Laughs, claps and even some snorts filled the air Thursday night at Comedy on The Plains in the Student Center Ballroom, where University Program Council hosted comedian Chris D’Elia.
The show was geared to a mature audience and the predominantly student crowd responded with a standing ovation for D’Elia.
D’Elia’s lead punch line that he spread throughout his performance was about Alabama churches. Before his performance, he alluded to this running joke when he tweeted, “Alabama needs more churches huh?”
Throughout his show, he joked with the audience that there were so many churches in Alabama already, but they are still building more.
“Sucks when you can’t leave a church and walk into another church," D’Elia said sarcastically as audience members laughed aloud.
Other themes throughout D’Elia’s set were white privilege, gangsters, Tupac, his two Yorkie dogs, opossums and his idea for a new type of restaurant.
At one point in D’Elia’s show, his microphone stopped working. UPC members ran around the packed ballroom searching for another microphone while D’Elia yelled to the audience from the stage.
It didn’t take long to get D’Elia another microphone, but he was sure to joke with audience members and UPC members about the conundrum.
D’Elia didn’t joke much about his professional life, rather he focused on aspects of his life that he shared through personal stories.
“We do a yearly survey of the Auburn students that asks who they are most interested in,” said Sarah Hudson, director of speakers and comedians for UPC. “Basically, ask who they are most interested in. They can write in names … so whoever had the highest percentage of requests will be who we pick if they’re in our budget range.”
UPC took a break from hosting Comedy on The Plains last year so it could work on the event to better it for this year. Previously, Comedy on The Plains was hosted in the Student Activities Center with seats for 1,600, compared to 650 seats in the Student Center Ballroom, according to Hudson.
Comedy on The Plains sold out of tickets earlier in the week and students filled almost every seat in the ballroom, Hudson said.
D’Elia’s recent credits include films such as “Little Evil” as Wayne and “XOXO” as Neil. He has also starred as Kenny in “The Good Doctor” on ABC, according to his page on IMBD.
Comedian Mike Lenochi opened for D’Elia with a 15-minute set. Lenochi went to Florida State University and was a member of a fraternity, he explained to the audience in hopes of connecting with them in his opening minutes.
The audience quickly warmed up to Lenochi and laughed often with him as he joked about his lack of a romantic life, Uber and getting into fights.
Baily Ryan Crop, senior in biomedical sciences, and some of her friends knew who D’Elia was before the event, so they decided to come hear his comedy in person rather than on a video.
“We watched three minutes of his [D’Elia’s] standup before,” Crop said. “But he was really funny.”
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