Wyatt Cenac Brings Hilarity to Homecoming

On Friday, Oct. 22, Wyatt Cenac, with his opening act Jermaine Fowler, came to the McCullough Social Space to bring laughter to those within, a goal they completed gloriously.

Cenac is well known for his reoccurring role as a correspondent on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” as well as pat work as a writer and story editor for Mike Judge’s animated satirical sitcom “King of the Hill.” When Cenac isn’t helping protagonist Hank Hill sell propane (or propane accessories) he also acts in dramas such as Medicine for Melancholy, provides voice talent for Nickelodeon’s “Fanboy” and “Chum Chum” and has performed with nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot.

Fowler is a New York-based stand-up comedian who has been recognized as one of the 50 funniest men by the New York Post, where he stood in rank with individuals such as Jay Leno and David Letterman.

Fowler is currently acting in SyFy’s new show, “Insane or Inspired,” Adult Swim’s “The Eric Andre Show” and the pilot for the reboot of “Living Color.”

Fowler was the first to take the stage. The first thing I noticed about Fowler was his silly stage presence, something that made him seem at ease in front of the many eyes of the students. Fowler immediately began his act through some crowd work, a type of stand up comedy where one takes material from the audience and crafts it into, ideally, something funny.

Like most comedians who come to visit the College, Fowler was most interested in the fact that we play Quidditch, and the implication that we run around on brooms. He then began to playfully mock one of the audience members, a self-proclaimed snitch. His mocking was never hurtful or offensive. Fowler merely showed a legitimate interest in what we do and who we are as a student body.

Fowler then transitioned into a skit about various happenings in New York and his past job at a Quiznos. Fowler proved here that he is an incredible story teller as he recalled the time he and a co-worker once convinced his boss that the KKK had broken into their sandwich store and had stolen all the processed meat.

What I found particularly interesting about Fowler is his complete disregard for political correctness, which I found completely refreshing, especially here at the College, a place where I feel political correctness runs rampant. But, that being said, Fowler also didn’t go out of his way to offend people either. Instead, Fowler was very honest in his observations and opinions, some of which could have been interpreted as offensive but that was clearly not Fowler’s only objective. Fowler successfully warmed up the audience for Cenacs arrival.

Cenac then took the stage, his hair bigger in size than one who regularly watches him on “The Daily Show” may be used to.

Cenac, contrary to Fowler, had lower energy overall but maintained a strong stage presence throughout.

He began his performance by talking about the drive to Middlebury, something he considered very romantic but not something for platonic co-workers.

As Cenac spoke, I realized that his speech patterns matched his energy; it was slower and lower than Fowler. But that doesn’t mean he was any less funny.

Cenac began his real routine about he and his friends during their time at the Catholic all-boys high school they attended and how they would frequently enter “snap” competitions.

A snap competition is basically a battle of “your mother” jokes, and Cenac, despite being a comedian, was not very good at these. This routine culminated into a joke about Darfur, which, while I found it hilarious, others were not terribly impressed.

Cenac explored various topics, including the various ideas he would tweet, if he had a Twitter.

While his musings ranged from the mundane to the hysterical, Cenac’s dramatic readings of his would-be tweets made for an entertaining reoccurring gag.

Cenac then delved into a routine about comic book movies and a hero of Cenac’s own mind: Spider Man.

Now, this is not the Spider Man you may recognize, but rather Cenac’s Spider Man is about a spider who is bitten by a radioactive man who then spends all of his time sitting down on a couch being vaguely dissatisfied with his life.

While the show seemed to drag on, as indicated by the fact that various students left early, probably to enjoy the revels that homecoming had in store for them, it proved to be yet another entertaining night from two very competent, very talented comedians. Now, after getting Cenac, the next step seems obvious: getting Jon Stewart himself.