Clarkson Integrator

Issue date: 9/10/07 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Sejal Patel Buzz Sutherland (center), a sixteen-time winner of Comedian of the Year, performed at Clarkson for a large audience. His performance included a dance lesson for two lucky contestants whom Buzz affectionately named Puddin' and Sunshine. Buzz broke down his dance method into four easy and patented steps that any white, heterosexual male could use to immediately become the star of any dance floor.

Friday night, Buzz Sutherland, sponsored by CUB, performed for a packed house in Cheel Commons. Buzz got the energy levels in the room pumping and the crowd went from chuckles to hilarious laughter in no time. Some of the highlights from his show were the black version of crocodile hunter, hand puppet singing (which got the whole audience singing the Black Eyed Peas), and some excellent impressions of characters from King of the Hill singing Amazing Grace. Buzz kept the laughs coming the whole night, including a magic trick no one thought would work and yelling at people as they left for other engagements. He also did impressions of a duck, including duck talking, duck singing, and everyone's favorite: duck having sex. The night was capped by a dance lesson for two audience members that even got Buzz a little uncomfortable. The night was a great show that everyone enjoyed and Buzz even commented on how great a crowd Clarkson was in such a desolate, despairing area as Potsdam. The show never had a dull moment and everyone had a great time. Kudos to CUB for a good show.

Saturday night was sponsored by the GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance), and featured Deborah Eisner, Jules Riley, Lisa Kaplan, Jackie Monahan, known collectively as "The LOL Tour," or Lesbians of Laughter. The show started off well with Eisner talking about her lesbian lifestyle and the more humorous moments of it. Riley and Kaplan followed suit, but their material, while original and funny, sounded too similar with the overall, and sometimes overwhelming, lesbian themes. The entire show was highlighted by a woman in back laughing hysterically at random times. As the audience later discovered, the woman was Monahan, the final comic of the night. Her act was about as crazy as her laugh as she danced around stage with a valley girl accent. Her material was much less lesbian centered, but her antics were over the top and took away from her performance, making her look high, drunk, or both.

I don't, however, mean to knock any of the comics, as their material was certainly funny and original. The problem was that the target audience, mainly heterosexual men, did not relate or, at times, even understand the lesbian themed material presented to them; a problem no different from a white comic with little knowledge of black culture performing at the Apollo. They certainly obtained enough laughs from the crowd, but some of the jokes were followed by an awkward silence or even an uneasy feeling at the overt lesbian material presented to them in such a "PC" world. Although perhaps that's why the GSA brought the LOL Tour to Clarkson - to raise awareness. Regardless of the purpose of the show and the well meaning intentions behind it, the performances seemed to fall short. It seems the law of supply and demand never seemed more prevalent. If it's not in demand, don't supply.

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