Humor is priceless

By Hannah Kintner, Staff Writer kintner13@up.edu

Scholarship applications are a joke... literally. Thanks to a Pilot from the class of '42, students now have a scholarship opportunity that requires nothing but creative energy and a smile.

A Unique Scholarship Idea

Last year, the Beckmans gave an amusing sum of money to the Rise Campaign: $9,999.99 to be split among three students in the form of The Brian Doyle Scholarships for Gentle & Sidelong Humor. These scholarships, named in honor of Portland Magazine's editor, focus on subject matter that is dear to the Beckmans-humor that is kind and genuine rather than insulting.

"John thinks that humor is not only holy and powerful and communal, but it's a great education of the heart," Doyle said.

The Beckmans chose to honor Doyle because they admire the "shaggy sense of humor" Portland Magazine portrays.

"I think it's refreshing," Doyle said of the magazine's unique sense of humor, "We're grown up enough to be relaxed and funny about stuff. We don't have to be so prim and proper."

In order to foster that sense of humor on campus and inspire students to recognize laughter as a magnetic force that brings people together, the Beckmans have made a simple request: that all who receive the scholarship create a humorous project to share with the UP community.

The Recipients

Seniors Corey Fawcett and Megan House, and junior Ryan Belisle recieved this year's scholarship and each have different ideas for their creative projects.

Belisle, who tends toward more creative hobbies such as improv acting and photography, finds that humor is most effective when it is spontaneous.

"I honestly don't even think that I'm a funny person," Belisle said with a laugh, "I think people find the things that I do funny, and like if I try and be funny I totally fail."

Belisle finds this especially true when performing with UP's improv club. As the president, he is always happily surprised when the audience laughs at things he didn't expect to be funny. Since improv is his forte, Belisle worked it into his scholarship project.

"My job was to spread the values of heart and humor to the community in some way, so I proposed that we have an improv festival on campus," Belisle said.

With the help of the scholarship, Belisle is funding an improv festival with groups from seven universities in the Pacific Northwest. "The Project Improv Comedy Festival" will be held in the Buckley Center Auditorium on Feb. 22 at 6:30 p.m. and provide over three hours of entertainment.

"It's just going to be a big celebration, because we're all in this together to spread humor and heart," Belisle said.

Fawcett is still working out the details of her project, but intends to create a series of comically written and illustrated "Top Ten" lists to distribute them on campus or post them online.

"I feel like humor is important because it keeps me from taking myself too seriously," Fawcett said.

As a senior double majoring in English and Spanish, Fawcett says it is easy to worry about life after college, but humor helps with that.

"I hope my project lives up to expectations," Fawcett said. "I just like any sort of creative pursuit that can bring people together."

House is also in the creative planning stage of her project, but plans to explore children's book humor. House has found through her experiences as a social work major and education minor that children who are more difficult to work with have immensely positive reactions to humorous literature. House prefers silly, imaginative and absurd humor. She finds children's books funny even now.

"[My humor idol] would probably be Mo Willems, author of 'Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus,' House said. "I also really love Wes Anderson for his awkward, absurd humor, and Tina Fey for being fabulous."

"What I really like about the scholarship is you can pretty much do whatever you want," House said, "Whatever way you think is best to get that humor out to the community."

A Vision for the Future

The Beckmans hoped that as word about the humor scholarships spread, more donors would be interested in contributing. Currently, eight additional donors have committed to donating money to the Brian Doyle Scholarships for Gentle & Sidelong Humor. Also, the Beckmans hope to establish a way of documenting each recipient's project and to eventually hold an annual night of humorous entertainment at UP.

"Another one of his dreams is to eventually have it crawl into the academic side," Doyle said. "To have a class not in the history of Jerry Seinfeld but in how humor acts as a weapon against cruelty."

Doyle, who believes that laughter is healthy for the mind and body, is excited about the Beckmans' dreams for the future of UP.

The story behind the scholarship

He invented the first photo finish camera, learned to fly a plane, became a published photographer, ran a ranch, became a terrific piano player, is writing a book... and never had the opportunity to finish his college education.

In the 1930s John Beckman found himself in a sad predicament. College had eaten away at his funds and he no longer had the means to further his education at the University of Portland. Despite the early challenges, Beckman has led a successful life. And with this success, he and his wife Patricia have established the Bill Reed '72 Endowed Scholarship, the Brother Godfrey Vassallo C.S.C. Endowed Scholarship and a fun new scholarship to give UP students the opportunity Beckman was denied as a young man.