It was as if you could hear the laughs and roars of excitement from outside that came from the T. H. Harris Auditorium as the comedy show was underway. The event took place last week on a Thursday during Homecoming festivities.
KATRINA HARRIS/The Gramblinite
Gary Owen, who headlined the Comedy Show, proved to be a crowd favorite.
Host for the evening was all-time favorite and comedian Steve Brown who says he always enjoys coming to Grambling. “Hands down, this is by far my favorite HBCU. I love Grambling. They make me feel welcome,” said the Alabama native.
If you’re familiar with Brown and his antics, then you know he almost always picks people out of the crowd and pokes a little fun at them.
“I thought it was hilarious when Steve picked the big guy out of everyone and made him start dancing. Everyone was cheering him on,” said senior Anthony Cherry from Chicago.
Steve Brown
Opening up the show was comedian Gene Harley who kept the crowd laughing with his jokes, one in particular about dating.
“I have to budget when dating. I took a girl out on a date who wanted to see Planet of the Apes and the guy at the ticket counter told me the tickets were $42. I told him, ‘We don’t want to meet the apes after the movie is over, we just want to watch the movie’ … So now I’m thinking, ‘Only one of us is going to end up watching this movie tonight.’ ”
Following Harley was the headliner, comedian and actor Gary Owen. Owen starred in the comedies Think Like a Man and the sequel Think Like a Man 2 (that were based on Steve Harvey’s book Act Like a Lady, Think Like A Man, as well as Ride Along, just to name a few.
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Owen got his big break in 1997 on BET’s stand-up showcase Comic View. Two appearances on the show won him his own one-hour grandstand show. He is the only white man to have ever hosted the show.
Gene Harley
Owen had the entire audience laughing hysterically at his jokes about high school mascots, how he met his wife, and his daughter who refuses to claim she’s mixed. “My son and I are tight, that’s my little buddy. But my daughter, she’s all the way black, y’all. My mother recently visited and told my daughter she was losing her butt and my daughter ran into her room crying. I told her, ‘Mom, having a butt is a good thing.’ ”
Fans of Owen will be able to see him again on-screen as he joins the BET cast of The Real Husbands of Hollywood in January.
Ending the show was Brown returning on stage allowing everyone to have a pre-Bayou Classic dance warm-up. “Lose your mind, GramFam,” he said.