It was a packed house in the Chumash auditorium for the performance of comedian Ralphie May on Wednesday night.
May’s sold-out show had the audience in-tears, laughing over his jokes on relationships, sex, race and political correctness.
“I thought it was hilarious,” architecture sophomore Anthony Fossi said. “Some of his stuff I had never heard.”
May, who was runner-up for “Last Comic Standing” in 2004, was surprised by the enormous crowd, which included some students who spent over an hour waiting in line to see him perform.
“I wasn’t expecting as much as I got,” May said. “I wasn’t expecting the turnout, I wasn’t expecting them to have to turn people away, I wasn’t expecting the facilities to be as good as they are; for the sound to be great and for that matter the audience to be as good.”
An hour before the show, there was already a considerable line outside the doors to Chumash that expanded all the way to The Avenue. May joked that even he wouldn’t have waited that long to see himself perform.
May doubled his performance expectations, telling jokes for twice as long as the hour he was scheduled for.
“You know it’s good when you it doesn’t feel like you’ve done two hours (of stand up),” May said. “When it feels like you’ve done maybe 40 minutes and you look down at your watch and your at two hours and time flies by, that’s how much fun you’re having.”
May, who has done three comedy specials with Comedy Central, made comical observations on relevant social issues.
“My job as entertainer is to first make people laugh and then one of the things I’ve taken up is to make people think as well,” May said. “Because when you’re making people laugh, it opens the minds up.”
“People don’t realize that there are actual lessons in my comedy, but when they break it down and they realize what it is, the reason I say certain things and do certain things is it all has a purpose. It’s all well thought out; it’s all executed and designed to be thought provoking.”
Many students enjoyed the show, as well as those underlying lessons May offered up.
“He was definitely on topic with things, he had some good points,” Fossi said. “(He) had a little bit of philosophy in there, very subtle.”
May received a standing ovation at the end of his performance and waited after the show until every fan got an autograph or picture.
“You know what, it worked,” May said. Everybody made it through. Did I say inappropriate words? Yeah, I sure did but you know what? Nobody died, no drama happened, nothing bad happened and there’s a lesson in that.”
May said he was appreciative of Cal Poly’s hospitality. “I had a great time,” he said. “It was awesome, everybody has treated me awesome. The jokes were on the house.”
Although there were no perceived complaints about the nature of May’s comedy he believed that controversy could be a positive tool to be used by society.
“Some people get mad at it; people only see it for the surface and that’s good too, anytime you spark controversy,” he said. “What society tells you right now could be wrong in five years.”
“That’s what I do, to basically be the finger in your ass to let you know ‘hey, you’re still alive, you know? Hey, you’re going to be all right, you’re going to get through it. And again, just to the knuckle.”