From Esoteric Whistling to College Humor, The Sweet Spot Brings All of Yale Together

The sounds of students chatting over Greek fries from Ivy suddenly hushed as a series of tonal whistles filled every inglenook and cranny of The Underground at Yale Schwarzman Center. All heads turned to Akiko Uemura MA ’24  on stage at The Sweet Spot: Open Mic Night, the third installment in The Sweet Spot series where Yale students are invited to try out their creative ambitions in front of an audience of their peers.

Evan Branham YC ’24 stepped up to perform The Beatles’ cross generational favorite “Rocky Racoon” on his guitar, and popped with laughter as his pick flew out of his hands and an exclamation flew out of his mouth. The Cucumber comedy troupe was an ironic tinged interplay between two friends Benjamin Hollander-Bodie and Arnav Tawakley, both YC ’24 “You can join this group, there are more of us I swear…” Stories about the challenges of being rebellious in a liberal queer friendly family drew roars from the crowd with the big reveal that, “Only when I challenged my dad on the validity of Keynesian economics did he finally react.”

On the more serious subject of family,  Jessie Fenton Yale Law ’24 performed spoken word that confronted colonialism in New Zealand’s past. “My great- great grandfather was a lighthouse hero but he was not a lighthouse.” 

Jaidyn Hurst YC ’27 played sweet and sincere songs on piano, “I have an album coming out soon,” she said before Harshit Agrawal YC ’25 set to earn a master’s from Yale School of the Environment, took the stage with a love poem so genuine and real that the whole audience was left hoping their special sweetie says yes.

After all of those feels, Nydia del Carmen, YC ’26, gave an upbeat rhythm to hold onto with her original work “A Song About Nothing” before Danny Rodriguez Yale Law ’26  stretched himself  performing new songs like the Scrubs theme, interspersed with wry jokes.  

Nathan Lange YC ’27 did an unscripted request from the audience and performed an acoustic, “Wonderwall” by Oasis, while the crowd lit up their phones and swayed, before Anjana Kammath MA ’26 took the stage as a classic mime replete with black and white striped garb.

Amit Aji, a Postdoctoral Associate talked about being an older Yale student, and he paced the stage and engaged all corners of the room with jokes and a laid-back presence in a well worked routine. A hard act to follow for Dom Gearing YC ’26 who brought more comedy in the form of purposely terrible jokes delivered in a charming way to boos from his friends. Was this a dare? A lost bet? All part of the act?  

Ned Swansey YC ’25 really stole the show as the final act with a Tom Waits vibe and sent everyone home roaring with laughter with an original ballad for Yale. “The Motto” is a bawdy exploration of ‘strong friendships’ formed at Yale complete with a joke to send Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis new verses for consideration.

Throughout the night, performers managed to keep things feeling spontaneous despite their preparations and practice. The open stage fulfilled its role as a place for Yale students to explore creativity, push boundaries and be in community together. People ate, drank, laughed, were perplexed, and felt all the feelings before emptying out to go back to class, laundry, and the demands of life.