Equipped with a guitar in hand and standing in front of a crowd of UT students looking to be relieved from final exam studying, former Saturday Night Live cast member Luke Null delivered a standup show on Tuesday evening in the Shirley Bird Perry Ballroom.
Riddled with relatable college student experiences, the comedian’s material poked fun at everything from HPV, or Human Papillomavirus, to long-distance relationships. Null’s material came in the form of singing, each joke taking its own chords, rhythm and beat to make for a captivating performance. Introducing himself, he sang about receiving an invitation from Campus Events and Entertainment to help students blow off some steam.
“We need you to raise the horniness levels in the room a little bit,” Null sang. “I said, you hired the right guy.”
The guitar merely accompanied Null’s full-bodied voice, as he harmonized on conspiracy theories at the Thanksgiving dinner table, elaborating on the deceiving nature of Wet Wipes and resealable tops.
“When you go to grab one, you always end up with two,” Null belted. “They make it so hard to slip them things back inside of the package neatly. … Can I get an amen?”
A wave of “Amen’s” sang across the ballroom, students exchanging amused looks. Null used this crowd work in between songs to interact with the shy number of students in the audience. He started with pointing and shouting out tables, then moved to asking polls about who would be hooking up tonight and if anyone knew what the most popular STD is.
“Cool guy table, shout it out! ” Null sang, before the group of boys responded. “Herpes is wrong, but it says a lot about you!”
Not all jokes circled around sexual innuendos, with Null taking a stab at students dating their high school sweethearts. He said while the song was not received well by colleges he performed at, he would sing it regardless.
“New town, new school, new friends,” Null sang, “same girlfriend.”
Students cracked up, laughter bubbling from the tables. Among the attendees sat radio-television-film freshman Anthony Mendoza, who said he enjoyed Null’s relatable content and humor, which helped him relax from finals week.
“I’ve been wanting to have a good laugh for a while,” Mendoza said. “It feels relatable. He was talking about some of his problems, but those problems relate to some of us that are almost going through the same thing.”
Zoé Smiley, a Campus Events and Entertainment student affairs administrator, said this event aimed to give students a chance to relax from their exams and to focus on having a memorable experience.
“A couple students came and they’re like ‘I’m obsessed’,” Smiley said. “And other people are like, ‘I’ve never heard of this person.’ But it’s really just giving people the opportunity to have a chill time before finals.”
Null thanked the crowd of students for making time to attend and laugh along with him, granting everybody who attended a good grade.
“Thank you for hanging out with me on a Tuesday night,” Null said. “Honestly, if you ask me, y’all deserve an ‘A’ in my book.”