On Tuesday, March 3, at the Ferst Center for the Arts, the Student Center Programs Council hosted a much-anticipated Spring Comedy Show. Ready to provide laugh-out-loud humor to a sold-out crowd of students were three comedians: a student opener named Ryan Moazzami, professional opener Mekki Leeper and the headliner, Trevor Wallace.
The student opener kicked off the night with several edgy one-liners. Ryan Moazzami, third-year CS, joked about the internship hunt and software engineering salaries. He had interviewed at Palantir, which his friends thought contributed to human rights violations.
“I can throw kids in cages, as long as we’re both getting a new home,” he responded. Uncomfortable laughs from the audience ensued. He also had less biting content and talked about his Iranian American roots. He claims he learned his fiscal conservatism from his father, who instead of paying $50 to put down his pet hamster, had “yeeted him off the balcony” for free.
Despite some controversial content, the audience raucously supported their fellow student, even noting down a number he read out to support Atlanta’s local stand-up scene.
Mekki Leeper followed, an up-and-coming professional comedian and creator of the “Control Room” on Comedy Central. He instantly called out the audience on the student opener’s political jokes — “I’ll deport kids myself? What the F***. All of y’all were down with that.”
In his approximately 15 minute segment, he joked about hating New York because of how direct people were, constantly letting him know that he looked like a “Little B****”.” While crossing the street at night, a woman said, “Hey hun, about to pass ya — don’t want to scare ya.” He wanted to let her know that as a man, he was supposed to be the predator, but obviously that was inappropriate. He talked about his Moroccan heritage and growing up half Christian and half Muslim, while looking like a white male.
His most hilarious jokes were about his childhood, including how he was bullied for “taking a shit in the bathroom,” while the kid who was “slithering around on the bathroom floor” was not. Originally from Pennsylvania, he joked about how ghosts powered Pennsylvania’s economy.
He remembers asking his father, “Dad, are ghosts real?” to which he responded, “Damn right they are, otherwise, we’ll be out of business son.” As the segment wore on, his jokes about his ex started to fall flat, but when the Technique talked to students after the event, he was unanimously deemed hilarious and the best comedian of the night.
The final headliner, Trevor Wallace, was a famous Youtuber whose comedy career began when he started making Vines while at San Jose State University. His segment was extremely long for a typical comedy routine, lasting nearly 45 minutes, of which he used the last 15 minutes to answer questions.
His jokes focused on relating to the fraternity community at Tech and nightlife in Atlanta since he had been in a fraternity himself while he was an undergraduate. He also talked about his mother, who frequently doubts his intelligence, a girl he dated who wore her grandmother’s ashes around her neck (which he called an unknown “threesome”) and what it meant when people recognized him for his videos and exclaimed “White Claw!” while he was aboard airplanes.
One of his more popular jokes went back to his days as a theater major, also known as a thespian, which, he said he would have thought was another sexuality if he hadn’t heard the term before. While many of Wallace’s jokes were juvenile, he worked hard to maintain rapport with the audience, continually asking questions like, “What’s the best place for a date here?” and involving the answers in his material.
The night ended with Wallace giving students advice during his Q&A session, especially to one student who asked him, “How do I get a girlfriend?”. As the event ended, most students walked out talking delightedly. The night had been five dollars well spent!