Tearing UB students from their laptops and thousands of Buffalonians from their television screens, political satirist and television personality Stephen Colbert took the Alumni Arena stage with no particular agenda, speaking his mind in a slightly different style.
Charging onto stage to Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me," Colbert gave the crowd a taste of what to expect without saying a word, twirling about on stage with intensity and charm.
"I don't know if there's anyone else I'd rather hear speak," said Buffalo resident Ryan Caprio, an avid fan of Colbert's Comedy Central show The Colbert Report.
The comedian was quick to distinguish himself from his Hollywood personality, admitting that the Colbert viewers watch from their living rooms each night differs slightly from Stephen Colbert, the man. "One of us has bigger balls," Colbert said.
The statement was met with cries of "prove it!" from the upper level student section. Colbert deemed this section "the Obama seats," regarding the more expensive floor seats, occupied by a generally older crowd, as "Clinton seats."
While Colbert Report fans may have been expecting the show's character to come out Friday night, none seemed too disappointed in Colbert's oddly honest, sincere delivery. He offered familiar comedic stunts, such as his every "The Word" segment, and surprisingly affective confrontational tangents. These were brought to the surface when Colbert challenged the youth in the audience to be more passionate, using the now infamous "Don't Taze Me Bro" incident as a jump-off point.
Colbert imitated the inactive students in the Youtube video, idly watching their fellow student tazered by law enforcement: "I wish they'd stop tazering this guy so I can go home and watch this guy get tazered on Youtube."
And while these accusations of laziness should have come off as biased and bitter, they failed to prevent smiles.
"He said anything he wanted without offending people," said Matthew Widay, a sophomore environmental engineering major.
This politically incorrect, comedic angle, not new for Colbert, complemented the performer's natural timing and tone, and succeeded in getting laughs from the audience without seeming too rehearsed and structured. Instead of allowing his honest voice and noticeably more humble and carefree demeanor to hurt his jokes, Colbert made the jokes work for his "non-character," a tribute to the artist's confidence in his material, both prepared and improvised.
Colbert admitted in his true disappointment at being kicked off of the Democratic ballot in South Carolina. "For a moment I was actually sad," Colbert admitted, blaming the dissatisfaction on having to embody his television character in order for the jokes to fully work. "I have to believe my own bulls*it."
For some in attendance, Colbert's lack of ridiculousness was more than refreshing.
"Sometimes he gets caught up in his own character," said Christopher Nuzback, sophomore business major, sifting the negatives of Colbert the character from the positives of Colbert the man. "He wasn't trying to prove some crazy point...he was just being Steve."
Colbert, the final speaker of UB's 2007-08 Distinguished Speaker Series (or, as Colbert called it: "Talky Time with Stephen") went so far as to confirm that his TV character's fear of bears is real, as well as divulging the birth of Colbert's famous word "truthiness," changed from "truth" only minutes before the premiere of The Colbert Report.
One of the highlights of the night came when Colbert reviewed the Presidential race thus far, noting the diversity of the Republican candidates by color coding each one of them, ranging from eggshell to sandpaper (a.k.a Rudy Giuliani). He also did not forget to dwell on Mitt Romney's good looks.
"I'm as straight as they come, but gun to my head, sure," Colbert said, in reference to forced sexual relations with Romney.
Despite the creative speech, the biggest laughs of the night undoubtedly came during the Q&A segment of the show, in which Colbert was asked to create a Jon Stewart-inspired Ben & Jerry's flavor, deciding on a gummy bear and matzah ice cream named "Chewy Jewy."
"I liked the ice cream flavor thing," said Kelly Norman, sophomore Spanish/Psychology major. "I also liked how he checked the bull for balls."
Towards the end of the show, Colbert walked back to the metallic buffalo that stands behind each speaker, checking the beast for genitalia.
Gimmicks like this, funny as they were, did not stop the man from coming out of his shell at select times throughout the performance. It was most noticeable when a questioner from the audience asked the non-New York resident Colbert to run for senator of New York if Senator Clinton won the Presidency. He alluded to the fact that one only needs a New York mailing address to be eligible to run for senator.
Colbert, clearly flabbergasted by the loophole, responded with: "Are you sh*tting me?!" following that with: "Is that how [she] did it?!"
After giving the city of Buffalo its own word ("wingful"), comparing former Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich to Gollum, and calling smitten UB student Chen Chen "so nice they named her twice" the Buffalo audience seemed satisfied with the satirical style, or lack thereof.
"He had a message: get off your lazy ass," Nuzback said.
Despite playing a character every night on a faux-political show, Colbert proved that sometimes, even in comedy, honesty really is the best policy.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
