The friendship of Jaclyn Lore-Edwards ’21 and Olivia Crowell ’21 is a beautiful testament to the power of random roommates. When they were paired together freshman year, the two became fast friends, and the rest is history. Jaclyn and Liv sat down with The Argus in a random corner of Allbritton to chat about comedy, thesis-ing, and much, much more.

 

The Argus: How did you guys meet and become friends? 

Jaclyn Lore-Edwards: We were random roommates freshman year in a Clark triple, and we became friends that way. We tried to be our own people at first, and then we realized we worked really well together. Freshman year we started an a cappella group together.

Olivia Crowell: We did. And Jaclyn just consistently was down for my bullshit. I think there was a day fall of freshman year where I got tickets to a Dead show in Boston, in the afternoon. And by the evening we were in Boston. That’s when I knew!

JLE: I was in the library and she was like, ‘Can you catch a bus with me in an hour to go see a concert, stay in Boston overnight, and return tomorrow?’ And I was like, ‘Okay.’ I think that solidified always being down. 

A: Did you guys continue to live together? 

JLE: We’ve lived together every semester that we’ve been on campus. Neither of us were here junior fall—we were abroad—but then we snagged a Low-Rise together. 

OC: And we also, junior fall, lived very briefly on a houseboat together in Amsterdam.

A: Where did you guys go abroad? 

JLE: I went to Copenhagen. 

OC: I went to London to act. 

JLE: I just fucked around, she had a purpose. 

A: Why do you guys think you were chosen to be WesCelebs? 

[both laugh]

OC: Because we’re the humblest people we know. 

JLE: I think, I mean…. I don’t know. 

OC: Dare I say we’ve had a bit of content we’ve put out.

JLE: I remember sophomore year when we put out [the YouTube series] Purple Bird, and I was like, ‘Nobody’s going to care about this.’ But there were some people coming up to us like, ‘Yo, I watched it. And it was funny.’ It was a nice feeling to be like, ‘Oh, we’ve put effort in something. And people looked at it and liked it.’ For me at least, it made me feel more comfortable in the Wesleyan artist community, because I was like, ‘Oh, I have something that I’ve actually done.’ I felt more confident to approach people about working with them.

OC: And for me, my email just got stuck as Purple Bird. So now, every time I enter a class list, my name comes up as Purple Bird. I even had a professor who I had multiple times before, senior year come up to me and be like, ‘Do you prefer to be Purple Bird?’

A: Did you guys do theses? 

JLE: We both did. You can talk about yours first. 

OC: Thank you. I shot a production thesis, so yes, film. Stay tuned.

JLE: To speak on behalf of Liv, she worked very hard on a production thesis, and it’s going to be really, really good. 

OC: And to speak on behalf of Jaclyn, her screenplay is chef’s kiss.

JLE: Yeah, I’m writing a screenplay. It’s supposed to be a comedy. Ish.

OC: And it’s very funny.

JLE: Family drama.

OC: A lot of drama, a lot of family. 

A: How does it feel to be almost done with those projects?*

OC: Truly wild. I feel like 60% of my brain has gone to that for the past almost year now. Especially this weekend, I’ve pretty much already submitted, and I’m just working with my sound mix person. It’s very uncomfortable to not have work to do. 

JLE: With my screenplay, I’ve been thinking about these people in it for like the whole year. It’s just going to be weird to not have to think about it anymore. And instead experience real life things, instead of stuff I’m making up in my head.

OC: Also, I’d say we’re very excited to have some free time to shoot some random stuff again.

JLE: Theses have been really time-consuming and we’ve been wanting to use the sound stage to fuck around in. We have a few ideas.

OC: Sketches that need to be shot. 

JLE: Yeah, more Purple Bird sketches we want to do in there. It’ll be exciting to have free time to do other creative projects that aren’t academic.

OC: And maybe somewhere in there we’ll find a job.

JLE: Can you guys talk about Triple Major a little bit?

OC: I led a competition ICHSA group in high school. When I came here, I wanted to keep arranging. Once again, I went to Jacqueline and said, ‘We’re going to start an a cappella group.’

JLE: And I was like, ‘Okay.’ I was in a capella in high school, too. I was not the boss lady of my a cappella group, but I was in one, and I wanted to do competition in college. We both were talking about like, ‘Oh, it sucks Wesleyan doesn’t have one.’ 

OC: Because what’s the point of singing if you’re not going to compete with people?!

JLE: What’s the point of doing anything, if you can’t win at it? And so we’ve never won. 

OC: We never won, but what’s the point of doing anything if you can’t lose at it either? 

JLE: I remember I knew exactly what she was going to ask me. She was like, ‘Hey, wanna go to ’Swings, I have a proposition for you.’

OC: It’s time to talk. 

JLE: She sits me down. She’s like, ‘You probably know what this is about.’ I was like, ‘A capella? It’s going to happen?’ And she was like ‘A hundred percent.’ It was very small at first; there were six of us, all freshmen. We were horrible and then we expanded—

OC: We were adorable.

JLE: We were adorable, but a little horrible. 

OC: We recorded our competition video in the hallway of Clark. 

JLE: We had no idea how to book rooms, how to even make our club legit. We would literally just kick people out of the Clark lounge and be like, ‘We have rehearsal in here.’ And then the RAs eventually were like, ‘You can’t just do that.’

OC: They came in and they’re like, ‘We heard that there’s an a cappella group claiming this space.’ 

JLE: We were with our a capella group and we’re like, [clicks tongue] ‘We’re just studying.’ 

OC: We’re like, ‘You have to bring work.’ So in case anyone entered, we had to stop singing and act like a study group. 

JLE: But we’ve figured it out. We do real administrative stuff now, we get money from the school sometimes. 

OC: We have people to do real administrative stuff now.

JLE: And we have like 20 members. It’s the biggest we’ve been, this year. We feel good about how it worked out. 

A: Does competing usually involve traveling around to different colleges?

OC: Yes, it’s usually quarterfinals, semifinals, finals. Again, quarterfinals is the only area we’re familiar with.

JLE: Quarterfinals is where we stay! But it’s really fun. We usually go to Connecticut College. And there’s always the same groups there. So we make up our fake vendettas against them.

OC: There’s a lot of hate that we like to channel.

JLE: We just pack all of our kiddos into a car and we go, and it’s a really fun day to spend with the group. The main reason I feel like we do it is it’s nice to work for something, even if it doesn’t pan out that well, and have a big moment.

OC: This year we competed virtually. We had a four-minute video that we submitted. And it’s now I think pretty cool that we have something very tangible to show for our time here. 

A: And so the show Quarantimes, which I personally was a big fan of, where did that come from? 

JLE: We were both just bored over quarantine. We knew we wanted to do something productive, Liv had the idea to interview people. 

OC: It’s another classic situation where I call Jaclyn, like, ‘I have an idea!’

JLE: And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea. What about also this?’ And so then we developed this interview thing into a semi-musical, semi-game show, interview series with different groups of people. It was really fun to do over quarantine, in the beginning, reconnect with people through the Zoom interviews. We both interviewed high school teachers, Wesleyan professors, people that we’re friends with here, that it was just nice to talk to and do something silly with.

OC: It was also just a weird time. In March, I feel like everyone was on the same page. We asked pretty much everyone about “Tiger King” and what they were making and their crafts and their fucking yeast. 

JLE: It was very much a cultural moment.

OC: That we captured!

JLE: That we captured so well. And with so much dignity. But again, the framing around the quarantine also definitely put a limit on it because there did come a point, approaching the summer where we were like—

CO: This isn’t cute anymore.

JLE: This isn’t a cute little thing that’s just happening. It’s real, we’re going to be in the throes of this for a while. In the beginning it was definitely fun to just like, take our minds off of that situation and talk to people about other things. 

A: Were there any particularly zany interviews?

JLE: Well, we had a couple of people come who were confused by the prompt and thought that they had to come in character. Those were great ones. Some of the funnier ones. What else? 

OC: I thought Scott Higgins was a great one.

JLE: Scott Higgins was a really good interview. He was very excited to overshare. I could tell he prepared, like he knew what he was going to talk about to us. He brought photos of his chickens, he wore a funny hat. He definitely knew what he was getting himself into. 

OC: Also, the film department is so huge that it’s like, can we be sure that Scott Higgins knows who we are? Absolutely not. 

JLE: He had no idea who either of us were, and we just hopped on this Zoom and talked to him, and now he knows, I guess. So that’s fun. Most of the interviews were just wacky in general. The people we interviewed who we didn’t know that well were a challenge. There were a couple of students who signed up who we had never spoken to before and it’s nice because we know them now, but figuring out that interview was definitely interesting.

A: Going off of that, because Quarantines was a funny show, you guys are involved in comedy, broadly.

JLE: Yes. 

OC: We are. All over the place. 

JLE: Should we speak on that?

OC: Please.

A: If you’d like to. 

JLE: I would say we’re both in the comedy scene here. I do Hysterics, the stand-up group, which is very fun. Liv is in it too. We actually have a show coming up. April 30 at 8 p.m., in the Labyrinth Tent, there are only 53 seats, so make sure you get there early. It might be our last ever performance. I dunno if we’ll get our shit together and do another one. I definitely want to keep doing stand-up comedy outside of college. 

OC: We were both in L.A. at one point. We did this standup show at like a clown—

JLE: It was called the clown café or something like that.

OC: The spookiest place I’ve ever been. 

JLE: And there were clowns everywhere. There was no bar, no anything. It was literally just a stage, a couple of folded-up chairs and, like, clown memorabilia. And we were literally the only women who went.

OC: Only women among all the clowns.

JLE: Among all the clowns, there are only two women clowns. That was very interesting. I mean, doing comedy outside of Wesleyan—because we’re in all like non-cis male groups—and being like, ‘Oh, so this is what females comedians talk about.’ Like, why it’s so annoying getting into comedy scenes, because we were just asked many questions. Like, ‘Are you guys here for your boyfriends?’ One dude literally stole Liv’s joke, like two sets later. She went on and then he went on like 20 minutes later and said the exact same thing. 

OC: And then I do improv comedy, which is where I was born and raised, at Gag Reflex.

JLE: And I’m Gag Reflex’s biggest fan. 

OC: It’s true. 

JLE: Honorary member. Sometimes. 

A: Do you guys have a favorite Wesleyan memory? 

OC: There was a Gag show at the end of my sophomore year that was our last show and a lot of people turned out. It was just really, really special performing with that specific set of members of the group for the last time.

JLE: I really enjoyed when we had our Hysterics Clinic Escort combo show, it was a fundraiser or sophomore year to raise money for the clinic escorts and the only private abortion clinic left in Connecticut. And it was really awesome. It was huge, obviously, because it was in Crowell [Concert Hall]. We raised a bunch of money, sold most of the tickets. My twin brother came to see and my best friend from home. I feel like that was the show that we did where I was like, ‘Oh, I can do comedy. It went well, people laughed.’ So that was special, for that realization. Cause I think it was like my second Hysterics show or something. 

A: Do you have any inklings of post-grad plans or is it something that you don’t want to think about at all?

JLE: We will be famous. Give it two years. We have a very vague plan of getting jobs in Los Angeles, in the film industry. I would love to do development, keep reading scripts and doing coverage, whatever. And we have a very loose plan to get jobs there. 

OC: We both want to do screenwriting.

JLE: And drive there together and live there together. And continue this. 

OC: Both screenwriting and then I also have plans to act. We’ll see what happens there. 

JLE: Liv’s going to go on auditions and things. 

OC: Make a rejection wall.

A: Have you done a lot of acting at Wes, or less so?

OC: Oddly enough, sort of, not really. Not super through the theater program. I’ve done a few like film theses. I went abroad and did like an acting conservatory. So that was my moment.

A: What do you guys think the most criminally underrated part of Wesleyan is? 

OC: I don’t know why this came to mind. I wouldn’t even say this is something I like about this school. The fact that nothing is open before like 10 a.m. I just find hilarious. You cannot go to another University in this country where you can’t get coffee at six a.m.

JLE: Literally before noon or like 11, you can’t get coffee. 

OC: There’s just an unspoken agreement that we’re not morning people. 

JLE: Definitely the collective knowledge of everybody’s internal clocks at this school is very, I think something we should advertise more. That’s something underrated.** 

A: Is there anything else you want to say to the readers of The Argus as part of your legacy?

JLE: I’m going to be so cringey. I would just really like to say that everybody should Wescam both of us. 

OC: Jaclyn!

JLE: And if you don’t, that’s really sad for you. You don’t have to choose. 

OC: I would say that for better or for worse, this school has shaped us. And I appreciate the good, the bad, the ugly of this campus. Very special place in my heart. 

JLE: I would say to the readers, if you want to make it here one day, to WesCeleb status, just really do everything like you are supposed to.

OC: Keep shooting your shot. Like you’re supposed to?

JLE: Like you’re supposed to. This is advice I would say to you when we would try to go to bars underage and I would be like, ‘Just walk in like you’re supposed to be there.’ 

OC: Exactly.

JLE: And it would work. 

OC: And it did.

JLE: Just walk around campus like you’re supposed to be here, confidently. Like you are doing your shit and no one can tell you otherwise. And one day it will pay off. Exude the energy you want to have, even if it’s forced, and one day it’ll be natural. 

 

*This interview was conducted prior to the thesis deadline. They turned them in on time, guys.

**In a follow-up text, Jaclyn wrote that Stephanie’s Famous Apple Crisp is the most underrated part of Wesleyan.

 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Sophie Griffin can be reached at sgriffin@wesleyan.edu