Jamie Ondatje
Staff Writer
The sounds of laughter and applause filled Founder’s Auditorium as Kyle Cease and opening act Ben Gleib performed their outrageous stand-up routines on Feb. 28.
Cease poked fun at the ‘historic’ nature of the venue as soon as he stepped on stage.
“Didn’t Lincoln get shot in this theater?” he said. “I think if someone farts in here the ceiling will cave in.”
More than 300 audience members kept laughing as Cease and Gleib doled out hilarious jokes.
“My fake ID was just my school ID with the word ‘old’ written on it,” Cease said in his routine.
He continued to make jokes about his memories from school, a topic which everyone could relate to.
“When he was talking about the elementary school nurses, it really reminded me of my childhood and the bad nurses that I had,” senior speech communications major Adam Carranza said.
Cease, who is known for his early roles as Bogey Lowenstein in “Ten Things I Hate About You” and as the ‘slow clapper’ in “Not Another Teen Movie,” has been focusing on comedy recently and has performed at over 575 colleges.
“Students like comedy events,” Campus Activities Board Comedy Chairwoman Kristina Vaughn said. “They were able to let go, laugh and get away from school for a while.”
The broad audience was not just limited to students, but also included aspiring comedians who admire Cease’s wit.
“Kyle Cease is one of my favorite comic performers,” comedian and ULV alumnus Yesel Manrique said. “He inspires me.”
Comedian Tom Vrab said that Cease is just as admirable off-stage.
“I’ve performed at the same venues as him a couple times and I got to run into him,” Vrab said. “He’s a really down-to-earth, cool guy.”
Cease interacted with the audience a lot throughout the show.
He poked fun at people in the front row and had an off-beat conversation with an audience member about working at McDonald’s for a mere hour and a half.
Besides this entertaining dialogue, Cease had several other approaches to making the audience laugh.
He spoofed a magic show, while dancing around in his socks.
He also showed off his talents on the piano with his Elton John impersonations during the show.
This spontaneous nature is exactly why Cease’s fans enjoy his comedy so much. It made the whole act seem effortless, yet completely entertaining at the same time.
“I like that he improvises a lot,” athletic training major Amanda Seibert said.
The laid-back style seems to be Cease’s preference as well.
“Honestly, for me, there is no preparation,” he said. “It makes the show much free-er.”
Before the end of the show, Gleib, who is known for his role on NBC’s “The Real Wedding Crashers,” ran across the stage wearing only his boxers and his socks.
“I knew Kyle was going to comment about how weird the show was going, so I thought it would be even weirder if I walked across the stage naked,” Gleib said.
This haphazard approach seems to be a success for the comedians, as they were met with a standing ovation at the end of the show.
Afterwards many audience members gathered in the hall to meet Gleib and Cease, to take pictures with them and to get their CDs signed.
“I loved the school,” Cease said. “I had a great time.”
A schedule of Cease’s upcoming shows can be found at his MySpace page www.myspace.com/kylecease, and a schedule of Gleib’s upcoming shows can be found at www.myspace.com/gleib.
Jamie Ondatje can be reached at jondatje@ulv.edu.
Journalism operations manager at the University of La Verne. Production manager and business manager of the Campus Times.