The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: Opinions

JAY GRAHAM

To heck with watching TV, let's go out and do something - we're in college people, it's fun time.

Memorial Hall hosted actress-comedian Melissa Rauch, best known as a regular weekly panelist on VH1's "Best Week Ever." Being a fan of the show and her individual comedic styling, I was pumped for the show. I even missed "The Office" last week to witness one of my favorite cable comedians.

As it turns out, a good study session would have been more amusing than this night of ill-fated attempts at comedy.

Before Rauch came out, the scarce crowd was presented with Local Laughs Live. Consisting of about six local comedians (mostly University students), they were mostly funny and relatable - at least for those overly-sexed students, as nearly every one of these amateur comedians based the majority of their sets on sexual dos and don'ts.

But don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of vulgar jokes, and many times they scored big with the crowd. But many times, it was swing and miss.

Nevertheless, I give them props, as most of them were performing for the first time. I'll be the first to admit, I laughed pretty hard a couple of times.

As for Rauch, I'll reiterate just how funny I think she is on VH1 as well as her other critically-acclaimed works, such as her one-woman show, "The Miss Education of Jenna Bush." She also was named "Best College Comedian" on MTV's "TRL" in 2005. However, Thursday was an absolute bust.

She lacked the confidence she normally exudes on "Best Week Ever," but I suppose that's normal when comparing a 50-minute live gig to a 30-second clip that is being taped. The audience, however (filling about 50 of the 300+ seats), was subjected to constant weird baby talk, failed audience interactions and a Jodie Foster imitation that most didn't understand.

Most of the time, after finishing a joke, she would look down at her notes to remember the next joke - making the lack of fluidity apparent throughout the show. In fact, many times the audience was waiting for the punch line after it had already been made. There were many awkward moments throughout the show.

Rauch wasn't nervous, she just wasn't funny. Mostly, her jokes were elementary. Students were even leaving in the middle of the set. Somewhere in the middle of the set, she looked like she was tired of the whole thing and wanted to give up.

Those who attended the "act" may disagree, but the show did not live up to her previous comedic genius.

At times, it was weird and many of the laughs were mercy laughs. I love Rauch and wish her the best, but Thursday was a bomb. Perhaps TV and film is her thing, rather than live audiences.

- Jay Graham is a junior from Sautee majoring in magazines.

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