Q: What do you call 12 comedians in the VU Multipurpose Room on a Thursday night?
A: I don’t know, but I enjoyed it!
By Erasmus Baxter
On a night that Facebook’s weather sensors described as 30 degrees and partially cloudy, a line stretched part of the way down Vendor’s row as people waited to pay their 2 dollars to get into one of the better events held on a Thursday night at Western: Last Comic Standing.
In its ninth year at Western, the stand-up contest offers an assortment of amateur campus comedians a venue beyond open mic nights at the Underground. Instead of the usual assortment of curious freshmen and stranded homework-doers that populate the Underground there was a decent sized crowd that filled most of the seating in the MPR.
Scheduled to start at 7:30, the program began at 7:38 (not bad compared to plenty of other events) with the introduction of two hilariously disorganized hosts. Apparently they were paid 50 dollars each, as well as in free publicity for their podcast, The Process (available on soundcloud), which received many a shout out.
As they explained, each of the 12 contests would perform a 5 minute set, and at the end the audience would pick the winner. Whoever won would get to perform a 10 minute opening set for comedian Ron Funches when he performs at Western on Friday, February 10. The second and third place comedians won free tickets to that show.
The winner ended up being Carly Lant, the final performer, who gave a set about her struggles as a high school percussionist who was demoted from clapping to merely turning pages, and the perils of sixth grade dating via email. In an interesting gimmick, she brought her diary on stage with her and took notes during her set.
In second place was Lee Cox, whose set covered the relatable problems of wanting to have sex with pumpkins, and trying to cry outside your ex-girlfriend’s house.
Finally, coming in third was Benjamin Crabill, who covered everything from his hair, to a trying-to-be-edgy joke about changing Western’s mascot to a Black Viking.
For the record, jokes that play on the assumption that you’re about to say something racist aren’t as clever as you think they are, and are a great way to make Black students going to a predominantly White school feel uncomfortable. Also, not to lecture, but for those comedians who think joking about people doing crack makes things funny, it must be nice to live a life where crack addiction is a hilarious abstract context instead of a scourge on your friends and family that has been used to justify the criminalization and imprisonment of your loved ones.
On the bright side, it’s worth noting that the organizers did a good job of gathering diverse comedic perspectives for the show. There were people who joked about being disabled, being gay, and having a gender identity that family members didn’t approve of. With stand-up comedy at large being so dominated by straight, white men it was refreshing to see what can happen in stand-up comedy with less reliance on dick jokes.
Anybody hoping for more comedy should be sure to check out Ron Funches from 7 – 9 pm at the PAC this Friday, February 10. Student tickets are only $10!
ABOVE: Last Comic Standing winner Carly Lant, who will open for Ron Funches on Feb 10. Photo by Janna Bodnar // AS Review