The hype for this year’s Law Follies has been building ever since last year’s smashing success. The entire law school was in a state of high anticipation as it waited to find out what hijinks, self-deprecating jokes, and musical numbers the Follies team would come up with this year.
Fortunately, this year’s Follies lived up to the hype. It started off on the right foot with hosts Jake Gehlen (3L) and Amir Eftekarpour (3L) delivering a polished and hilarious introduction. We particularly liked their willingness to call out certain 3Ls for heckling. Ultra Vires was seated right next to a certain 3L and can confirm he was extremely annoying.
The Ultra Vires staff was also pleased to be deemed worthy of ridicule in a later hosting bit—although some of us were deeply offended by how little ridicule we actually got (see “Follies Falls Flat” in this issue.)
Student performances were outstanding. Tali Chernin (1L) brought a fresh take on the role of Scooby Doo. Adam Ragusa (2L) and David St. Bernard (4L) were hilarious in every role they took on. The Shakespearean romance bit by Amanda Kovats (3L) and Jackson Foreman (1L) was described as “gutsy, but I’m glad they did it” by a fellow attendee. Everyone in the “Downtown Legal Services” sketch showed incredible commitment to their roles.
The musical numbers were, if possible, even better than last year. Rona Ghanbari (3L), Gillian Cook (2L), Sam Levy (3L), and Kaley Duff (3L) are so ridiculously talented at singing that it boggles the mind imagining how they can have any talent left over for law school. The “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” parody left me singing “Now watch me YOOOON!” for days, and the dance coordination was extremely impressive. The “Hamilton” parody was another highlight.
The video features shone in the second-half. The bizarrely high-concept “Country Mouse and City Mouse” bit capitalized perfectly on how funny Amir looks next to a toy mouse. Charlie Millar’s (2L) performance as a deranged judge in the Law and Order parody will haunt me. The “Professors read mean tweets” segment was a crowd pleaser, and the Ben Alarie/Blue J Legal “Her” parody made me cry tears of joy. Seriously, Alarie defending his humanity in response to a tweet accusing him of being a robot made my night.
A shout-out goes to the Dean for (a) sitting through the entire show and (b) his truly hilarious Godfather impression. Shout-outs also to Professors Phillips, Niblett, Fernandez, Shaffer, Drassinower, and Alarie for their enthusiastic participation.
The show was clearly well rehearsed and well managed, although it was a little long and started to drag a bit by the end—as is tradition. It also seemed heavily focussed on the topics of stress culture and the Bay Street experience. Those are, to be sure, two classic topics of student discourse, but it would have been interesting to see a greater diversity of topics and experiences represented.
Overall, Law Follies 2017: Dr. Strangelaw or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Law was a resounding success. Everyone in the audience was charmed and delighted by the singing, dancing, and sheer folly that the team presented. I left impressed by the comedic and performance talent possessed by this class, and feeling like I was part of a supportive and close community.
Congratulations to all involved!
