THE BIG WHOOP Film Screening

New Indie Comedy – Santa Cruz Premiere - Cast Q&A! Sunday, Nov. 8th – 5:00 PM – SMALL THEATER New Indie Comedy – Santa Cruz Premiere - Cast Q&A! THE BIG WHOOP (2025, 88 min., dir. Lisa Satriano). “The Big Whoop is a hilarious clown caper that made me laugh my socks off. If you’ve found them, will you return them to me, please?” – Eric Idle of Monty Python “Hilarity battles sadness and, as usual, we all win.” – Patton Oswalt “Sam Beckett meets Sam Shepard meets Sam Kinison meets ‘What the Sam Hill is this?’” – Jay Martel, head writer of Key & Peele “Clowns used to make the world laugh. Now they make the world scream.” A trio of desperately out-of-work birthday party clowns, including an Emmett Kelly-wannabe-but-never-will-be, Big Bugs (beloved comedian Jim Turner, MTV’s Randee of the Redwoods), the unintelligibly mumbling Corky (Mark Fite), and the equally-unintelligible Swedish butler, Gustav (Dave “Gruber” Allen), find themselves losing out on jobs to a much younger, sexier and well, better, clown named Darius (Shin Lim). After screwing up their latest gig in spectacular fashion, they go on the run with an accidentally-stolen artifact, pursued by a ruthless thief (Samantha Cole) and cross paths with a Who’s Who of comedy legends including Sandra Oh and Penn Jillette (who co-produced the film with Kristy Pitchford). In the spirit of classic slapstick farces like Peter Seller’s THE PINK PANTHER films and Arthur Hiller’s THE IN-LAWS, THE BIG WHOOP is a dark indie comedy that is both a hilarious and hilariously-tragic portrait of the trials & tribulations of three working (er, barely) comedians. Bios: Mark Fite is an L.A. based actor and comedian. Originally from the Midwest, Fite received a B.A. in Communications and Theatre Arts from the University of Iowa. In Los Angeles he's worked in theatre, film, tv, animation, commercials, and comedy for 35 years. Film & TV credits include MOM, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., SpongeBob SquarePants (25 episodes), Grey's…