Melanie Comarcho, as seen on Shaq’s All Star Comedy Jam and on tour with Katt Williams, told the audience times were getting hard for her.

“Cigarettes are seven dollars a pack in L.A. — I was selling weed to buy cigarettes,” Comarcho told the crowd about why she quit smoking.

She also said times were also getting hard for single ladies.

“You all really got it bad,” Comarcho said. “They say there’s a man shortage. There ain’t no man shortage. You ain’t gonna find a man with a job, a place, a car and good sex, too. That’s some shit your momma made up to keep hope alive. Ain’t no such thing.”

Comarcho was one of three comedians who performed Saturday night at the Black United Students 2012 Homecoming Comedy Show. Other comedians included Tony Tone from Tyler Perry’s “I Can Do Bad All By Myself,” Cleveland veteran comedian Mike Jones and the show’s MC Slim “Hilarious” Cole.

The African American crowd danced to hip-hop beats between comedic acts with DJ LoKEY on the turntables. BUS programming co-director, Kevin Bouknight, said he and fellow programming co-director, Karee Beasley, picked comedians whose names would be familiar to students.

“We chose the comedians based off of popularity,” Bouknight said. “I think they all equally had a positive reaction from the audience. It’s a tradition for Black United Students to hold a comedy show for all of the students here at Kent State for social entertainment.”

Tone took to the stage and hyped up the crowd with beatboxing to old-school hits like “We Will Rock You,” which had audience members on their feet, dancing.

Known in the comedic world for his impressions, he packed his act with characters including Transformer Optimus Prime acting as a pimp and Sesame Street characters like Oscar the Grouch, who he said was “the biggest drug dealer on Sesame Street.”

Tone went back to his past and recalled “the longest ass whooping I ever had in my life.”

“It was like everything turned in slow motion,” he said. “It didn’t matter where I ran; it didn’t matter how hard I ran. It was a cold, cold December Sunday. A football Sunday, I felt like a running back in an NFL field.”

Tone then proceeded to act out a series of slow-motion football moves accompanied by Sports Center themed music.

Jones, 25-year veteran comedian from Cleveland, garnered the most laughs from the crowd as he told them the criteria for a “raggedy-ass car.”

“Some of you don’t want to admit it,” Jones said. “You got a raggedy-ass car when you got a four door car and only one door opens. Your car is whack when you got to let your window down to let your ass out. And last but not least, you got a piece of shit when you pull up to the drive-through window to get your food, but you gotta pull a little past that window and reach back to get your damn food. Clap your hands if you got a raggedy car.”

Cole, the six-foot-five slender funnyman from the University of Akron, joined in on the fun sharing about his trip to the club.

“These girls, they be dancing on my knee caps at the club and then I see them in church the next morning,” said Cole poking fun at himself.

Camilia Aldridge, junior human development major, said Jones’ act was her favorite.

“I know a lot of people who got a raggedy car, and they think that their car is fine,” she said. “I think a lot of stuff he made jokes about was related to college students and real life and everyday things in general.”

D’Angelo Sharpley, freshman exercise science major, came to the show with his teammates from the track team. He said they enjoyed sitting in the front row and being the brunt of some jokes.

“I thought it was cool,” Sharpley said. “They shouted us out a lot … Mike Jones was our favorite. He kept it real and he was really interactive with us.”

Contact Madeleine Winer at [email protected].