Thurday night Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey was fortunate enough to host stand up comedians Mike Recine and Colin Jost. I was able to get a seat in the front row, and it made for a fantastic experience. The first act, Mike Recine interacted with the audience often and made hilarious observations about some of the things that happen to him in his life and to everyone else on a day-to-day basis.
Since I am an avid fan of NBC's Saturday Night Live I have to admit I am a little biased when I say that Jost was my favorite part of the night. Colin is a writer for SNL and for the last few years has co-hosted the segment Weekend Update with fellow comedian Michael Che. The two are set up as newscasters and crack jokes about any of the ridiculous current events. The last few months have included many updates on political events, but they still include nonsense, like how a man recently bought a Cheeto online for almost one hundred thousand dollars because it resembled Harambe the gorilla.
The room practically exploded when he walked into the room, and I felt pretty starstruck. He started by explaining that he read up about Seton Hall before he came here and was able to make every fact into a joke. From the name of the Richie Regan Recreational Center to the curse of stepping on the seal, everything was fair game.
To me, some of the best kinds of humor are the kinds that people can really relate to. Colin told us stories about so many of his experiences recently dealing with dating, friends, parents, and even food shopping.
Of course he eventually began to tell us stories about some of his experiences on Saturday Night Live, and interactions with celebrities and political figures. He said that when he met Bernie Sanders, he felt like he crushed his bones when shaking his hand because he was so old. On our 45th president, he said he feels like Donald Trump is going to just explode one day because he is trying to change too many things at once.
One special part of the evening that I found really interesting was when he shared ideas for SNL he wrote that never got turned into sketches on the show. For some of them it made sense why they were never produced due to how offensive they were, but there were others that made me wonder if they'll be on the show someday. By the end of the night, my stomach hurt from laughing so much and I had tears in my eyes, so I would definitely consider this comedy show a success.
