The Lunchbox Voodoo sketch comedy group is a one of a kind at Eastern. The organization started eight years ago with the collective effort of students.

Korey Adkins, a junior communication studies major and President of Lunchbox Voodoo, said Lunchbox Voodoo has changed his life for the better.

“It has added to my overall college experience,” Adkins said. “I’ve met some interesting people, gained some performance experience, and it has been positive so far.”

The group generates original comedy sketches for its performances throughout the semester. They put on two to three shows, perform at charity events and work with Relay for Life.

Adkins said there has been a positive reaction among the audiences they have performed in front of so far.

He also said the organization can help people who start in the group that are not always the most outgoing or “performance-abled.”

Bridget Shanahan, a senior communications disorders and sciences major, said the group’s writing workshops, which are large brainstorming sessions with people both in and out of the group, are a way they put their creative minds together.

“It helps us, because I would like to get more people to write,” Shanahan said. “Even if you don’t think it’s funny, because I’ve written a lot of scripts that I didn’t think were funny, but they turned out to be hilarious.”

Shanahan said that being in Voodoo has helped her and others overcome stage fright and get a chance to perform on stage.

Shanahan said her dream is to some day appear on NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

“My goal, if my life takes me that way, is to act on Saturday Night Live,” Shanahan said.

She also said she takes classes at The Second City, which is an improvisational comedy enterprise that has been in existence in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood since 1959.

Voodoo has some distinguished former members, like Eastern graduate Andy Luttrell, who won EIU’s Last Comic Standing during his time at Eastern.

“I definitely think this can help someone prepare for a career in comedy,” Adkins said.

Kaylyn Engelhardt, a sophomore elementary education major, said one of her professors last year recommended she join Lunchbox Voodoo, and has been with the group ever since.

Engelhardt said being in Voodoo could potentially help her down the road in her career as a teacher in a unique way. She wants to bring the comedy skills she learns with the group into her future classroom.

“Everything we do, I look forward to it,” Engelhardt said. “If I’m having a bad day and there’s something going on with Voodoo, then I have something to look forward to.”

Jose Gonzalez can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected]