Pro comedian Kyle Grooms and Open Mic finalists liven up the SPEC

On Monday night, the Special Events Center in the Student Union Building was once again alive with laughter.

Arriving just in time to hear the first of the five finalists from last month’s Open Mic Comedy Night, I listened as Drew Roberts opened the evening with his comedy. Roberts told a joke about a midget and one about himself, then ranted about NBC’s “Law and Order” series and how many of them there are.

George Killian was the next finalist, and he went deep into sexual humor. One joke went: “I like his bumper sticker. STD’s, collect them all!” He joked about how they forgot to make a state law against marijuana, because it had made them forgetful.

Julie Kerrick Skyving, who was the host’s wife, joked about just that when she came on. She adlibbed well when a random baby’s cry cut silence in the room between some of her jokes. She said her husband was a “Cross between Tom Cruise and Tarzan.” She went on about men and their desire for women.

After Skyving, Pete Peterson took the stage. He sat down on a chair and took out a stuffed doll of Winnie the Pooh, then thanked his homies and the Idaho State Correctional Facility for letting him out. He brought along his copy of a book on Gandhi and joked about how celibacy is thrust upon some of us. He said a good theme song for Tibetan Liberation Day would be “Foxy Lady” by Jimi Hendrix, and went out leading the audience in a round of “We Shall Overcome.”

When David Drew Bauer entered, he said hello to all the farmers, then led into jokes about Taco Bell. He got into the recent story about Jose Canseco. The audience came alive when he mentioned California. From there, he reminisced about once coming across a bake sale for Holocaust Awareness Day. Then he went on about a former girlfriend of his who was a stripper and how ridiculous it was that she could ever lose that sort of job.

With Bauer exiting the stage, the Open Mic finalists were done with their portion. The host then introduced professional comedian Kyle Grooms. Grooms’ dynamics with the audience were excellent. He drew his jokes from people and things that he transformed into his intense brand of humor. Grooms joked about his African-American heritage and made fun of his features and need for glasses. As is the norm with many modern comedians, he satirized his social background and made fun of the differences between people and their classes. Kyle Grooms obviously enjoyed performing comedy, even admitting it to the crowd at one point. He was easily the apex of a great comedy-filled night in the SUB.

Thom Garzone
Culture Writer

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