College Union Board’s (CUB) inaugural Bring Your Own PowerPoint (B.Y.O.P.P.T.) show, held Feb. 19 at the Rathskeller, featured four presentations assembled by College students. Each concentrated on a different subject and shared anecdotes about various life experiences.
Junior English major and CUB event coordinator Matt Daley opened with his PowerPoint, “13 Words + Phrases You Should Know, That You Didn’t Know You Should Know, When Entering the Gay Club Scene.” Even without a microphone, Daley captured the audience’s full attention with words like “GayDD,” the act of stopping mid-conversation to check out someone passing by. Daley provided causes of the act, including Ryan Philippe and Brad Pitt, as well as a solution.
“There’s nothing you can do, just let it happen,” he said.
Freshman nursing major Mary Merwitz’s “The Sheltered Life” featured a series of anecdotes about her transition from Catholic school to the College. While she was very energetic and informal with the audience, some of the stories were drawn out, causing some to lose interest. Out of the numerous stories, she seemed to draw the biggest laugh from her tale about unknowingly watering her neighbor’s extensive indoor garden of cannabis while house-sitting back in high school.
Senior digital arts major Andrew Lubas and junior marketing major Doug Teixeira provided the most random PowerPoint of the night, “TROLLIN THE BYOPPT.” The presentation, which highlighted some of the “most interesting people of the past 10 years” had one objective — to make fun of as many people as possible. While their act received plenty of laughs, the majority of attention seemed to come from their large group of friends who were in on all of their inside jokes. The set of slides included images of Christopher Walken and Robocop, as well as pictures of random College students that responded to the Facebook event made for the show. This allowed the rest of the audience to participate, anxious to see if they would be the next victim on the duo’s slideshow.
The most traditional PowerPoint came from junior English major and CUB financial director Allie Binaco and senior English and women and gender studies double major Tricia Torley. The closing act, “Kissing, Sex, and Not Quite Sex” investigated the love lives of the two women from high school to present. Binaco and Torley impressed the crowd with pre-recorded romantic anecdotes of friends, especially the explanation of “The Bases” and a cameo by “The Godfather of B.Y.O.P.P.T.,” sophomore communication studies major Jake Ehrlich.
B.Y.O.P.P.T. was first introduced on campus by Ehrlich, who got the idea from a friend in his hometown. He debuted the concept at Student Soloist Night last semester and said he thoroughly enjoyed Friday night’s show.
“I thought the event was a success,” Ehrlich said, “I can only hope there will be more.”
