Spark

Whether your streaming queue includes The Good Place series, your movie night features The Croods: Family Tree, or your latest scroll on TikTok finds a comedian with over 65 million likes, your laughs could be courtesy of Calvin grads.

Calvin University, a community of rigorous learning and Reformed faith, has become an incubator for innovation, research, the arts ... and, since the 1990s, comedy.

Perhaps some could have seen it coming. The 1950s brought epic student pranks like assembling a whole car in the administration building. In 1970, a group of students infamously wrote The Bananer to spoof the Christian Reformed Church’s denominational magazine. And some say the school’s namesake, John Calvin himself, even had a sense of humor. Despite a perception of stoicism, the theologian famously conceded, “We are nowhere forbidden to laugh.”

The university’s commitment to be “always reforming” lends itself to the thought-provoking sphere of humor. Comedy at its best is an attempt at truth-telling, which is arguably the root of Reformed thought. And comedy easily falls within Abraham Kuyper’s proclamation of Christ’s sovereignty over “every square inch” of creation, which makes it ripe for Christian engagement— with a lot of fun along the way.

The path to comedy for three of Calvin’s funniest alumni isn’t rooted in a single event, mentor, or doctrine. It’s woven through every part of their Calvin experience: their stories, relationships, faith, and learning—as familiar as their countless treks across Commons Lawn.

The Stand-up

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“It’s been eight years since my first stand-up performance, and I’m comedy-ing about once or twice every week,” Brian Atkinson ex’00 says. Atkinson came to Calvin to study history and education after spending time at three other universities—including Yale— and gaining plenty of life experience.

By the time the Downers Grove, Illinois, student landed in Grand Rapids, he was already a good ten years older than the typical first-year student. And while Atkinson grew up going to church, he had never attended a Christian school. A Calvin education, he notes, was not about fitting in but about seeing and understanding each other.

Atkinson remembers the moment Professor Doug Koopman asked his political science class for a show of hands if they considered themselves conservative or liberal. “He explained he wasn’t there to teach anyone what to think or which side to take,” Atkinson says. “But at the end of the semester, we’d have the lens to know what those terms mean and how to think through them.

“That’s always been my favorite part of Calvin. The purpose of education is not to tell you what to think but to give you the tools for how to think. I hope my comedy is viewed through that lens.”

Atkinson, now a Michigander, travels around the country adding punchlines to everyday life and uniting his audience through experiences of joy. His own unique story, including his reunion with his birth family post-adoption, is a thread that carries through his stand-up. Whether at Gilda’s LaughFest in Grand Rapids, the Laugh Factory in Chicago, or the World Series of Comedy, Atkinson is set on creating change and telling his story—his way.

“Lots of comedians focus their work on changing minds about what’s going on in the world. I might say something that helps you see something from a different perspective. You might not change your mind in the moment, but maybe over time you will. Likewise, when I’ve been wrong about something, I’ve learned how to reconsider, change my mind, and change my life going forward. My time at Calvin definitely contributed to that.”

The Improviser

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Michele Boonstra Dykstra ’92 was introduced to improv during her junior year at Calvin when she attended a show to support a friend.

Though she had grown up on comedy (sitcoms, comics, entertainers, and a father with a “contagious, loud, and distinctive” laugh), it took a show full of improv games to picture herself on stage.

“I think I was hooked from the first game,” Dykstra recalls. “I specifically remember thinking I could do that! and I want to do that! The love of improv was immediate for me.”

Her curiosity and excitement couldn’t be pushed down. She loved the fun that performers and audience members mutually experienced and “the absolute spontaneousness, collaboration, and unpredictability of it all.”

“I wanted to be part of it, and not just as an audience member,” Dykstra says.

During her senior year, Dykstra tried out for Oratorio Society and the improv team. She made both—wrapping up her Calvin education with a communication major, choral training, and a whole lot of improv experience. Monday nights were spent rehearsing techniques in the Spoelhof Center basement, just outside the Lab Theater. Performances were often in “The Cave” in the lower portion of Johnny’s Café.

“By the end of the year, I felt like I had another family,” Dykstra says. “And, when I graduated, I remember anticipating how badly I was going to miss my friends and that addictive laughter.”

When Dykstra moved from Grand Rapids to pursue her master’s degree, there didn’t seem to be a future for her improv. She did, however, fall in love with the science of speech-language pathology and audiology and brought her broad range of communication skills to her chosen field.

When her former improv captain called and invited her to join River City Improv—a comedy group founded by Calvin grads— she knew God was leading her back to the stage (even if it meant commuting to and from rehearsals).

One chance performance with the River City team led Dykstra to what she considers improv’s most significant impact in her life: meeting her husband, Brent. When he attended the show with a mutual friend, Dykstra introduced herself to “be polite.”

“Well, that, and I thought he was cute,” she admits. “Anyway, we’ve been together almost 26 years, and I guess I still make him laugh.”

The Storyteller

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While some Calvin students work on campus or in greater Grand Rapids, Adam Mellema ’02 worked across Michigan, performing folktales, myths, legends, and stories from children’s books—made possible by rental vehicles delivered to campus.

“I discovered I could make decent money traveling to elementary schools and libraries,” Mellema explains. “I’d book a rental car through Thrifty, pick it up at the Calvin Physical Plant, and then drive the car du jour to wherever I was performing that day. It was an eccentric college job, but I loved it.”

Around this time, Mellema also began writing his own material, which, he says, “deepened [his] enjoyment of the art form.”

As a communication major, he also honed his craft through coursework. “Taking Quentin Schultze’s Television Criticism class as a freshman was an ah, finally! moment. I could actually begin to take media seriously,” Mellema recalls. “Also, he bludgeoned me into a good writer. No one impacted my wordsmithing more.”

Outside the classroom, Mellema founded the short-lived Calvin late-night show Scholar Follies. A student favorite, it was also allegedly enjoyed by then-President Gaylen Byker. Mellema planned a sketch featuring Byker (playing a college-aged version of himself) and former President Spoelhof in a jet-black wig. Though both leaders gave their blessing, Mellema says, “Sadly, we never got to film the bit.”

Today Mellema serves as head of content for Yippee TV, a Christian streaming service for kids and families. The role is an extension of both his faith and storytelling.

“Comedy, at the very least, stands on the shoulders of the truth,” the Emmy Award winner says. “I find absurdism to be hilarious. Give me zany comedy any day!

“It’s probably why I like creating content for kids so much. Having a fish that is also a telephone? Yes, please.”

When asked why Calvin has become such a fertile ground for those involved in comedy, Mellema does not hesitate. “Easy. Because comedy requires keen intelligence. And—let me pat all of us on the back for a moment— we Calvin grads are a pretty smart bunch.”

For Mellema, the rise of comedic alumni is inextricably linked to Calvin’s approach to learning, one that cultivates an active mind. 

“All of us were taught to think critically and be curious. I don’t think I’ve ever met a funny person who wasn’t also at least approaching brilliant.”