The Tigerfest comedy show was successful once it got rolling. Per usual, it began on a C.P. schedule and allowed the audience ample time to file in, dance and mingle prior to the show’s start. Grambling student Curtis Arrington hosted it and joked about the (in)famous GSU chant.
He repeated a joke about California rapper E-40. An enthusiastic audience member reminded him that they’d heard the joke before.
Yet he remained afloat.
Keeping in mind the cutthroat nature of Grambling audiences, he survived. Arrington earned laughs, didn’t get booed and challenged audience members who sought to upstage him to step onstage.
No one accepted the challenge.
The next comedian, Robert Powell, traveled from University of Louisiana at Monroe.
He went straight for the kill, calling local police officers “crack staff”; afterward he quipped about a certain GSUPD member’s facial disfiguration.
He shared an epiphany regarding the operation of sperm banks. He revealed that he had a personal towel at home worth several thousand dollars.
Powell made a few risky jokes that alluded to diverse sexual preferences. He said that his dating criteria consisted of three questions:
Are you a girl?
Have you always been a girl?
If not, can you keep a secret?
Powell was unavailable post-show for comments.
Lav Luv encouraged students to be true to themselves.
He also advised overweight women not to squeeze into ill-fitting clothing. Doing so creates the illusion of a burst can of biscuits, he said.
Then he completed the “formula” for being an R&B crooner and executed the music video protocol. He selected a pretty student with a fair complexion to play his love interest.
“She has to be light skinned,” he said of the mainstream ideal.
Freshman Shay Synigal’s friends volunteered her to come onstage.
Synigal later said that she was surprised when Luv danced on her, but found it amusing.
Though she enjoyed the comedy show in its entirety her favorite comic was Cocoa Brown.
While Brown’s comedy was of the gut-busting variety, she kept education at the forefront.
Brown earned an undergraduate degree in mass communication from Virginia Commonwealth University and a master’s degree from the University of Phoenix.
While she endorses education as a backup plan, she expressed the importance of following individual dreams and doing what brings joy.
“Look at me,” she said.
She shared that though she loves comedy gigs, the laughter well does dry up. When that happens she often falls back on teaching.
Onstage she elaborated on everything from the necessity of strong female friendships, to being a “big girl” who prefers smaller men and safe sex. She praised Magnum condoms and men fit to fill them.
She warned freshmen to keep their guards up regarding upperclassmen with less than honorable intentions for women who are still “too happy” and “wet behind the ears.”
She advised students to love and accept their friends “flaws and all.” This is particularly true for ugly people whom she calls “facially challenged.”
The most controversial candidate would likely have feminists picketing outside his home. Corey Holcomb formerly of MTV’s Wild ‘N’ Out, joked about all things sexist, personal, raunchy, lewd and crude.
He opened his set recalling an interaction with a woman who had a fettuccine alfredo like substance appearing where it shouldn’t have.
He seamlessly moved from that subject to what he believes to be an impossible facet of male genital hygiene, odor removal.
He proceeded to stun the audience into uproarious laughter and at times awkward silences.
He roasted larger women with “regular people legs.”
He compared women to computer systems and instructed men to “reboot” their significant others with open handed swats.
He told pretty women not to stress about learning because in America “if you’re pretty. some lonely, goofy guy will take care of you.”
He instructed less aesthetically pleasing women to earn as many degrees as possible and to learn everything that they can.
His riskiest jokes involved women having abortions.
In the first he expressed that clinics are unnecessary when he can just take his women to amusement parks and let them ride as many roller coasters as they want.
The second joke was a repeat from last year and involved an ex-girlfriend’s miscarriage in the toilet. He said that disheartening part wasn’t that the fetus didn’t survive. Rather he was upset that he had to pretend to be unhappy. He said that he gleefully flushed the toilet.
Post show Holcomb was more than receptive to bonding with audience members and chatting. The 16-year comedy veteran said that Grambling was a great audience.
He admitted that the lineup he presented here was as gritty as it gets. He contrasted the freedoms of expression as a performer for college audiences with “cake mix crowds” where he must appeal to a broader fan base.
But why abortion?
“It’s funny. Nobody goes there.I still get a lot of laughs with it.”
Nothing and no one are off limits.
He said his baby’s mother was hit upside her head with a rock. He managed to create a joke from the experience.
His final piece of advice for the Grambling community?
“Be bold.