Name: Sam Ederle
Year: Freshman
Major: Undecided
Hometown: Vero Beach, Fla. (But originally from Duxbury, Mass.)
Relationship Status: Single
Best Way to Spend a Sunny Day: Playing pickup sports (basketball, football – pretty much anything!)
He will make you laugh your socks off, and not just because he’s one of the newest members of Wake’s comedy troupe – the Lilting Banshees. When he’s not hanging out with his brothers in SAE, he might be taking a lucky girl out on a date involving a picnic (Picnic?! Romantic? Yes!). Don’t wait five minutes to text back this week’s Campus Cutie, Sam Ederle!
HC (Her Campus): Banshee’s just had a show recently! Tell me a little bit about it.
SE (Sam Ederle): I wasn’t in the most recent show because I had scarlet fever. It was horrible!
HC: Oh geez! I’m glad you’re alive!
SE: Me too! I didn’t know what was going on, but scarlet fever is like strep throat. I thought scarlet fever was a horrible virus that killed people. But to treat it, you just take penicillin. I watched the Banshee show, and it was hilarious! I have only been a part of two shows now, and after each show, we name them. The first show I did was called the “Goofy Show” – it was just a bunch of funny puns, almost like childish humor that hit your inner-kid. This most recent show was called the “Nudity Show.” There was so much nudity! We had nudity with a guy walking across the stage in a full gimp suit, like a sex-toy suit. We had nudity with another guy just wearing a thong. We had a girl walk out in a bikini, and then we had a full sketch that showed no nudity but it was just about porn. I think it’s the funniest thing I’ve seen.
HC: What is it like being a member of the Lilting Banshees?
SE: It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I was never into theater or acting, but I always liked comedy. My senior year [of high school], I hosted our senior comedy show, and that was my first exposure to it. When I got here, I went to my first Banshees show, and I was like, “This is awesome!” So I tried out and got in – I don’t know how! The very first night I was in, they took us out to dinner. The group was just so tight-knit but also really funny. Everyone is so close – there’s zero judgment. It’s the closest thing I have to a family other than my family. Which is way too close!
HC: What inspired you to try out for the Banshees?
SE: I don’t know – I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was at the club fair, and I saw them and talked with them, and they told me to try out. The night of [tryouts], I wasn’t even going to go. I was with two of my friends in Benson, eating, and I was like, “I don’t think I’m going to go…” And they were like, “No! You’re so funny! You should try out!” I still wasn’t sure, but I decided to try out, and the try out was so fun! I think the tryout alone was the funniest three hours that I’ve been a part of.
HC: Can you tell me a little more about the tryout?
SE: It was so absurd. There were so many inside jokes! They handed us a packet of five pages, and it has the most absurd questions/prompts: How much do you bench? Describe a conversation between a pot and a kettle. And you just had to think of the most absurd answers; at least that’s what I did! Whenever they tried to confuse me, I just tried to confuse them harder with my answer, and it seemed to work!
HC: Can you give me an example?
SE: For the prompt, “Describe a conversation between a pot and a kettle,” I assumed they meant a “pot” and a “kettle” in terms of the cooking items. But I decided to give them a conversation between a “pot,” the drug, and a “kettle,” like popcorn. Any time they asked something, I tried to take an alternate meaning of those words. For example, when they asked, “How much do you bench?” I assumed they meant, “How much I bench press.” So I described myself as a basketball coach and described how many basketball players I would bench on the team versus who was playing on the court. So I basically did the opposite! During the second half of the tryout, they split us up into groups, and we had 45 minutes to write a short sketch before performing it for them, which was a lot of fun! For the last part, they gave us a piece of paper with monologues on it, and they were just weird! One of them was a very sexual monologue about toast! You had to present it to them in any way you saw fit. And then that was it! I got an email that night – got a call back – and went the next night and did the same thing. At 4:45 a.m. the next morning, I got an email from them saying I got in, and then the rest was crazy! It’s completely changed my college career. It’s a group of people I’m not sure I would have met if it wasn’t for the Banshees.
HC: What is your best memory being on the Banshee crew?
SE: My best memory is the very first weekend. We went on a retreat to this lake house. I was with the other freshman Banshees. There isn’t one Banshee who doesn’t stick around for the entire four years. So I just remember we were all sitting outside and had this really nice talk about how, no matter what happened to any of us in college, we were all going to be friends throughout senior year. It was a nice moment, knowing that we were going to go through college together no matter what.
HC: How do you come up with sketches?
SE: We meet about 3-4 times per week, and the director asks if we have any ideas. An example from the last session was an idea where we changed Dancing with the Stars to Dancing with the Czars – like Russian Czars! Another was a drunk soap opera. It’s a soap opera where the main character tries to figure out what happens by talking to his drunk self. The character’s drunk selves come out and they are either regular drunk, wine drunk, whiskey drunk, or tequila drunk! They all act differently depending on what type of “drunk” they are. So we just pitch ideas and the director picks the favorite ones. We break into groups for about an hour and a half and write the sketch there. We don’t act them out, but we read them to each other just to get the idea of it. As the semester goes on, we rewrite them to make them better. With a week left before the show, we choose the sketches that are going to be in it, and then we get assigned parts and start rehearsing. It’s fun!
HC: You are also a part of SAE. What about your fraternity motivated you to accept a bid from them?
SE: I joined a group of friends at the beginning of the year, and we all hung out with a bunch of the fraternities, but we hung out a lot [at SAE]. It’s a goofy, fun group. They aren’t a comedy group, but they joke around all day. It’s just nonchalant, like let’s hang out – let’s have a good time. It’s a nice, relaxing group. Good guys.
HC: What’s it like being a part of SAE so far?
SE: It’s fun! I know the sophomores really well, but I really want to get to know the juniors and seniors more, especially the seniors, since they leave in a few months. I’ve just got such limited time with them, and they seem like awesome guys. I love getting to know everyone and getting to know my class better.
HC: What are you most looking forward to about SAE?
SE: I’m most looking forward to having a group of guys that you know you’re going to be hanging around with for the next three to four years. Since I did love the sophomore class so much, my friends and I got really close to them. I like the atmosphere – it’s a cool idea: We go to parties together, hang out together, and get to know each other. It’s just a fun thing! The most fun times are the special events. During first semester, I went to this fun thing called “Dixie Land.” You take a bunch of buses out, and it’s this big party in a field with a band. The parties are a lot of fun, but it’s special events that really make [being a brother] special, like the date functions, mountain weekend, [and] beach weekend. I can imagine those things are going to be a lot of fun.
HC: What is your favorite memory at Wake so far?
SE: It’s got to be my first Banshee show. My sister and my parents came. It was awesome; I had some really good parts. The Banshee show was the first time I was in front of a real crowd. I loved it; I thought being on stage was so cool, and the best part was that I was there with my best friends. It was fun! Next show is on April 1st – no coincidence there!
HC: If you were a woman for a day, how would you spend it?
SE: If I could be a woman for a day, I would probably spend the whole day trying to understand how girls work when they are flirting with a guy. You know how when guys text girls, they do the whole five minutes to wait and text back, and the guy is waiting there like, “Oh my God – does she like me? Does she not?” The girl thinks she’s being flirty, but the guy is over there like, “She must not like me – she’s taking forever to respond.” It’s this game that guys and girls play 100 percent of the time, and I would love to know how to win that game. If they text you five minutes later, then I’m thinking, Should I wait five minutes to text her back? Or do I text back right away? If I text back right away, I can come off as too assertive, but if I wait five minutes, am I backing off too much? It’s an endless cycle.
HC: What is the weirdest nickname that someone has for you? Why?
SE: Is “Sexy Sam” a nickname? I’m kidding – I made that up! My initials are “SME.” Back when I was in elementary school, one of my coaches from Little League baseball would say my name as “SM Ederle.” He started calling me “Smederle,” and then that turned into “Smeds.” Still, when I see those friends, they call me “Smeds.” That’s my longest lasting nickname.
HC: If you could take a girl on the perfect date, what would you do?
SE: On a first date, I usually like to have a discreet ending to the date because I think it’s awkward if it goes on too long. So for the first date, I would do dinner but never a movie; you can’t talk during a movie! If it’s a first date, you don’t know whether or not to put your arm around her, so [I’d do] either dinner or go watch a game, like a basketball game. For a first date here, I wouldn’t even call it a date – I would just ask if she wanted to get lunch at the pit. I don’t want to go on a real date with someone unless I know them. Perfect real date: I don’t think dinner is the move; I think that’s too basic. I like the idea of setting up a picnic beforehand on a beach or in the woods and then asking if she wants to go for a walk. Then you’re walking and you come upon a blanket with a glass of wine and maybe some bread or something to nibble on [while you] just sit and talk. I just like talking! No matter what the date is, I like hanging out.
HC: What do you look for in a girl?
SE: I like when they are almost as goofy as I am. It’s rare to be as goofy as I am! I want someone that is going to be on my level at all times. Someone who likes to have fun, is peppy, will goof around with me, fire jokes back and forth with me – someone who challenges me. I don’t want someone who is exactly like me. I want the relationship to be mutually beneficial.
HC: How do you show a girl you like her?
SE: If I like a girl, I usually just tell her. I usually just say something like, “Hey, I like you. Want to get dinner?” I think the main way I do that is by asking her to hang out alone, so it’s not just like, “Hey, want to come over and hang out?” But like, “Hey what are you doing on Thursday night or Tuesday?” I show a girl I like her by making plans ahead of time and showing that this time is for you, and I want to hang out with you.