The Lilting Banshees are a sketch comedy troupe at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.[1][2] They are notable for launching the entertainment careers of several alumni[3] and for being a popular campus attraction.[1]
The sketch comedy troupe was founded in 1998 by Ben Tomlin '94, Matt Jones '96, and several other theatre students.[4] The founders based their name on a CD of Irish harp music that Tomlin found in the theatre department sound booth.[5] In 2019, they celebrated their 25th reunion.[6] Over 40 alumni attended the reunion show. They performed classic sketches and unveiled a new fund in memory of alumnus James Buscher ‘98, who died in a car accident in 2010.[4][7]
Members plan each show three months in advance. They meet regularly to pitch ideas for sketches, and after there are a sufficient number of them, they host a “War Room” session where they choose the sketches; according to tradition, each decision must be unanimous.[8] Previous topics have included the excessively long lines at Chick-Fil-A and how cavemen first discovered cow's milk. Some performances feature sexually suggestive content.[4]
The Banshees have helped to launch the careers of several notable alumni in entertainment-related fields.[3]
...The Lilting Banshees, led by senior Sam Ederle, is a student-run organization that performs three comedy shows a year with two in the fall and one in the spring....
...If you have the special skill of making others laugh, join the Lilting Banshees – our comedy troupe on campus....