Serious Fun
was Suz's a cappella band. (Suz was music director and lead alto.)  The seven member group appeared at local coffeehouses and clubs, at private and corporate parties in the Boston area.   Serious Fun was the house band for the annual Boston 24-Hour Science Fiction Film Marathon held each spring at the Coolidge Corner Theater. In April, 1998, Serious Fun won third place at the Boston Regional Harmony Sweepstakes, an annual competition for a cappella groups.  

Note From Suz: When I was in college (at Boston University) I formed and fronted an original rock band called "Sensible Shoes." This was during the New Wave era, in the late 1970’s, early 1980’s. I wrote many of the group’s songs and sang lead and even occasionally played electric guitar. The band broke up in 1983, but I stayed close friends with many of the members.

I’ve always remained interested in music and performing, and in the late 80’s, I formed my first a cappella group in New York, called "The OK Chorale." The group had from 12 to 16 members, and our first gig was at a Nautical Fair that my mother helped organize in Guilford, Connecticut! I had an entire year to prepare for this gig -- which was a good thing, because I soon found out that there wasn’t a great deal of music with nautical themes available in SATB arrangements.

Being brave and rather young, I doggedly set out finding folk songs, pop songs, any songs with references to the ocean (How about that well-known American "folk" tune, "Gilligan's Isle"?) and writing my own four part (or more!) vocal arrangements. I’d written music before -- how hard could it be? (Hah!) The rest is history -- I’ve since arranged over 50 songs, from my favorite folk songs like "Buttermilk Hill (Shule Aroon)" to jazz standards like "Baby, It’s Cold Outside," to the theme for "Mystery Science Theatre 3000."

My New York group really took off, and has since evolved (sort of) into a very high class musical group named Charis. 

In 1993, I moved back to the Boston area, and all of my friends assumed that I would start another a cappella group. With that kind of pressure, how could I not?  This time I recruited all my former (and present day) rock musician friends. That group was first called Vocomotive, but then later changed its name to SERIOUS FUN.  

In Serious Fun, we performed an eclectic repertoire of entertaining music, from big band hits (without the band) like "I Had the Craziest Dream," to Disney songs like "Kiss the Girl" and "Part of Your World," both from THE LITTLE MERMAID, to rock/pop songs like "1999" and Shania Twain’s "No One Needs to Know." We did a wicked awesome version of the "Star Spangled Banner." (We always wanted to sing at Fenway Park...) And our connection to the Boston Science Fiction Film Marathon gave us the opportunity to learn a cappella arrangements of songs with SF themes such as "Star Trek," "The Theme From 2001," and "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Our front man was stand-up comic and local Boston actor, Eric Ruben. Eric’s appeared in a number of locally produced movies including "Next Stop Wonderland," and "The Love Letter," in which he played Tom Selleck’s lawyer! 

In 1998, I executive produced Serious Fun’s first (and only!) CD. (And that little statement represents hours and hours and hours of work -- and fun, as well!)

Our debut CD includes all a cappella versions of:

And my own original songs: