Comedy Night brings in the laughs

Author: Lauren Armstrong

Last Friday's Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB) -sponsored "Comedy Night" featured the talents of stand-up comedians Christian Finnegan and Greg Giraldo - both rising stars on the national comedy scene. A native of Boston, Finnegan is best known for his television role on "The Chapelle Show" and as a VH1 commentator. He has also been featured on Comedy Central's Premium New York circuit. Giraldo, another up-and-coming star in the New York circuit, is celebrated as one of Comedy Central's greatest comedians of all time. He has performed with David Letterman and Conan O'Brien, and has been described as the next Jon Stewart - now that is saying a lot.

Finnegan opened his act with his characteristic offbeat freshness and some unabashed womanizing - informing the women in the audience that he would be sleeping with one of them after the show. After sharing the trauma of farting while toning his glutes on the stairmaster, he proposed that we chuck ambiguous names of nightclubs, like "Vision" or "Flow" in exchange for more fitting ones, like "Stool"(referring to the stool on stage) and "Hepatitis." Then when we go to a nightclub, he announced, we can say, "Yeah, Stool was the shit!" This was met with silence from the audience. Despite these gaffs, his routine was refreshing and mostly self-mocking.

Although undeniably hilarious, Giraldo made no effort to conceal some serious substance-abuse issues and marital problems. He started his routine on a personal note, asking audience members if they knew how it felt to "wake up puking in a urinal after a three-day coke binge." Nolan Sandygren '06, who has been following Giraldo's career for a while, was disappointed that the second half of the routine was mostly recycled material from his feature on Comedy Central. "I think it's understandable to reuse a few jokes here and there, but it went on for about half an hour and he even apologized for it when he first launched into his old routine," Sandygren said. He added, "It was kind of awkward every time he threw in a joke about his failing marriage or his drinking problems."

Awkward moments aside, Giraldo's routine brought up some great points about American politics and lifestyle, including obesity, ignorance of political issues (evident from his 8-year-old son asking him why the bad men in the Middle East hate us so much) and gay and lesbian rights. Putting these serious issues into a humorous context seemed to be Giraldo's way to get more people to think about them and to break down the communication barriers put up by America's extreme political correctness.

Judging from the sold-out house and glowing student reviews, the show was a huge hit. It provided slightly more "mainstream" entertainment than one usually finds on a Friday night at Middlebury, which some students found refreshing. Jason Bloch '07 said of the show, "I had a great time while I was there. Their material was extremely appropriate to college audiences, but to pretty much no one else. From prescription drugs to other kinds of drugs, they covered all the bases."

MCAB organizer Julia Cuthbertson '05.5 has been working with the Special Events Committee to bring the comedians to Middlebury since before winter break. Looking at dozens of options, she finally chose Finnegan and Giraldo for their name-recognition value and for their "original material and insightful commentary on social and political issues."

"I was thrilled with their performances and even happier with how the crowd responded," Cuthbertson said. "The audience was extremely enthusiastic and responsive throughout the entire show and I have only heard positive comments about their performances since Friday. It is clear from this show that bigger-name comedy is popular on our campus and MCAB is definitely going to keep this in mind as we look ahead to planning events in the future."