Mon. Oct. 27th, was the first Comedy Night of the season. Students gathered in the Hub Fireplace Lounge at 8 p.m. after a long week of midterms to the natural high of laughter.
First to start off the laughs was female comedian, Bethany Van Delft. Moving from The Bronx to Boston Van Delft became one of the founding members of “Colorstruck; Boston’s Women of Color in Comedy.” Starting off her stand-up skit with a joke about her hair and how big and obnoxious it was, allowed for the audience to get a sense of her comfort level. To really get started she got into more of a discussion of her body, “I’m comfortable with who I am you know, forget those girls with the B cups.” Van Delft presents a goofy critical view of herself and environment. She gets into the detail of her childhood and that she grew up with a black father telling the audience that she feels that she doesn’t really celebrate her black heritage as much as she should “I say I’m black cause the only white thing I do is listen to hip hop.” Van Delft also discusses her Puerto Rican mother, “I’m from Puerto Rico, you know the capitol- The Bronx,” explaining that they were Marxist and that their childhood pet names were that of Marxist influences. Since moving to Boston she has gotten married despite not expecting to at all. She’s happy that she’s moved from the Bronx to Boston because she feels that she could never live in the suburbs, “I’m afraid of the suburbs like out here you guys commit weird crimes, I don’t see why taking stuff from the ground is funny,” she as well as the audience laughed, “like ‘yo I got your flamingo I’ll get your gnome too.'” Van Delft drifts off and starts to introduce the next comedian as well as rapper Zack Sherwin aka MC Mr. Napkins. Van Delft became somewhat of the interlude comedian for the transition of acts throughout the night.
MC Mr. Napkins is Sherwin’s rapper name. The shtick of his show is that he raps about things as well as making a joke about them. His stand up act is a mix of rapping and comedy. Sherwin is a Boston native, being part of the “Late Night Players,” a group of college friends touring and performing sketch comedy in bars, theaters, colleges and comedy festivals throughout the country. Sherwin explains that his rapper name MC Mr. Napkins means that he’s “a hardcore rapper, and that he means business.” His first rap is about smoothies, mostly comparing smoothies to things of sexual contexts “Smoothies are like making love cause I make them on my kitchen counter,” and the most unexpected line “smoothies are like handjobs cause I’ve gotten some good recipes but mine is the best.” Throughout the smoothies rap, he asks for crowd participation. Napkins explains that he’s interested in state mottos and finds them intriguing. He goes into a rap about state mottos; he explains why he likes each one and why they are so unique. Yet again Val Delft came out introduced the next comedian Dave McDunn.
Dave McDunn, the most vulgar comedian of the night, never making eye contact with the audience, sweated bullets while wearing a leather jacket. His first line, “I don’t know what it is but I have one of those faces that make parents hold their kids,” opened his set. He went into a discussion of his sex life, explaining the crude details of it. Throughout the night his skit had to do with sex, ” Did you know it’s illegal to catch and kill pregnant lobsters, if I was a female lobster I’d never use birth control I’d be a filthy filthy whore.” After discussing the sex lives of lobsters he started to discuss religion, “If Jesus was alive he’d never perform an abortion, cause he was a carpenter not a doctor . He’s not qualified.” After McDunn’s brash performance he was not to be seen the rest of the night. Van Delft introduced the next comedian who had just done a show with Dwayne Perkins, one of Rolling Stones “Top 5 Comedians of the Year,” Shaun Bedgood.
Alabama native Shaun Bedgood is a recent graduate of Suffolk University planning on attending law school, until comedy became his passion. Since then he’s been performing around Boston and New York. Boston Globe describes Bedgood, which indeed is his real last name, as “Young, Fresh and Funny.” The Terrance Howard look alike, Bedgood started off his show with a commentary on the intelligence of professional sports teams, “They are able to make millions but aren’t able to compose a sentence.” He told the audience about moving to Dorchester, Mass. when he was younger. and was teased for not being the same skin color as the other students he explained that he told this one girl Kim that he was “diet black.” Bedgood went on about himself and his black friend and how his black friend said to him “If Obama doesn’t do good we’re going to become slaves again,” then asking his friend what if he does good? His friend replies “Then we get to play hockey in the NHL.” He explains living on the streets of Boston and how he has to deal with crackheads on a daily basis. For being the most well known comedian he had the shortest stand up. He kept track of time and seemed as if he finished before his time was up. Bethany reintroduced MC Mr. Napkins.
MC Mr. Napkins last rap was about a video he put on YouTube versus the video he had put on College Humor. He also wrote a fake PSU song by using the Plymouth.edu website, he notes that PSU had 237 liquor and drug violations but 0 car thefts in 2007. Allowing for the audience to cheer as loud as possible. To end the night he tells the crowd about how he decided to pick the most ridiculous business card which is of a rhino’s front and backside.
Comedy Night at PSU was quite the success giving the relief that everyone needed from midterm week. Kudos to P.A.C.E for bringing in these hilarious local comedians. Be sure to attend the next P.A.C.E event which is an Open Mic to be held on Mon. Nov. 10th.