Some people loved it, some
hated it, but one word effectively
describes the crowd’s reaction to Norm MacDonald’s Friday night stand up comedy performance at McArthur Court.
Shock.
A raucous audience of nearly 3,000 students crowded Mac Court to see the former “Saturday Night Live” star. MacDonald’s performance lasted nearly two hours and consisted almost entirely of material that was most decidedly adult-themed.
At 8:15 p.m., the crowd was
surprised by an unexpected guest: former WWF wrestling superstar Rowdy Roddy Piper. Bounding upon the stage wearing a kilt and blowing on a University noisem
aker, Piper entertained the crowd for about 10 minutes with a hyper, confusing act. Highlights included hitting his assistant in the face with a folding chair and demonstrating how a bear searches for honey
hidden in the human rectum.
Taking the stage next was Stevie Ray Fromstein, an old friend of MacDonald’s and also the co-executive producer of the sitcom, “Two Guys and a Girl.” Dressed conservatively and sporting glasses, Fromstein looked more like a University professor than a stand-up comedian.
Fromstein quickly won the crowd over, however, with a rousing 20-minute string of jokes and anecdotes about his troubles with women.
Fromstein advised audience members to “be careful about who you marry, because that’s the woman you’re going to spend the next five years of your life with.”
Thanks to the excellent job by the opening acts, the audience was warmed up by the time MacDonald slowly walked across the stage at 8:45 p.m. Applause erupted through the room as the mostly
20-something crowd caught sight of its collective comic hero.
Walking coolly up to the microphone, he said, “So, this is a crazy fucking town.”
Needless to say, the entire basketball court exploded with cheers.
Using Eugene’s “drug town”
reputation as a launching pad for his material, MacDonald quickly struck a chord by speaking on the topic of drug use.
“Crack, of course, nothing good about crack — except the incredible way it makes you feel,” he said to riotous laughter.
“I figure that anything that
people will shoot you in the
fucking head for has to be good,” he continued. “It’s not like anyone will shoot you for a pizza.”
MacDonald explained that he was growing a beard for a movie that he was appearing in, and that he usually tries to appear more
presentable. He mentioned the fact that most of the audience looked a lot better than he did.
“Most of you motherfuckers look strong, like you could kick the shit out of me,” he said.
Throughout MacDonald’s set, faces turned red and jaws dropped as the boundaries of taste were pushed. Naturally, he got the biggest laughs out of the most over-the-top jokes, although a trip into material dealing with how funny death and cancer can be wasn’t as well-received as the previous jokes.
Perhaps sensing that he had gone too far, toward the end of the show MacDonald added with a smirk that “I’m not a real dirty person. I just talk about what I think about.”The highlight of MacDonald’s set very well could have been the moment he proclaimed that “all I do is eat grilled cheese sandwiches and whack off.”
Kristin Donnelly, an undeclared sophomore, was somewhat surprised by the content of MacDonald’s performance.
“Not what I expected, but it was good. I enjoyed it,” she said.
Carl Wiese drove from Corvallis to catch MacDonald’s act.
“I just like some of his impressions. I liked his sitcom, I like ‘Saturday Night Live.’ He does a really good Burt Reynolds [impression],” he said.
Robin Ziari, a junior music major, perhaps put it best when he exclaimed: “I’ve never heard so many cock jokes in my life!”