a lot of improv teams, and I’ve noticed that girls will result to being a sexual character in order to be funny. It’s really sad that there’s this stigma that if you can’t be funny, you can at least revert to being hot.
Kelly: I feel annoyed by it, but not too angry because I know it’s largely perpetuated by ignorance and not necessarily malicious misogyny. That said, I think it definitely calls upon a larger societal problem we have of mistakenly thinking that men and women are totally different from each other, and that certain socialized behaviors are somehow inherent and not learned. I wrote an essay about the “women aren’t funny” myth and I’ll try to dig it out for you.
HC: Do you ever feel that during the games, the roles you play tend to be gender stereotyped, repetitive, or limited?
Hannah: It happens, but it’s not always being a gender stereotype. Performers have certain strengths in what they do. Personally, I never play the stereotypical ditzy girl, but that’s just because I’m not good at playing her.
Sasha: Not in the case of Smile and Nod. I’ve never felt like I had to be a gender stereotype in any of the games that we play.
Kelly: I try to stay away from harmful stereotypes, but it’s hard not to in improv. When you’re trying to make people laugh, it’s just so easy to portray a funny stereotype because it tickles people’s brains when they recognize a pattern. Not to mention it gives your scene partner an easily recognizable character to work with and play off of.
HC: Do you ever feel that because you’re a woman you have to try harder to be funnier, especially being on a team that is predominantly men?
Brianna: Any pressure I feel to be funnier comes from multiple things, such as being younger and having no improv experience before this. Having such great people around me makes me want to improve and be funnier, but not because I’m a woman.
Hannah: I think that women kick ass at comedy. With improv, you get have so much fun spitballing with the people you’re around, it doesn’t matter who’s a boy and who’s a girl. That issue is probably prevalent with standup comedians, but women in improv have a leg up because they’re rarer.
Kelly: I don’t think I have to try harder than men to be funny, but I definitely have to try harder to get them to listen to me.
HC: What is your favorite game that Smile and Nod plays?
Brianna: “My Movie” because it’s so fast paced. The various minds of our team are so strange and hearing whatever they have to spit out always makes me laugh.
Hannah: “Slide Show”. Basically, you narrate the slide show you’re playing and you can manipulate your teammates into whatever character you want, and they just have to role with the punches. It’s funny and weird. And rude, most of the time, but that’s my favorite part.
Sasha: “Blind Line” where you have to read lines that audience members write. It’s such a raw form of making sh*t up on the spot and having to justify what you were just hit with.
Kelly: I’m a big fan of “Pavlov’s Response” when it goes well.
HC: What is your overall favorite part of being on the Smile and Nod team?
Brianna: It helps you become more comfortable with yourself. You’re surrounded by a bunch of people that are just as weird as you are, but in different ways. If you are acting especially weird, no one is going to make you feel bad about it. I love the accepting the nature of the group.
Hannah: Being a part of Smile and Nod means that you take on a group of fifteen to twenty new best friends. You join this group that’s so welcoming, and everyone is funny. It’s definitely a family. We are all here on a voluntary basis, and we dedicate hours and hours a week to this club. It’s great to do what you’re really passionate about.
Sasha: My favorite part is that when we get together and do improv, we are going to another level of human interaction that not a lot of people get to experience. We create these strange and momentary situations to have with each other.
Kelly: Scotland, friends, weekly improv parties. And occasionally I’ll get recognized and complimented around campus, which will cure any bad day.
HC: Do you guys have any closing thoughts?
Brianna: Feel free to edit anything I said, even though that’s illegal. Just make me sound less stupid. Also don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t be good at math if you’re a girl. F*ck that sh*t.
Hannah: Women who read this should know that they can try comedy. If you think you’re funny then explore that side of yourself. Don’t ever hide it.
Kelly: Eat breakfast more!
Smile and Nod shows take place every Saturday night for the first seven weeks of each quarter. Shows start at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. in room 212 of the music building. If you’re interested in joining the team, auditions are on the first Friday of every quarter.