The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 2/24/05 Section: Features

Media Credit: Samuel Morrill Greg Giraldo got big laughs on the stage of Wright Theater where he was featured in MCAB´s comedy event. [Click to enlarge]

Last Friday's Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB) -sponsored "Comedy Night" featured the talents of stand-up comedians Christian Finnegan and Greg Giraldo - both rising stars on the national comedy scene. A native of Boston, Finnegan is best known for his television role on "The Chapelle Show" and as a VH1 commentator. He has also been featured on Comedy Central's Premium New York circuit. Giraldo, another up-and-coming star in the New York circuit, is celebrated as one of Comedy Central's greatest comedians of all time. He has performed with David Letterman and Conan O'Brien, and has been described as the next Jon Stewart - now that is saying a lot.

Finnegan opened his act with his characteristic offbeat freshness and some unabashed womanizing - informing the women in the audience that he would be sleeping with one of them after the show. After sharing the trauma of farting while toning his glutes on the stairmaster, he proposed that we chuck ambiguous names of nightclubs, like "Vision" or "Flow" in exchange for more fitting ones, like "Stool"(referring to the stool on stage) and "Hepatitis." Then when we go to a nightclub, he announced, we can say, "Yeah, Stool was the shit!" This was met with silence from the audience. Despite these gaffs, his routine was refreshing and mostly self-mocking.

Although undeniably hilarious, Giraldo made no effort to conceal some serious substance-abuse issues and marital problems. He started his routine on a personal note, asking audience members if they knew how it felt to "wake up puking in a urinal after a three-day coke binge." Nolan Sandygren '06, who has been following Giraldo's career for a while, was disappointed that the second half of the routine was mostly recycled material from his feature on Comedy Central. "I think it's understandable to reuse a few jokes here and there, but it went on for about half an hour and he even apologized for it when he first launched into his old routine," Sandygren said. He added, "It was kind of awkward every time he threw in a joke about his failing marriage or his drinking problems."

Continued...

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