By Emma Carey
Despite subpar weather conditions, flocks of Fordham students patiently lined up outside of Fordham Prep’s Leonard Theatre this past Sunday, eager to continue Spring Weekend festivities. Comedian and headliner Aidy Bryant quickly warmed up the masses with roaring laughter. “Thanks for coming in a frickin’ rain hell!” Bryant said, ready to provide her “real friends” with an afternoon of gut-busting entertainment.
Immediately, Bryant pleased students with a stand-up set that seemed to be written specifically for an audience of Rams. However, the crowd wasn’t exactly what Bryant had anticipated; “the only girl in [her] high school that attended Fordham,” she said, was a “gorgeous Korean woman.” So, naturally, Bryant admitted that she had always assumed “Fordham is gorgeous Korean women.” “Now I see that that’s some of you,” Bryant said, “but not all!”
However, despite some discrepancies in her anticipated ethnic demographics, Bryant quickly proved to be quite a Fordham history buff. She welcomed students from the crowd to shout out “rapid-fire” questions of anything and everything regarding Fordham.
Remarkably, Bryant passed the drill with flying colors. She rattled off the school fight song, “Oh, Fordham! Green ass grass, old ass buildings, tricky ass security systems,” without fail, and also impressed students with the timeless school motto: “Fordham, we chilling.”
Bryant’s knowledge even spanned to the most discrete of fun facts, such as Fordham’s mascot, a “very old train” named “Trainie,” and the school’s most popular class: “Intro to New York: The Pizza and the Streets.” (Note: Bryant disclosed that this class is only open to seniors.) With such a connection to her dedicated audience members, and the convenient tuition price of $55, Bryant asked, “Can I just come here for school?”
Bryant really jumped into the Ramily, though, when she welcomed her potential classmates onto the stage for some college dating advice. Benjamin Rodrigues, FCRH ’19, and Tatiana DiBucci, FCRH ’19, dashed onto the stage as excited volunteers. She provided the two students with scripts in order to spark their romance, exposing Rodrigue’s love for “girls who wear heelies” and impressive breakdancing skills, which quickly wooed DiBucci into marriage. Bryant stepped in as the passing professor, who encouraged the two to pursue the “serious love connection” which they found on the “Fordham quad.”
The rest of Bryant’s set held no mercy for any students attempting to recover from their laughter. She jumped right into a hilarious narrative of the chain text messages she frequently received from her nine-year-old niece. “There are 20 angels in your world. Ten are sleeping; nine are awake and one is reading this,” began one text. The messages, however, always took a turn for “a dark end” with a sudden urge to forward the chain message, whether it was to avoid finding a “dead little girl in your closet,” or missing out on the bad luck that snagged her friend “the promotion she wanted.”
Bryant closed out the show with a hilarious expose of her childhood journal. From her third-grade “swim meat,” in which she snagged a ribbon for “eighth place,” to her eager plans for her pet “turtels” to “maybe even go in her room,” Bryant’s small daily victories almost sent some members of the Fordham crowd onto the floor from laughing too hard.
She treated the crowd with a final slide of a projection of how her current-day journal would appear, while “keeping the tone and vibe” of her past work. She sketched a page in colorful marker celebrating her 28th year of life, which included pizza and tampon doodles alongside “bills” and “avoiding diarrhea.”
The killer set, however, did not start off cold. After filing in from the chilly rain outside, students were welcomed by the opening student acts of Sam Koll, GSB ’16 and Stephen Kipp, FCRH ’18, as well as professional comedian (and fantastic impressionist) Randy Syphax.
The two student comedians had been selected to open after winning first and second place in the Campus Activities Board’s “Last Comic Standing” competition. “It was really scary to be on stage at first,” said Koll. “I was freaking out backstage because I had never performed for that many people before, and Aidy was on the side watching, so that was just added pressure.” However, Koll wasn’t alone. “[Bryant] told us that she was actually really scared of stand-up and that it made her nervous since her background was in sketch comedy,” said Koll.
Certainly, nerves were no obstacle for any of the performers, as laughter filled the auditorium instantaneously. “The audience was really receptive and excited,” Koll said. Apparently, the feeling was mutual. “Aidy was one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, and she seemed to be actually interested in talking to me and Stephen … she was equally excited to be performing,” said Knoll.
Despite any fear of nerves, weather issues or chain text message curses ruining the evening, the 2016 Spring Weekend comedy show went on without a hitch, providing a comical close to student fanfare. Bryant’s eagerness to interact and collaborate with the Fordham community to get laughs made for a memorable evening for audience members and performers alike.
Students seemed to unanimously approve of their fellow NYC inhabitant, and Bryant will likely be welcomed back at Rose Hill any time if she decides to cough up the $55 tuition in exchange for her Ram horns.
