More than 600 students crowded into the St. Louis Room in the Busch Memorial Center last Saturday night to see comedian David Cross perform. One of Welcome Week’s biggest events, the show turned out to be controversial as well as comical, leaving some audience members laughing and others just leaving.
Saint Louis University’s Student Activities Board booked Cross, who has written for television and appeared in movies such as Men In Black. Students who attended the event squished into rows of chairs and even sat in the aisles in anticipation of a laugh-fest.
By the end of the night, however, Cross’ stand-up routine had offended, angered or perhaps bored enough of the audience that more than one-third of the crowd had walked out. The people who remained experienced a show that was different than what SAB had intended to present.
Some students exited the event as Cross’ act touched on subjects including Christianity. Toward the beginning of his performance, Cross informed the audience that he hadn’t known that SLU was a Jesuit university until shortly before he arrived to perform. He repeated this sentiment after the show. He said when he found out SLU was a Catholic school he’d asked members of SAB, “Really? Have you seen my act? Do you know what I do?”
Chris Grabau, program coordinator of Student Life, said that everyone who performs at SLU is informed-before they are even booked-that this is a Jesuit University and that he or she must meet certain expectations of taste. Cross’ management sent SAB a tape of his stand-up in a HBO comedy special. Grabau said Cross was told that “some of the sex stuff was too edgy,” but most of the religion-oriented comedy did not appear on the tape.
Grabau criticized Cross for not “tailoring his act” after finding out that SLU was indeed a Jesuit university. “Instead, (Cross) started provoking the audience and continued to be as offensive as he wanted
to be. There is a fine line between being relatively offensive and being offensive to a specific market like the Catholic, Jesuit community.”
Adam Thenhaus, a SLU sophomore, enjoyed the show. “I was shocked by some of it, but it was a good show. He was funny; he could take the most disgusting situation and make it humorous.”
When asked what he thought of the walk-outs, Thenhaus said, “They can walk out if they want. A friend of mine actually got mad at me for not walking out.”
Cross said the walkouts threw off his rhythm, and that he found himself trying to edit his act as he was performing, which hindered the quality of his performance. SAB ended up cutting the act slightly short.
