Sex. The word alone seems to be a taboo subject, so one may wonder when they hear or see the term “Sex Signals.”
Cassie Kobler, one of the two advisers for PrimeTime Productions and resident director of Van Antwerp Hall, said Sex Signals is an improv comedy group that mixes education into their act to convey a message on a powerful subject: sexual assault.
“It’s a tough subject to talk about,” Kobler said. “Sexual assault isn’t the easiest thing to discuss so we liked to keep that kind of fun with the college crowd.”
Sex Signals’ most recent visit to NMU was last fall and Kobler said their return is partly due to feedback from the students.
“We did some surveys this past year to see what students really wanted us to bring,” Kobler said. “We were responding to that.”
Kobler said she has heard positive feedback from years past, not only through the surveys, but through word-of-mouth as well.
“I’ve heard it was funny,” Kobler said. “I do hear that you get to a certain point and there is a lot of education, but they do end it on a funny note. It’s almost like a quick roller coaster of what is going on.”
Alex Nye, president of PrimeTime Productions and senior English writing major, said there already seems to be a lot of talk in the residence halls about Sex Signals’ return.
“Some of the [resident advisers] I’ve talked to and even some of their Welcome Crews think it’s really awesome that Sex Signals is coming and everyone’s getting really pumped,” Nye said. “I’ve already felt a buzz from it and I think it’s gonna be awesome.”
Nye said Sex Signals has some serious undertone to it but it does provide its laughs and is engaging to college students.
“There is a guy and a girl…in their 20s so they’re relatable to students our age,” Nye said. “These people act out situations and there is some audience interaction where people get stop cards and people can say stop whenever the guy or girl, for that matter, is going too far so it’s very heavily audience interactive.”
Kobler said the actors do a good job at adding in humor to a heavy-hearted topic.
“I find it very funny when the audience participates with it in giving out cheesy pick-up lines or things like that,” Kobler said. “The actors do such a great job at bringing it back.”
This is the third time in the past five years Sex Signals has come to campus but Nye said students shouldn’t immediately rule out attending the event if they have seen their performance in the past.
“This will be my third time seeing it, and I’m even excited to see it again,” Nye said. “Be prepared to go in with an open mindset. It’s not going to preaching at you, it’s just going to lay out some of the things that do happen.”
Nye said the message Sex Signals is trying to send is realistic and raising awareness of sexaul assault.
“They’re not like ‘Everyone is going to be sexually assaulted on campus,’ kind of like a preachy thing,” Nye said. “They’re more like ‘If this does happen, at least you now have this experience of this show and would know how to maybe handle yourself if you were in this particular situation.’”
Kobler said she hopes students can come away from the event feeling a little more comfortable and knowing the resources available to them on campus.
“There’s no mystery as to why we’re bringing this the first week of school,” Kobler said. “Getting into this information sooner rather than later is going to be helpful.”
Sex Signals will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30 in Jamrich 102.
