Bo Burnam in Concert

Not sure if you've heard, but there is a young comedian by the name of Bo Burnam who is taking the internet by force. While he is most famous for the song "Helen Keller is my perfect woman," I prefer "New Math." I find him quite hilarious, but some may find his humor crude or irreverent, so exercise caution if you feel the need to look him up.

I was lucky I even discovered this free concert. It was featured in Penn State's student newspaper on page 6 in a brief notice of the day's events. How could this possibly be? A great comedian like Bo Burnam on page 6? The article said he'd be on for about an hour from 9:30 to 10:30-ish, admission was free, and the SPA was expecting around 500 students to attend.

Immediately, I called James and Jacob to tell them we would be going to that concert. Of course, the boys made me late so we had to stand in the very back. More than 500 people showed up, so not enough seats were available and a lot of people were standing in the back.

I laughed so hard. He is even more funny in person. The highlight of the show was a man walking in fifteen minutes late and taking a seat in the third row. Bo stopped what he was playing to ask "Where were you?" "Uh...across campus," said the man. Bo replied, "That's really vague. Where were you?" "In the Willard Building," said the man. Bo replied, "Across campus? That's, like, across the street." (Willard is practically across the street.) "So what were you doing in the Willard Building?" "Rehearsing," said the man. Bo replied, "Rehearsing what?" "Improv," said the man. "Rehearsing improv? Dude, you don't rehearse improve. That's the point." I had a good laugh throughout, but especially at this point. Bo continued on his rant about this man showing up late because he was across the street rehearsing improv.

My second favorite part was when he looked over his should, gasped, jumped, and pointed to his shadow. "I thought it was a black man." Looking around, we realized there were not actually any black people in the audience, which he pointed out later in one of his songs. "Now just the black people sing it..." There were five second of laughter, followed by, "Guess I'm not popular with the minorities."



After the show, in which Bo Burnam played all our favorite songs, he did a little meet and greet with the audience. I got to meet him long enough for my five second photo shoot and a few sentences about his comfort level with being touched by strangers. He's fine with it, but his girlfirend might mind. Bo is much taller in person. He doesn't look so tall on the internet, but he's a good six and a half feet tall. You can tell by how far he had to bend over just to get in the same picture with me.

It was a good night and I had a great time.