Lincoln High finally put on its 100th show of JoyNight last Thursday and Friday night. Beginning in 1925, the original theme of Nebraska’s oldest variety show was “Fun for All, All for Fun”. This year, the theme was “Keeping it 100” to honor the history of the event.
Back in 1925, Joy Night was pitched as a replacement to an annual carnival which had been cancelled. An Advocate article promoting the decision from March 3, 1925, featured a quote from one of the original Joy Night committee members as saying, “Lets give the students a chance to show what they can do in the way of producing snappy, clever, high class fun. Let Joy Night be all that the name implies.”
More articles were published on this topic leading up to and after the event, reporting on its extreme success. The week before the show, students were advised to purchase their tickets from one of the 300 recruited tickets salesmen before they sold out. Reviews explained that the show boasted 125 performers and an audience of over 2000, all there to enjoy music and dancing, and several novelty acts, including tumbling, a skit by the mummers, and a teacher act. On April 24, the Advocate published an article stating that, “Joy Night, given for the first time last Friday and Saturday nights, was received with such enthusiasm that it is believed it will be made an annual affair…All in all, the whole high school ought to be glad that the idea of ‘joy night’ was presented.”
Students and staff alike were similarly delighted with this year’s Joy Night, with many sharing the sentiments that it fully lived up to this auspicious anniversary featured some of the best acts LHS has put on in years. The show opened with a musical number by LHS custodian and amateur musician Todd Engle, who sang a self-composed song about LHS entitled “Life at the High”. The varsity orchestra and choir performed alongside him, led by Mr Noser and Mr McCauley. Mr Engle performed a total of three times on Thursday, and twice on Friday.
Freshmen Harriet Kulwicki and Lionel Berger played a piano duet and sang “City of Stars” from the movie La La Land, amazing the crowd with their excellent voices and impressive showmanship by executing some light mid-performance choreography to switch spots on the piano bench. Nadja Madden sang on both nights, as did Juliana Vazquez Tapia, who amazed everyone with her stunning rendition of Aretha Franklin’s “Ain’t No Way”.
The LHS Percussion group put together an excellent blend of good music and comedy on Thursday night, playing the Can Can with boomwhackers while Mr Noser and Mr McCauley returned to the stage to duel with foam swords, dressed as a medieval knight and a cowboy, respectively. Thursday night’s show also saw a performance by Lin Parrot of “Sailor Song”, originally by Gigi Perez. On Friday, these musical acts were replaced with dances, including an emotional solo by Lyla Talbott, a tap dance to Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” by Liza Ruhe, and a performance by the dance group STARFISH.
The LHS Jazz Band performed on Thursday night, led by the new jazz band director Mr Keaton Clark. Mr Clark also participated in the beloved “teachers read mean tweets” segment of the night, along with Mr Goodbrake, Mr Turley, Mr Bargen, Ms Herting, Mr McCauley, Mr Schmidt, Ms Wanamaker, Mr Caruso, and Ms Handley. Students and staff alike had a good laugh as these teachers got grilled for their age, hair (or lack of), and quirks. “It’s my two favorite nights of the school year,” said Mr Goodbrake. “Students make fun of teachers, teachers make fun of students. People get up there who I didn’t even know could sing and suddenly they’re blowing me away…it’s just fun!”
This year’s skit from the Mummers was called “Stranger Links”, a tribute to the popular TV show “Stranger Things”. The skit retold the events of season one if they had happened at Lincoln High, substituting the infamous first floor South bathrooms for the Upside Down. Brady Durban took on the lead role of Mike, while Ryan Ostrander portrayed Eleven, complete with a bald cap and puffy pink dress. The Lincoln High Mummers have been a staple of Joy Night since its first year in 1925, when they put on a one act play called “Miss Civilization” about a burglary.
The Joy Night emcees, as always, put on lots of skits about this year’s events. Highlights included one about the extremely delayed ACT and the Gotham City themed Prom. Other skits poked fun at LHS teachers, including one where Eli Martin got to show off his excellent Mr Noble impression, and one which suggested Ms Herting and Mr Larson were living in the Lincoln High basement with Al Gore. Emcee Simon Brockmeier said his favorite sketch of the night was one claiming Mr Bargen was secretly a vampire. In the final sketch, the emcees asked the crowd to help them say “Joy Night” 100 times to celebrate the event’s 100th anniversary. “Connecting with the other emcees is one of the best parts of Joy Night. And being able to show off all the hard work we did in front of hundreds of people is so cool, especially for year number 100, it’s making history,” said Simon.
The final act of the night was, as always, the LHS teacher band We the Free. The members of this band are Todd Engle, Brian Goodbrake, Jason Larson, and Steve Ward. This year, they began their set with a reprise of Todd Engle’s “Life at the High”, book-ending the show with this special LHS tribute. Then they moved into covers of Ween’s “Ocean Man”, Talking Head’s “Psycho Killer” and Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild”. During the last song, the students were invited on stage to dance while the band played, ending the night with an epic celebration of LHS and Joy Night. When asked to comment on his performance, Mr Goodbrake reported: “I went Godzilla mode, and I totally rocked. I just love playing and it is so fun, especially when you play loud and obnoxious rock and roll.”
