Ferrell yucks it up with BC crowd

For the first time in months, an event was held at Conte Forum that packed the stands.

As part of the Funny or Die Comedy Tour and a promotion for his upcoming film, Semi-Pro, celebrity funnyman Will Ferrell and fellow comedians Demetri Martin, Nick Swardson, and Zach Galifianakis brought raucous laughter to a sold-out crowd at Boston College last night. The team of comics was also accompanied by Will Arnett, husband of BC grad Amy Poehler. The event was hosted by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC), which got in an early bid for one of the tour's stops for the University's spring event. The tour is relatively short, making only eight stops, the others of which are at Kansas State, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, URI, UNC Chapel Hill, and Radio City Music Hall.

Donning a Notre Dame sweatshirt, Ferrell strutted on stage to a booing crowd, only to bring forth an explosion of cheers as he ripped it off to reveal a BC sweatshirt. From that point on, Ferrell served as a pseudo-emcee for the night, introducing each comic before they took the stage. Before each introduction, however, he would spend time interacting with the crowd, including a question-and-answer session, and a "Valentine's Day interview" with a selected female from the audience.

"I've never seen Conte this packed before, not even for Kanye," said Erica Reisenwitz, UGBC executive director of campus entertainment and A&S '08. "Even the standing room was filled." The 6,500 available tickets were on sale starting at 7 a.m. on Jan. 29, and by approximately 11:30 a.m. the next day, they were all sold, resulting in a massive turn out.

"If you knew this was coming, which most people did, and you logged in on the first day, you got tickets," said Dan Sievers, UGBC vice president and A&S '08. While he acknowledged that there were some glitches and brief descriptions in the athletics online ticketing system, which was used to sell the tickets, Sievers said, "Demand really met supply here."

Some of the more extreme moments - including caressing football coach Jeff Jagodzinski's face before kissing him on the forehead during his closing number - added to the hilarity of the night, but some of them perhaps pushed the envelope.

Touching on homosexuality, various races, and mentally challenged people, some elements of the act were reminiscent of D.L. Hughley's performance at BC in 2005, which resulted in a small amount of student outcry. "As far as a comedy show goes, you never know what you're going to get," Reisenwitz said. "It's a risk that you take with events like these."

Nevertheless, students thoroughly enjoyed the show, as evidenced by the sustained laughter over a two-hour period. "I thought they were all brilliant. I was stunned to see Will Ferrell's prowess as a ninja, and the rendition of Little Orphan Annie's song brought tears to my eyes," said Lauren Wolahan, A&S '10.

Sievers said last night was the "big" event for the spring. "There are some other things that we have thought up that will be revealed in the next week or two," he said. "There will be a few of the other traditional events for the spring, but this was definitely our big act."

Given how large the act was, however, it did not come cheap. Due to the fact that the UGBC has not been billed yet for the event, exact numbers could not be released, but Reisenwitz said that it was more expensive than Kanye's $150,000 show.

The UGBC has never broken even from sales for the shows that come to BC, Sievers said, so this was a major expense for them, despite the successful ticket sales.

Reisenwitz also noted that it was especially costly for the UGBC because, in an attempt to keep ticket prices on the low end, they compensated with their finances.

"The tickets for the shows at the other schools that the tour stopped at were 10, 15 dollars more expensive than ours, and they were made available to the public," Reisenwitz said. "In order to keep our ticket prices down, we created a budget that would absorb the hit. So yeah, it cost us a lot, but we planned for this."

The UGBC's effort to keep the ticket prices down proved to be fruitful, given that the sold out show at Radio City Music Hall had tickets ranging from $50 to $80 apiece.

UGBC efforts went well beyond simply financing the event; Six members began work on the show's pre-rigging and lighting at 5:30 a.m. onTuesday morning, while the entire department arrived at Conte at 6 a.m. yesterday morning to build sets and finish setting up the venue.

Due to today's basketball game, UGBC members had to begin the breakdown of the set last night immediately after the show ended so that the floors could be put back in place.

The UGBC also spent some time interacting with the tour members. "We felt a very personal connection to the show," said Reisenwitz, who mentioned that Ferrell was "kind enough" to do a meet and greet with the campus entertainment staff before the show. "It was amazing, but they had some very bizarre requests beforehand, asking for ninjas, a leprechaun suit, and a rainbow painting. Every request got weirder and weirder." The UGBC members were just as surprised as the rest of the students upon seeing how these requests - including the rainbow, which they painted - came into play. They were not told beforehand what the props were going to be used for.

Bizarre or not, the eclectic elements made for a show that the students loved; a love that was returned by Ferrell before closing his act, as he called out to the crowd, "Oh, P.S. BC, I love you."