 "Photo: Ralph, Mike")
During a weekend filled with parades, carnivals and football games, Jimmy Fallon, best known for his time on "Saturday Night Live," came to the UNH Field House on Friday as this year's homecoming comedian. The show was the start of a brief college tour before Fallon's upcoming gig as the new "Late Night" host in March 2009, where he'll be taking over for Conan O'Brien.
Before the show started, the majority of people in line had the same consensus-they were either there because A). They had nothing else to do that night or B). They were just simply excited to see a celebrity, especially one from "SNL." The problem was students didn't have very high expectations for his stand-up routine.
"I'm excited because he was on 'SNL.' That's about it," said Erin Gayner, a sophomore who was first in line, having waited four hours with her younger sister. "But still, we're gonna rush to the front," she said.
Throughout the hour-long period from when the doors opened to the when the show started, the crowds slowly but surely filed in, yet the Field House never came to a jam-packed full house.
SCOPE wanted everyone to have a good seat this year without having an obstructed view or having people sit in the aisles. So rather than jam-pack the field house, they simply sold enough tickets for what was considered a "sold-out show" with 2,361 tickets, without overselling the show, according to SCOPE Publicity Director Sara Townsend.
"2100 people came, and we sold 2,361 tickets (for a sold out show), which we see as a success in college show standards, being UNH kids tend to bail out or find other plans, but the place was packed!" Townsand said in an e-mail.
Sporting a UNH sweatshirt, Fallon performed for just under 50 minutes, combining improvisation and song skills into his stand-up routine. Starting off with "Car wash for peace," originally a song performed for charity in 2007, Fallon got the crowd going.
"This is my first college show in like six years," Fallon said. "Lots of young kids here---that's good. This front row here looks like the cast of "High School Musical." I think that's Zac Efron right there," Fallon said.
As far as young kids go, Matt Kirshen, best known for being a finalist in Season 5's "Last Comic Standing," was Fallon's opening act. Most students didn't know who he was despite his fame on the NBC hit show, but that didn't stop the laughter.
"I've never heard of him but from what I did I really liked," said Tara Driscoll, a freshman.
The 28-year-old English comedian who looks far too young for his age, Kirshen had some suggestions for those that look as young as he does. "For those of you that look younger than you are…go to the park and expose yourself to strangers and they get arrested," he said.
"His joke style reminded me of my friend, very sarcastic and blunt, only she's not male or British," senior Allie Hartnett said.
Performing for approximately 35 minutes, Kirshen relayed the woes of ketchup, our fat-kid generation versus the plague generation ("Is our overweight generation that bad compared to when kids had the plague?"), and his mom's text messaging interpretations ("LOL=Lots of love, not lots of laughs.")
Yet it was hard for many, especially in the bleachers, to understand Kirshen's quick talking combined with his English accent.
"He was really hard to understand, so I couldn't get into his jokes that much," said senior Michael Wally.
Kirshen had one message to leave his American audience with. "Believe me when I say Americans are nice people. You don't hear that a lot but believe me, Americans are nice people. Brits aren't…they just sound nice."
As the night rolled on, main headliner Fallon received many "I love you's" and "What's ups" from the crowd, and even a "Freebird" request. He was the man to see and received "LOL-Lots of love" as this year's Homecoming comedian.
"Jimmy Fallon looked hot not only in temperature but in steez (style and ease)," said senior Tori Wilbur-Kamien.
Although Fallon didn't play the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic, he did perform many songs with his guitar in hand including "You spit when you talk," and "Green concert," with takes on popular artists' songs, but in an earth-friendly green-style. For instance, Justin Timberlake's "Bringing Sexy Back," was performed as "Bringing Bottles Back." Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" morphed into "I Kissed Al Gore." Even our very own Spring Climax performer of 2008, Snoop Dogg, was brought onto the song list with a cover of "Sensual Seduction" transformed into "Ethanol Production."
Incorporating UNH jokes into his act, with references to DHOP, Scorpions, the best places to drink, and the Gables (or as Fallon referred to it as "Gay Balls"), Fallon seemed to be stalling for time with UNH hockey questions or sending the winning vibe to the Red Sox. But despite his short routine, Fallon was always on point with his impersonations, which included ones of Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, PeeWee Herman, Robin Williams and Chris Rock, among other various comedians that supposedly had performed at UNH over the years.
To close out the night, Fallon performed his specialty act that he's been doing for years, a favorite for many UNH students.
"Has anyone ever realized you can perform any 80s song to MC Hammer's 'You can't touch this'?" Fallon said.
In turn, he performed a slew of 80s songs to the beat, including Ah-ha's "Take on Me," the Buggles' "Video killed the radio star," Corey Hart's "I wear my sunglasses at night," and Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me."
"It [Fallon's routine] was short, but his singing...with MC Hammer at the end… was really funny," said Wally.
In the end fans were pleased they came out.
"He was really good. I was very impressed with all his stuff. I enjoyed his singing pieces a lot, especially the 80s songs," said Driscoll.
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