Katt “Money Mike” Williams, headliner of the Black Comedy Tour, performed in the Student Center Ballroom on Friday night along with fellow comedians Gary Owens, Cocoa Brown and Damon Williams.

Credit: Steve Schirra

A sold-out performance for the Black Comedy Tour proved to be a bigger event than expected.

As part of the weekend’s Homecoming festivities, Black United Students and the All Campus Programming Board sponsored the Friday night show in the Student Center Ballroom. DJ Lo-Key provided music before the show and between the four comedians’ acts.

Comedian Gary Owens, who hosted the show, started his act by making fun of Kent State’s team name, the Golden Flashes.

Noticing a group of white students in the front row, he started teasing them about how they seemed to be the only white students in the audience.

“They probably saw my picture in the flyer and thought it was a white show,” Owens said, laughing.

Matthew Cox, BUS president, said he was very pleased by the outcome of the show. More than 1,100 people came to the comedy event.

“More students were there than we had seats,” he said.

He said the number of non-Kent State students in the audience surprised him despite all the promotion work they did in the Akron area.

Latia Partee and Laresha Sharp came from Cleveland because their cousin told them about the show.

“It was better than I expected,” Partee said. “I liked the host better because it (his act) wasn’t staged.”

Sharp said she enjoyed the whole show.

“It was the best show I’ve seen in a long time,” she said.

But this wasn’t headliner Katt “Money Mike” Williams’ first time in Kent. He came to campus two years ago for the Black Comedy Tour.

Comedian Cocoa Brown, known from “Showtime at the Apollo” and BET’s “Comic View,” told the girls in the audience they are truly lucky if they have the kind of girlfriends who will stick with them through everything.

“You could be dead wrong, and she will still fight for your ass,” she said.

Brown also specifically told all freshmen girls to be on the look out for the sexual predator known as “the 27-year-old sophomore.”

Following Brown was Damon Williams from “Def Comedy Jam.” He talked about how getting gas in this area is different from the ‘hood. He said usually drivers have to pay first before pumping gas.

He said he went to a gas station in the Kent area and saw that he could pay afterwards.

“Is this a test from the Lord?” he said.

Aaron Darden, senior political science major, said even though he really liked the show, no one could top D.L. Hughley, who performed in a past comedy show.

Because of the success of this year’s show, Cox said BUS would most likely have the Black Comedy Tour return next year.

Contact religion and minority affairs reporter Bryan Wroten at [email protected].