This past cold, rainy Tuesday night, many a midterm-battered Hopkins student found his or her refuge at the Shriver Auditorium for a little chill time. That night, the Student Council Entertainment Committee, RAB, Office of Greek Life and Sigma Alpha Mu (aka SAMMY) held a variety show, which was also a charity event to benefit the Red Cross Katrina Relief Fund and Pediatric AIDS.
Despite unseasonably crappy weather and midterms, a small but stalwart audience of about 300 showed up to support Hopkins' talent and save New Orleans. Whatever their reasons were for coming, audience members were treated to an excellent show with a wide variety of acts, attesting to the hidden talent here at Hopkins that just doesn't get enough lovin' sometimes.
Two extremely fine gentlemen started the evening off with a little acoustic guitar and crooner action. Anthony Blaha and the Good Fellows, consisting of Anthony Blaha and Tom Fellows, played all of their own original material, including "Intimidated," "They Only Know," "Pretty Lady," "Catch Me If You Can," and their popular hit, "License to Kiss." All in all, their performance was most excellent and set the informal mood of the rest of the variety show.
The next act was the MC of the evening, resident Hopkins Seinfeld and Biochem TA, Adam Ruben. After a little initial awkwardness, Ruben found his groove in ripping on the Hopkins traditions we all know and love; like our aggressive mascot, the Blue Jay, that assuredly strikes fear into the hearts of all our enemies and our beloved non-English speaking TAs. Some crowd favorites had to be the spiels on Chicken Zingers and Smoky the Bear. The lucky few who were there can chuckle in remembrance and those of you who weren't should definitely catch Adam Ruben's act sometime. He is the embodiment of Hopkins humor -- proving once again that one can take the MCAT and have fun being bitter about it, too.
Following Ruben's act were the Allnighters, the sexiest all-male a capella group (actually, the only all-male a capella group) on campus. They serenaded the audience with three songs, starting with "Desperado," featuring soloist James Clark. Next was "Fair," featuring Steve Dunay with James Clark accompanying, and finally, the Allnighters debuted their newest work, "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers, featuring soloist Chris King. All three pieces were divine and proved that, though prospective doctors may not be able to write, they sure can sing.
Finally, it was time for comedian Steve Hofstetter, the big name on the flyers that was the main attraction of this variety show. His credentials include appearances on NBC, Comedy Central and his own show on Sirius Radio. The man lived up to his legend and was entertainingly offensive from the get-go, smoothly flowing from fat jokes to race jokes with refreshing lack of concern for the PC or conservative Bush lovers in the audience. For all the oppressed liberals of America, Hofstetter represents.
All in all the evening was a huge success. The audience left that night satisfied with a new Chappelle-style cult already forming around Hofstetter. In addition, at least $864 was raised from ticket revenues alone. With the addition of Hofstetter's donation of his book sales to the charity pot that night, the final amount raised for the benefiting charities was approximately $1,000. Besides benefiting those in need, this variety show gave an excellent opportunity for artistic talent on this campus to exhibit itself and get more support from the student body. Student Council has promised that this past week's show was only the first in a series throughout this year. So watch out for the next variety show and take advantage of the opportunity for some cheap, good-quality entertainment.
