False Profits puts on "musical" full of musical elements

Kenan Bateman knows "False Profits, the Musical" is a misnomer. 

Well, kind of.

While the False Profits comedy show won’t be a traditional musical, most of the material will include musical elements, such as a rap battle and a parody of ’80s jazzercise.

“We named it that just because the fact that we’re doing a bunch of musical sketches, or sketches that involve music at least,” said Bateman, who started the troupe in February 2013.

“It’s funny because we have people coming up to us who actually think we’re putting on a full musical show, which, they’re going to be disappointed.”

Hannah Jones, a sophomore communications major who happened upon the False Profits auditions when she was in the Student Union for another meeting, said the troupe came up with the name for the show in a Facebook chat where members were pitching different titles.

“Most of them are jokes,” she said. “And then a lot of times, something that started out as a joke will sound really snappy, and we’ll run with it.”

Jones said this show is different than usual because False Profits is only having one big show this semester, compiling all of their work from the whole semester.

“We’re putting all of our effort from the entire semester really into making this show as good as possible,” she said. “We’ve been waiting all semester for this.”

“False Profits, the Musical” will also serve as a senior show, honoring Bateman and the other graduating senior, Marcie Maier.

Because of their senior status, Bateman and Maier will get five minutes to perform their stand-up routine instead of the usual three.

Bateman is going to use his extra minutes to perform a rap song he wrote.

He’s been performing as a comedian since he was a senior in high school. During his goodbyes at the end of the show, he isn’t planning on doing anything funny.

But Bateman can’t say the same for fellow senior Maier.

“I heard she might be trying to do a roast of me,” he said. “Whatever happens, happens.”

Anita Simha will be making her debut as an official member of False Profits in the show Friday after being a “disciple” in the incubator camp for two semesters.

Simha said being in False Profits has taught her the best way to contribute to a group, even in situations outside of the realm of improvisation.

“A lot of times, when there’s already a lot of noise and a lot of people have really great ideas, the best thing to do is just listen and react,” she said. “It’s really helped me out a lot.”

Simha said she plays zero musical instruments, including her voice — she said she can’t sing, but she’s excited about “False Profits, the Musical,” nevertheless.

“I’m definitely going to be singing without a microphone in the background somewhere,” she said.

Bateman said even though he started the group, he doesn’t want people to think it’s his.

In fact, his favorite part of this whole process has been seeing how much the troupe means to the Carolina community.

“It’s been really cool to see how much people care about this,” he said. “Because it’s not just our troupe anymore — it’s UNC’s troupe. And I really love that.”

He knows the show may not really be a musical, but Bateman hopes people will come anyway.

His only concern?

“Hopefully we don’t have to refund any tickets.”

arts@dailytarheel.com