Two comedians from the Roosevelt Johnson Entertainment Comedy Cabaret Tour performed in the Student Activity Board’s first show of the semester Monday night. Kelly “K-Dubb” Walker and Lavar Walker have been successfully touring college campuses this year, drawing in large crowds across the country. Though their routines were popular with the audience, the turnout for the evening was less than 100 people.”The hurricane really put production behind,” said Charles Wade, a communications studies and sociology junior and member of the board’s Pop Fusion committee. “We had to reschedule a lot of advertising.”Despite the setbacks, the board expects their next show, the All Hallows Eve Fashion Show, to be better attended.”We just wanted to give students a chance to laugh and relax,” said Mallory Trochesset, assistant director of programs. “We’ve gone through a lot as a campus this semester, and we wanted to do something to lift students’ spirits.” K-Dubb, a Memphis native, warmed up the crowd with a few jokes about college life before starting a comical history lesson about blacks in the presidency. He joked about politics and the election but encouraged the crowd to get out and vote.”Pharmacist by day, comedian by night” Walker, who has appeared on BET’s ComicView and HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, had the crowd rolling with an array of funny voices and comic situations.Walker grew up in Chicago, but earned a pharmaceutical degree from Xavier University in New Orleans. The crowd boomed with laughter at his imitation of CVS pharmacy customers, and many could relate to his New Orleans experiences.Though he is used to packing auditoriums across the country, Walker was not disturbed by the small turn out. Walker said that he understands that Baton Rouge is recovering and expected a small crowd. “I had a good time,” Walker said. “I just wanted to help take some pain off of anyone going through a rough time.” While many of the audience members had never heard of the stars before the show, many didn’t have to walk away disappointed.”I watch ComicView all the time,” said Krystal Buggs, mass communications freshman. “So, it was similar to what I watch on TV.”When the show was over, the comedians stuck around to laugh with students and sign their posters and playbills. The students who hadn’t known their names before the show said they’ll remember them now.”I liked the show a lot. I didn’t know them, but it was my kind of comedy,” said Nick Jackson, engineering freshman, said.—-Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]
Comedians ease student stress
September 15, 2008