By Heidi Cho
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Saturday Night Live came early to the College on Friday, Feb. 23, when the College Union Board presented the Spring Comedy Show featuring SNL cast member Alex Moffat and former cast member Vanessa Bayer, with an opening set from writer Streeter Seidell in the Kendall Mainstage Theater.
Moffat began his act with an intense German accent, performing as a character Moffat called “Max Gremer.” Before the bit, which some students found hard to understand, dragged on too long, Moffat switched topics.
“Is the Git here, my favorite queen?” Moffat asked their crowd.
The comedians tailored their sets to what they learned about the College before the show began.
“Kianna wrote half of my set,” Moffat joked, pointing out a CUB staff member standing to the side of the auditorium.
The comedian shared a nugget of wisdom with the audience through an anecdote about his experience in New York City.
Once Moffat said “bless you” to a woman walking alone at night after she sneezed “a girthy slapper” right into his open mouth. The woman responded by clutching her purse to her chest, then ran away from him.
Moffat then asked the audience what they learned from that story, and the audience responded by saying “nothing.”
Moffat played himself off with a hilariously horrible rendition of “Piano Man” by Billy Joel to the captive audience.
“(Moffat) made it seem as though he could actually play and he had us all sing along to Piano Man,” said Amanda Mrotzek, a sophomore early childhood education and English double major.
Moffat hyped up Vanessa Bayer, the next act, as “a most amazing comedian” and also as what Bayer told him to say — “(his) best friend in the world.”
Awkward and genuine, Bayer often poked fun at herself in her routine.
Bayer acknowledged that while comedians usually made sex jokes, she thought she did not do a good job delivering them, but for the sake of an audience of college students, she would do an impression of herself making sex jokes.
After a solid 15 seconds of indiscernible murmuring, awkward shuffling and lack of eye contact, the audience could finally make out a few phrases between long pauses.
“Because his dick was so small … little league ... because he has a small dick,” Bayer mumbled.
Bayer ripped on the show “Friends” in one bit, and pointed out all the show’s obvious tropes, impersonated and exaggerated each character’s quirk and incorporated herself into a hypothetical episode as Ross’ new girlfriend for the bit.
After an episode’s worth of ups and downs, Bayer was left hungry and alone in the streets of the West Side by the end of the skit — all because she went out on a date with Ross.
“How many lives have to be ruined for Ross and Rachel to be together?” Bayer said.
For long-time SNL fans in the crowd, Bayer mentioned a throwback that made audience members hoot and holler.
Mrotzek was hoping that she would get to see Bayer do a Miley Cyrus impersonation in real life, and she was not disappointed.
“She is spot-on and even though she exaggerates the accent a little bit it just makes it that much funnier,” Mrotzek said.
Even though Bayer is no longer an SNL cast member, she is still active in the world of comedy. Bayer took advantage of the captive audience to show an episode of her comedy web series, Sound Advice, and closed off the show with a zinger.
“I watch (SNL) almost every week,” Mrotzek said. “So when I knew they were coming, I knew I had to buy tickets for it.”
Benjamin Zander, a senior communication studies and journalism and professional writing double major, enjoyed being an active audience member throughout the show.
Throughout the night, Zander was dubbed “Mr. New York,” “the coolest guy on campus” and “double thumbs-up” for his reaction to a question asked during the show.
The chemistry between the comedians and Zander enhanced the show for him.
“They were really good at one-on-one interaction,” Zander said. “It makes it a lot more special and memorable.
