On Jan. 21, Activities Management Program hosted a comedy show featuring comedian Aaron Weber. The event was held in Knott Auditorium and started at 9 p.m. The 29-year-old Nashville-based comedian made his comedy debut in 2019 as the youngest stand-up comedian to perform at the Grand Ole Opry.
Students welcomed Weber with cheers and applause as he walked on stage. He informed the crowd that this was not only his first time performing at the Mount, but his first time performing in Maryland. He kicked off the night sharing stories about his life through jokes while interacting with the crowd.
These interactions kept the energy high as he shared what it was like being the son of a high school principal. He joked that living with your high school principal is like living with one’s boss. Both Weber and the crowd shared stories of senior pranks, and how his house was usually at the receiving end of the school’s pranks. Apparently, seniors loved to throw eggs and toilet paper at the principal’s house.
His humor took an ever so slightly personal turn when Weber stated he never has any idea what to say if someone knocks on the stall door of a public restroom. When asked, the crowd’s answers ranged from “Someone’s in here” to “Just a minute.” Weber informed the crowd that he was told to say, “I’m in here,” as if the person knocking knows who is inside. Which, he said, “works if you are in your own home, but not always in public.” The crowd enthusiastically agreed with him.
Due to the men’s basketball game against Sacred Heart being the same night at 7 p.m., Weber asked if anyone had gone. A good portion of the crowd responded that they had, and he shared that he had played basketball years before during grade school. Weber had joked that he was the one that the coach would put in if his team needed to stop the clock. He had been thrown out of almost 10 basketball games when he played.
Once Weber was in college, he decided that it was the right time to start drinking alcohol. So as a first-year college student, Weber took his fake I.D. to a bar and ordered what he believed to be an alcoholic beverage: a club soda. He explained that he had never really encountered club soda before, that he had always drank tap water. As a result, he walked up to the bartender and confidently ordered a club soda. The crowd laughed as he went on to preach that the placebo effect is real and believing that he drank about 10 alcoholic drinks made him feel drunk.
On the topic of college, Weber revealed that he graduated with a philosophy degree. That degree, he joked, is being put to good use now that he’s a stand-up comic. Since COVID-19 has spread across the world, being a stand-up comedian with a degree in philosophy doesn’t exactly make someone essential personnel. Unless it has become essential, he said, to ask “What is Covid?”
The crowd laughed through that night as Aaron Weber engaged them with both funny and personal stories. The crowd enjoyed his humor, but his storyline was what captivated the audience. Overall, the show was well received by the Mount community.