From sectionals to state, and from district to nationals, senior Brian Goldfarb is making Huntley High School history on the Huntley High Speech Team. His most recent accomplishments include third place in IHSA and his national qualification in the National Forensic League. Both events featured Goldfarb’s Original Comedy which he wrote and performed himself.
“I was pretty much at a block of ideas, and all the other ideas I had at the time were absolutely terrible,” said Goldfarb. “I talked with Mr. Sturm, and we brainstormed some ideas. There was [another piece] similar to [my original comedy] that was brought up, but I took that idea, expanded it, and the piece was born”
Goldfarb has participated in Speech for all four years of his high school career, and has only performed original comedies.
“I loved every year of it,” said Goldfarb.
Goldfarb’s piece is about Robin, the boy wonder, who aspires to be a superhero, rather than a sidekick, and is required to take classes in order to become a superhero. Within the performance, Robin interacts with other well-known characters like Superman, Batman, and Aquaman.
Goldfarb not only performs the part of Robin, but also performs the roles of Batman, Superman, and Aquaman – who are all superheroes from the DC universe. Being a DC comics fan himself, Goldfarb found a way to uniquely portray these characters.
“I saw [Robin] as a younger, more innocent thing- kind of like the old classic Batman series. [With] Batman I wanted something as far away from Christian Bale‘s Batman as possible, but still more…assertive. [With] Superman I was just the generic voice, and for Aquaman: since no one likes him, and he is just [at] the bottom of the superheroes, I made him sound like Randy Newman,” said Goldfarb, describing his character development for his piece.
Goldfarb was thrilled to place in third in state with his piece. Despite the hard work he put into his piece, he did not think that he would get as far as he did.
“It felt fantastic. I did not believe it. Sometimes I still do not, but then I look at [my] medal, and it becomes real again,” said Goldfarb.
He worked incredibly hard for his spot in state and at nationals, with the help of his teammates.
“I wanted to at least get to the sectional final round for Original Comedy,” said Goldfarb. “Then I took it each step of the way: make it to state, break state, not get last in the round, and then just try for top three, which I did! Then for [National Forensic League] qualifiers I wanted to qualify this year, which I did!”
After a year of hard work, Goldfarb will take his original comedy and perform it in Birmingham, Ala. in June for the National Forensic League’s National Tournament.