Roaring laughter fills performing arts center

Main Campus Program Board’s spring comedy show lineup of Clint Coley, Ray Lipowski and Lil Duval was a success.

“Where’s my Philadelphia people at? Is Jersey in the building? New York, stand up!”

As the anxious crowd came prepared to laugh, the local comedian and host of the Main Campus Program Board’s Spring Comedy Act, Clint Coley, built up the audience’s energy by encouraging them to represent their hometowns.

With a few jokes of his own, Coley gave the audience a bit of his material to segue into the the headliner, Lil Duval, who featured Ray Lipowski.

“I do this for laughs and for people to say I made their day and put a smile on their face,” Coley said in a tweet. “That means more to me than any check.”

The Spring Comedy Show was held at the Temple Performing Arts Center on Feb. 17.

Tania Neptune and Tiffany Kee, the co-chairs of MCPB’s on-campus events, worked tirelessly since October preparing for the show.

Neptune and Kee said they had high expectations for the show and hoped to please the general student body.

Kee said their main goal was to “make sure everybody, not just Temple students, but everyone in and around the Philadelphia area had a good time.”

In order to ensure their goals would be met, they came up with many marketing strategies. Both co-chairs, with the help of the on-campus generally assembly members, promoted the event on social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. They also printed and handed out fliers to the student body, as well as sent out mass e-mails through Listservs.

They also traveled to other colleges, including La Salle, Penn and Drexel to recruit people to come out and support their show.

“Events like this don’t happen often at Temple – but when it does happen, I feel the need to be there and take part in it,” junior tourism and hospitality major Avery Bell said. “I’m glad that I was able to show love and just have a good time.”

“The best part of my job besides making people laugh is meeting and interacting with people who enjoy my work,” Lipowski said.

“Comedy is not about color,” Lipowski said on Comedy Central’s website. “My comedy is the best of both worlds – not black, not white – but true.”

A box-office attendant at the Temple Performing Arts Center said more than 400 people attended.

As Duval made it to the stage, he was welcomed by an array of claps, hoots and hollers. He joked about things from cheating, to rappers, to his most well-known thoughts on what it means to be a “basic chick.”

“I follow Lil Duval on Twitter and never heard his standup,” sophomore biology major Brittany Vincent said. “I wanted to support MCPB and get a good laugh while giving an upcoming comedian a chance to show me what he’s got.”

His act went on for approximately 45 minutes and the laughter didn’t stop until he was finished. Duval ended with a positive message for all college students.

“All of ya’ll are doing the best thing you can be doing – being in school and getting your education,” Duval said. “It’s not cool when you’re 30 and broke. All those people who you make fun of for being lame are going to be the successful ones with all the girls and money after graduation. So you might want to stop being so ‘cool’ and be ‘lame.’”

There wasn’t an overall consensus as to which act was the best, but as students exited the show, it seemed as if everyone was engaged in conversation and weighing in their opinion.

“Lil Duval was definitely the best act of the night,” Bell said. “His jokes were more relatable, and he kept it real.”

“Ray Lipowski was my favorite act of the night because he was hands down funnier than Lil Duval,” sophomore sports and recreation management major Kristen Kenner said. “For a white comedian to entertain a black crowd, I think he did a great job.”

Shanell Simmons can be reached at shanell.simmons@temple.edu.