When Repeating Gossip Isn’t Talking Trash

Meet the creatives behind Bellingham’s most surreal live shows

Story by Aubrey Black

Jackson Graham interviews Genny Cohn during a Repeating Gossip show on Oct. 23, 2023. // Photo courtesy of David Cohn

When’s the last time you saw a goat and a drag queen in the same room? For the cast and crew of Repeating Gossip, that’s just another Thursday night.

Produced and written by a diverse group of Western Washington University students, Repeating Gossip is a self-described “variety show” that shares its stage with a wide range of creatives, from local bands to drag performers to Oreo-balancing goats.

The show is a labor of love. Nearly everyone involved is a student and a volunteer pouring their spare time into the show to make sure it succeeds. Jackson Graham, the host and brain behind Repeating Gossip, has built a sprawling team throughout the show’s run, amassing a wide range of skills and perspectives along the way.

Klipsun’s interview with Graham was upended – perhaps predictably – by Graham’s decision to bring Re- peating Gossip’s motif of sharing the spotlight into the interview. What was originally planned as a one-on-one conversation with Graham swiftly devolved into a whirlwind of loosely connected anecdotes and thunderous laughter.

Graham first roped in Moses Marlin, who sings Italian arias in their spare time and has performed them for Repeating Gossip on occasion. Marlin was no stranger to the stage, having participated in Western’s Plays 4 Us fall quarter production of “Cap’n Crankus and the Lost Lost Treasure.”

“My character’s name was Isabella and I wore these really high heels,” Marlin said. “I was the drunk pirate. There’s always a drunk pirate.”

Marlin wanted to share their interview with Sam Teske, one of Repeating Gossip’s writers. Teske came up when Marlin and Graham were explaining Repeating Gossip’s most recent venture into cinematography, “How to Make an Episode of Repeating Gossip.”

In the new feature, Teske plays a disgruntled intern on a hero’s-journey-style expedition to deliver a cup of coffee to Graham. He faces much adversity, encountering a forest spirit before going toe-to-toe with another intern. In the end, he does get Graham their coffee – and Teske gets said coffee spat into his face. It must’ve grown cold while he was trekking through the forest.

Graham recruited Teske for Repeating Gossip’s writing team after seeing a set that Teske did at a Comedians of Western open mic. Teske has been writing for Repeating Gossip since the fall of 2023.

When it came time for Teske to share his spotlight, he had Graham call up Troy Schultz, Repeating Gossip’s director.

“Well, it seems only fitting,” Teske said. “Troy seems like someone we’d want to interview.”

Repeating Gossip is just one of Schultz’s many creative endeavors. In fact, he only had five minutes to spare for the interview, as he was in the middle of another project when he responded to Graham’s call.

As director, Schultz is responsible for sound and lighting cues, keeping time, talent relations and video direction. Before Schultz got involved, Graham was juggling everything on their own, on top of hosting the show.

“[Graham] wanted to increase the base competence level of the show,” Schultz said. “Having a dedicated director to shoulder some of that work seemed wise.”

What stuck out most about this interview, more than the chaos or the camaraderie, was the crew’s willingness to participate in the interview at Graham’s request. While the revolving door of crew members stopped after Schultz, the crew’s devotion to the show and Graham was apparent.

Originally, “Repeating Gossip” was just a pair of words Graham thought sounded good together. But over time, the name has grown to “symbolize the secretive aspect of the show,” as Graham put it.

“People like to gossip about what happened at the last show,” Graham said.

At their October 2023 show, Graham invited Genny Cohn, Repeating Gossip’s costumer, onto the stage. Cohn works with local theater groups and had an excess of mustard-colored suit jackets that she brought to the show. The jackets were hung on racks near The Blue Room’s entrance, and attendees were invited to take a jacket for themselves.

After being encouraged to say curse words on stage, Cohn demonstrated on Graham to show the audience how to transform their suit jackets into bloodied, torn-up zombie Halloween costumes.

How many audience members decided to do this when they got home is impossible to know, but it was easy to tell who had attended the show based on which of the people walking home in the evening chill had on mus- tard-colored jackets.

Since November 2022, Repeating Gossip has been putting on monthly shows at The Blue Room, an all-ages venue in downtown Bellingham. Martijn Wall, a co-founder of The Blue Room, said that as far as local talent goes, Repeating Gossip is in a league of its own.

“With comedy showcases there’s really just standup, maybe a couple of variations on that,” Wall said. “I think of Repeating Gossip more as a live sketch show. There are so many elements [Graham] builds the show around.”

While Graham had the creativity and drive to put the show together, they had to turn to Wall for his marketing and production expertise. Wall collaborated with Graham and the Repeating Gossip crew to get everything in order before the show, and also worked as the main technician during the first few shows.

“Based on the experience I already have, I gave them a few pointers and worked with them pretty directly,” Wall said. “It’s developed a lot since then. There are a lot more people involved and they have a whole crew. It’s really great to see.”

The Blue Room and Repeating Gossip have developed something of a symbiotic relationship, with this local business finding new success alongside the local creatives it hosts.

“There’s a shared love for the performing arts and creative expression between [Graham’s] vision for the show and my vision for the venue,” Wall said. “We’ve found a great avenue of collaboration through that.”

As opposed to a traditional comedy show, the “variety” aspect of Repeating Gossip allows the crew to experiment with a wider range of acts. While they may have something of a set format for each show, what makes that format come to life is fresh and new every time.

“Wrangling goats was the craziest thing I’ve ever had to do for Repeating Gossip so far,” said Kiera Parnell, Repeating Gossip’s stage manager. “With each passing show, we get deeper and deeper into the throes of avant-garde performance art, so we’ll probably top ourselves pretty soon.”

As stage manager, Parnell is responsible for a variety of duties both before and during each show. As of now, his duties include communication with talent, stage setup, prop and audience management. He is also involved with video production and promotional material.

Parnell got involved with Repeating Gossip after Graham pulled him aside after one of the shows and asked if he’d like to be part of the crew.

“I was helping clean up after one of the shows and [Graham] just looked at me and said, ‘How would you like to be part of the Repeating Gossip family?’” Parnell said. “I kind of felt like I was being inducted into a cult, but I just started doing it and my role has grown ever since.”

Repeating Gossip’s ability to grow in tandem with its popularity is dependent on the crew’s ability to adjust accordingly. In Parnell’s own words, “You evolve or die.”

For Repeating Gossip and its crew, a big part of that evolution has been clearer job expectations and more consistent schedules.

“I tend to like very rigid structures and the show hasn’t really had that until now,” Parnell said. “It has been improving at a very fast rate.”

As the show’s audience and expectations grow, so does its team of writers. Graham met a lot of their writers through Comedians of Western, an on-campus club that hosts open mics and workshops for student comics.

Sadie Ikemeier is the president of Comedians of Western. During her interview, members of COW kept walking by and waving.

“We’re all friends, so club meetings are just kind of like hanging out,” Ikemeier said. “I like texting and checking in with everyone and making sure they feel seen.”

Comedy is unique in its ability to bring people together. Ikemeier said there are a multitude of components that go into crafting a comedic performance. Writing the jokes themselves is obviously a key component, but how you present yourself as a comedian and deliver the jokes can make or break a performance.

“In standup, we all kind of play amplified versions of ourselves. The more writing experience you get and the more open mics you go to, you just kind of form it,” Ikemeier said. “It’s nice to be around people who understand that and are doing it alongside you.”

Ikemeier said that Graham’s welcoming and encouraging attitude is the main reason for all the crossover between COW club members and Repeating Gossip writers.

“I just think it’s so awesome how they make the space for anyone who wants to be involved,” Ikemeier said. “If you go up to [Graham] and say you want to write, they’ll tell you when the writing rooms are.”

Ikemeier said this also applies to the non-comedy performers that Graham features at every show. Graham features drag performers, musicians and other local entertainers – and the occasional goat.

“Some people aren’t able to attend or perform at the 21+ shows [in Bellingham], and a lot of our COW members find comfort in our bi-weekly open mics,” Ikemeier said. “Repeating Gossip gives them a chance to be part of something bigger than themselves.”

Johnny Cross is the manager of Comedians of Western, as well as a writer for Repeating Gossip. He said that he’s noticed a large influx of people trying standup for the first time at their year’s COW open mics.

“Standup is such an intensely vulnerable experience, especially if you’re doing it for the first time,” Cross said. “I just try to do everything I can to make people feel comfortable when they’re about to perform for the first time.”

For Cross, this means interacting with everyone at the open mics, both new faces and returning members. He hypes everyone up before they go on stage to make sure they feel confident before performing their set.

“The thing with standup is you don’t know if it’s funny until you perform it,” Cross said. “Seeing other members do well on stage makes me want to get up and do well too.”

Claire Wilkerson is Repeating Gossip’s head writer. As such, she oversees Repeating Gossip’s team of writers and makes the final call on what goes into the script. She and Graham brainstorm the general theme of the show, then bring that theme to a writing room with all of Repeating Gossip’s writers and see what comes from it.

“We have a very strong idea of what we’re trying to do,” Wilkerson said. “[Graham] and I scrutinize every piece of each show to make sure it fits with the overarching creative ethos.”

With so many comedians with such a wide variety of specialties, writing rooms become a cross between a Socratic seminar and a rapid-fire group chat come to life.

“In my opinion, ideas become at least twice as good if other people contribute to them,” Wilkerson said. “Things get chaotic and not everything always goes to plan, but we always pull it together and deliver a good show.”

As much as the show changes from month to month, one constant is Graham’s desk. The deliberately cluttered desk serves as a home base during the shows, giving Graham a place to return to between bits.

The desk must be transported to and from the venue for each show. According to Wilkerson, the crew must move the desk down two flights of stairs, load it into and out of a van, take a ride in the elevator, traverse the venue and get set up on stage.

.“The journey of the desk really illustrates how Repeating Gossip is a collaborative effort,” Wilkerson said. “Without the directors, producers, writers, costumer and everyone else who helps out, we wouldn’t have a show.”

As their scope and crew continue to grow, there’s really no telling what Repeating Gossip has in store next. You’ll just have to see it for yourself.