“A Rubik’s Cube,” written and performed by senior theatre major Nicholas Finch, was a one-man stand-up comedy show that told the story of his life throughout the years. The show was held on Jan. 28 and 29 and was free to all University of Indianapolis students to attend.
“It’s a self reflection on my own personal life, my own personal stories, and I formed that into a stand up comedy,” Finch said. “I told that story, and in the midst of all that I interacted with the audience. I did other little bits just to kind of reflect the message that I was trying to tell, which was a message of self growth.”
Finch said he had the idea for about two years before proposing it as his senior capstone project. Theatre majors need to propose anywhere between three and five ideas, but Finch was set on his idea for “A Rubik’s Cube.” A few months before the performance, he said the show underwent a major rewrite because he changed how he reflected on himself and viewed his life.
“The idea for the Rubik’s Cube came from a relationship that I was in, in high school, where she gave me a gift where it essentially compared me to a Rubik’s cube,” Finch said. “That was the jumping off point for the entire show, is kind of comparing myself to that Rubik’s Cube, having a Rubik’s Cube and kind of trying to solve it, like I was trying to solve myself throughout all that time.”
Finch said the show was set in a loose form where there was no set script. He said he had clear points to hit and jokes to tell, but those came about in their own ways. He said that not every night was the same with the storytelling.
“I kind of let the flow of the night bring out those points,” Finch said. “While I didn’t know everything I was going to say or what was going to happen, I kind of just let it be natural to the storytelling that was happening that night…. In the last night in particular, there was very heavy interaction, which kind of formed the story to go very differently. While it was still all there, it was mainly surrounded by other people giving me the jumping-off points to get to my next point.”
Finch had a small crew to help with his show, including senior theatre and communication major Kyle Jeanor who performed an opening stand-up and introduced Finch. Jeanor said he was working with Finch almost from the beginning.
“I’ve known Nick [Finch] for four years now,” Jeanor said. “We’ve worked together on countless things, and this one was definitely unique because we weren’t acting together. He was doing his stand up and I was trying to figure out how the heck to do comedy. Even though I consider myself a funny person, doing stand-up is definitely its own beast.”
Jeanor was also responsible for designing the lights on stage. He said he had a little bit of experience from taking Lighting Design I, but still struggled with certain things.
“I looked up some stuff online, and I asked for some help. I figured it out as I went and by the end of it, I had programmed the whole thing. But during the actual show, you just press the go button, and it just goes in between all of [the lighting cues],” Jeanor said. “It’s really simplified for that. But that night, I’d sat there for about two hours trying to figure it out. And I was really proud of myself that I was able to figure it out from pretty much nothing.”
Both Finch and Jeanor said they loved working on the show and are more than happy to perform again. Jeanor said Books & Brews South Indy offered Finch the opportunity to perform his show, but the date is not confirmed.
“When you go out and you just do something, you learn a lot,” Finch said. “I wanted to do stand up for my capstone, but I never really considered it for my career. And then there was one showing [of “A Rubik’s Cube”] in particular, where everything just really clicked and I felt like this was something I could pursue if I wanted to.”
