Florida Studio Theatre looks for humor amid pandemic in sketch comedy ‘Laughing Matters’

Last summer, Rebecca and Richard Hopkins sat on a beach near their Sarasota home doing an improvised comedy interview with Covey the COVID about what was going to happen in the world during the pandemic.

“It was our way of coping,” said Rebecca Hopkins, the managing director of Florida Studio Theatre, where her husband is the producing artistic director. “One of the lucky things we have as human beings is we can take our pain and part of the way we deal with it is being a little irreverent with it, and to admit things suck, but in a fun way, in a way that lifts you back out of it. It’s a release.”

Navigating a months-long shutdown of theaters and their efforts to reopen shows, they sat on the sand and laughed at the ironies and absurdities of the situation.

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“If I didn’t have a sense of humor, I’d probably have had a nervous breakdown by this point,” said Rebecca Hopkins, who is the lead writer of the latest edition of their ongoing cabaret comedy sketch show “Laughing Matters,” which pokes fun at just about everything happening in life with songs and scenes.

Richard Hopkins, the theater’s producing artistic director, is staging the new show, which is officially called “Laughing Matters (Variant 6): Paranoia on Parade.” Beginning Feb. 16 in the Court Cabaret, it features three performing veterans of past editions: Richie McCall, Nick Anastasia and William Selby, joined by FST newcomer but sketch comedy veteran Jenna Cormey.

The show, like several other FST productions, was delayed at least a week from its original opening date because of complications related to COVID.

Rebecca Hopkins leads the writing team that includes Kevin Allen, Stephan deGhelder, Sarah Durham, Tony Hendricks and Jim Prosser, who also is creating the musical arrangements.

“Laughing Matters” was launched in 2001 and this is the sixth edition. The most recent was in 2016.

There’s a lot more than the pandemic in the show, though COVID has a way of insinuating its way into just about every topic.

“We’re dealing with media in this show, our own divisiveness and how we’re fighting with each other,” she said. “Of course, COVID is there and our state government, Biden and how he’s having a rough ride right now. Then we have a lot of local stuff, challenges going on. It’s interesting how it goes in circles. First, we dealt with recession and then over growing and then recession and now growing again. To me as a comedy writer, it shows how cyclical things are.”

There will also be billionaires in space, cancel culture and political correctness, among other subjects.

In a politically and socially divided world, it gets harder to find a way to get everybody to laugh, whatever their point of view.

“Comedy is always evolving and changing. We always question what the line is and where it’s at. We always approached ‘Laughing Matters’ as making fun but not attacking. That’s the line to take,” she said. “People are offended so easily, we’re making sure we’re not beating on one thing. If you’re offended at one thing, you’ll hopefully laugh at the next one.”

There are some pointed moments, she said, but “we try not to tell the audience what they should think.”

She’s not exactly sure how the audience will react, but “I have faith in our audience. They’re adults. They tend to be able to take a joke and understand the difference between a joke and the real thing.”

Richard Hopkins said that “people can laugh if we do it the right way, if we’re not too mean spirited, poking fun at a politician and laughing from both the left and the right. We can all see humor in things that Biden does and humor in the things that (Gov. Ron) DeSantis does. We all just have to laugh.”

‘Laughing Matters’

Written by Rebecca Hopkins, Kevin Allen, Stephan deGhelder, Sarah Durham, Tony Hendriks and Jim Prosser. Directed by Richard Hopkins. Runs Feb. 16-June 19, Court Cabaret, 1265 First St., Sarasota. 941-366-9000; floridastudiotheatre.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: FST finds humor in political and social issues for ‘Laughing Matters’