National comedians crack up crowd

Caitlin Prarat

Comedian Kyle Grooms performs at the Black United Students’ Homecoming Comedy Show in the Student Center Ballroom Friday night. Caitlin Prarat | Daily Kent Stater

Credit: Ron Soltys

Alex Thomas knows it’s not “gangsta” to wear glasses.

“You can’t be a gangsta with an astigmatism,” Thomas said. “What am I gonna do, rob a bookstore? People think I look smart.”

The audience erupted in laughter.

“I didn’t go to Harvard. I went to LensCrafters,” he said.

More than 400 people laughed along as comedians played the crowd Friday night in the Kent Student Center Ballroom. Alex Thomas, Kyle Grooms, Benji Brown and Nema Williams performed as part of Black United Students’ annual comedy show, part of last week’s Homecoming programming.

The quartet joked about everything from black relationships to college life to interactions with the police.

“The most embarrassing thing is to get pulled over by the bicycle cops,” Thomas said.

While Thomas has lent his voice to Cartoon Network’s “Family Guy,” all the comedians have received national attention. Williams, Brown and Grooms have appeared on Black Entertainment Television’s “ComicView,” and Grooms has also appeared on “Chappelle’s Show.”

“Some countries don’t have water to drink,” Grooms said, taking a sip from his bottle. “We playin’ in the shit, and we have water theme parks.”

The audience roared throughout the evening. Christina Crawford, sophomore athletic training major, wasn’t totally impressed but said she liked Thomas’ routine the most.

“(The show) wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be,” Crawford said. “It was better last year.”

But Derrick Logan, freshman electronic media major, said he was taken by all the acts.

“I was laughing the whole show,” Logan said. “All the comedians had my attention the whole time. They were all funny.”

Contact news correspondent Caitlin Prarat at [email protected]. Assistant all editor Adam Griffiths also contributed to this story.