Two Sketchy Dames: Here for a Laugh

I had the pleasure of meeting Eileen Earnest and Allison Rampa, the dynamic duo that makes up Two Sketchy Dames, a local sketch comedy troupe that is channeling their inner Rosemary Clooney. For a few hours Gangsters Piano Bar was transformed into a supper club from the 1940s. It was a sold out show, and the crowd didn’t stop laughing from beginning to end. Women of Cincy’s own Kali Robinson even got to join in the act.

Allison and Eileen describe themselves as filthy but classy. They write and perform their own sketches based on people watching and life experiences. Eileen is a professional actress and Allison teaches eighth grade English. The two dames have also been touring the improv festival circuit with an upcoming stop at the Gatlinburg Improv Festival.  

Written by Abbey Bruce. Photography by Kali Robinson.

Allison: In the improv world we are kind of unique. When you go to an improv festival you will see like, four or five dudes that are bald with beards. When we put in our applications and look like this [1940s cocktail dresses, bright red lipstick, and high heels], we are doing something different. We do improv games like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” mixed in with our sketches.

Tell us about the show tonight.

Allison: This is sort of a homage to all those musicals we grew up watching, where they would go to a fancy supper club and there would be a show happening on the stage. As much as I wanted to, I had never experienced that, so we wrote one.  

Eileen:  We met through OTR Improv. We realized that we were both theatre nerds from way back.  We both had similar senses of humor and we like retro fashion. We were like, “What the hell.  Let’s see what happens when we improv together!” That is how Two Sketchy Dames started. We did a little bit of sketch and a little bit of improv. We solidified it when we took a workshop with Kevin McDonald from The Kids in the Hall. We wrote a sketch with a few other girls, and we were like, “Oh this is so much fun!  Let’s do more of this.” That was three years ago.

To find upcoming events, follow Allison and Eileen on their Two Sketchy Dames Facebook page.