Comedy show proves successful
Sean Smith
Issue date: 11/20/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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This year, the presented comedians were Carlos Alazraqui and Cedric Yarbrough from the hit Comedy Central television show Reno 911. They were accompanied by the acapella group, The Blanks, which are best known for their appearances on the sitcom "Scrubs" as Ted the lawyer's band.
The night started out with as the Drexel student James Scott. Scott won the chance to share the stage with the big time comedians. Scott is a freshman music industry major and had the opportunity to perform his stand-up comedy by competing in the comedy competition at Late Night Series in the Creese Student Center.
Scott's style is a purposefully delivered awkward, mixed with a rapid fire of short jokes that are reminiscent of Mitch Hedberg. He ended his set with an ode to the style of Demetri Martin by showing a homemade graph of the relationship between days eating at the Handschumacher dining hall and the number of poops he takes per day (8.3 to be exact). It may seem a tad juvenile, but the crowd could not help but laugh. Scott attributes his delivery with the amount of nervousness he felt performing in front of 800 audience members.
"I've been timing myself and I've been locking myself in my room for fifteen minutes at a time," Scott elaborated on his preparation. "Lately, I've been really nervous so hopefully I can channel that."
The next performance of the night was the acapella group, The Blanks. They are most famously known for their guest spots on the television comedy "Scrubs" as character Ted's band. The band consists of Sam Lloyd, Philip McNiven, George Miserlis, and Paul F. Perry.
The Blanks' act was a whole performance that revolved around the group trying to fill a required list that would get them signed to a talent contract. The set included a variety of musical numbers like medleys of the "greatest rock songs" and TV theme songs, original numbers, the "Scrubs" theme song, "Superman" and a ukulele version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow." The PG-rated performance struck a chord with audiences and proved that you didn't need inappropriate material to please the college crowd. The Blanks' performance was similar to the Marx Brothers and the Blue Man Group-just with talking and no blue paint.
The headlining act of the night was obviously the stars of "Reno 911," Alazraqui and Yarbrough. The comedians are known for their roles as partners Dep. Jones and Dep. Garcia. It's apparent that they are not just friends on the show because their buddy chemistry follows them onto the stage. Alazraqui starts the show off with his own stand-up set, which brings a high energy to the stage the show had been missing up until that point. Even with minor technical difficulties, the comedian did not miss a beat. The rest of the show contained Yarbrough's own stand-up, which is extremely impressive considering he has only been doing this since the beginning of the "Reno 911!" tour.
"We've been touring this show since Jan. 2008. We've done 32 colleges since then," Alazraqui commented on the amount of shows the duo has done.
"Reno 911!" is a mostly improvised television show and the group has found a way to incorporate that signature style of the show into the live performance.
"The Q&A and the scene are all improv," Alazraqui explained about the utilization of improvisation. "Every time we do the 'impression-off,' the banter changes. I would say 60 percent of the show is improv."
"It's funny because you never know who's watching the show," Yarbrough said about their audience. "It's not like a super accessible show, but it's one thing that you just find some people that just love the show that you would never expect."
Though the group has done mostly university shows, with a couple of isolated club and casino shows thrown in, they realize their demographic is more then just college kids-even if they aren't exactly sure how to identify it. They will be hitting comedy clubs next year with the material.
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