Tim Young keeps McCullough crowd chuckling

Author: Rich Saunders

Once the pre-performance disco ball stopped spinning and the lights dimmed, a meagre audience sat back to relax and enjoy comedian Tim Young's performance in the McCullough Social Space on Saturday night. While occasionally addressing cosmopolitan issues, most of Young's routine focused on a whimsical portrayal of college life, both here at Middlebury and in the college world at large. While often pushing extremes in his skits, Young highlighted many of the stereotypes associated with college communities.

Young discussed many aspects of college life, from roommate relations to stealing silverware from the dining hall to sexual habits to party behavior. He urged students to be creative in what they bring home to their parents at holiday-time, and joked that a set of silverware from Proctor complete with tray is a heartwarming gift.

The comedian helped thieving students alleviate their guilty consciences by asserting, "$40,000; that's a hell of a lot of forks." His website, further displaying his commitment to college students, features a tuition reimbursement plan. At the current comprehensive fee of $44,330, Young recommended that students "permanently borrow" 7,438 forks, knives or spoons, 19,790 rolls of toilet paper, 1,109 salt and pepper shaker sets and 4,926 cafeteria trays.

While jokes about dining halls elicited chuckles, Young received the most laughs during his bits that center on college social life. He described everything from the difficulties guys have dancing with girls, noting that "beer is not a good dancer," to the experiences of his own college roommate stealing newspaper dispensers and urinating in his dresser drawer.

Much of the audience lapped up Young's witty routine. Yet in retrospect, one wonders whether the audience was laughing at the absurdity of the situations Young described or the incredible congruency between equally regrettable decisions made on their own part. Who knows, perhaps the night before they too had made the perfectly reasonable decision to use their laptop as a urinal and substitute their pile of fresh laundry for toilet paper.

After the performance, one student, white in the face with fear, noted Young's "scarily accurate portrayal of life in my suite." He refused to be identified, presumably to prevent his drunken suitemates from urinating on him.

McCullough, although not empty, certainly lacked the sort of attendance expected for a renowned comedian who has appeared on Comedy Central's "Premium Blend," performs regularly at high-profile comedy clubs in New York City and appears in advertisements for JetBlue Airways.

Commenting on Young's performance, Dan Rosmarin '09 said, "I thought he did an excellent job tailoring his routine to Middlebury. It seemed like he wasn't just giving the same jokes as he does everywhere else."

While Tim Young managed to include some lines about the world outside Middlebury, notably, "I'm so pissed at Bush, I might just marry a dude." For the most part he recognized that students would rather hear about their social lives than the real world. It is hard to be sure how relevant Tim Young knew his jokes would be for his audience. Stereotypes are, for better or worse, often a perceptive guide to discussing social situations. It is clear that Young took this knowledge into account in preparing his routine for the Middlebury community, but as a student, it is scary to be confronted with some of the more stark realities of the community in which we live. Ultimately, then, while Young's sardonic portrayal of Middlebury was definitely sobering, perhaps we can derive some reassurance in his claim that "it's cool to go to school in a ski lodge."